sticky toffee chia pudding
Recipe Tuesday
As a preliminary note, it is extremely difficult to make chia pudding of any kind look appetising. I am afraid you will just have to take my word for it that this is delicious.
This is, once again, a recipe born of the need to innovate. I am running my first marathon in April, and Saturdays are the designated ‘long run’ days in my training plan: this week that meant running 20km, so almost a half marathon. You need to refuel pretty quickly after running 20km, but I was also going to be going out for a large brunch with my housemates not long after, so didn’t want to fill up too much. I thought that chia pudding seemed a good compromise: chia seeds are high in protein, fibre, omega-3s and essential minerals like calcium, so are filling and replensishing, but probably wouldn’t preclude me from tucking into avocado toast not long after.
To make it a bit more interesting — and also because when you run 20km in freezing termperatures you really need something to look forward to —I tried to make it a little more reminiscent of one of my favourite wintry desserts: sticky toffee pudding. The essential elements of a sticky toffee pudding are dates, which are currently in season - specifically the plump, fresh, sweet variety - vanilla, and sugar. This trifecta is largely what gives the caramelesque flavour. Which is convenient as that makes the flavour portable, as it were.
It worked even better than I could have hoped. This tastes like dessert, so creamy and toffee-ish and indulgent, but is nutrient-dense. It was a delight to eat post-run, but it was just as much of a delight to eat again for breakfast the next day following a nice long sleep and lazy start, accompanied by a creamy hot coffee and a few pages of a novel. This is, in short, my new breakfast-dessert obsession. And because it is all prepared in advance the night before, all it requires is to take it out of the fridge and consume it. It is therefore a great speedy workday option too. The possibilities are endless, my friend. Capitalise while it is date seaoson.
Serves 1
Ingredients:
3 tbsps chia seeds
1 cup (250ml) unsweetened oat milk (or whatever your milk of choice is)
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 medjool date, pitted and very finely chopped
Method:
The night before you want to eat this (or at least 4 hours in advance) add all the ingredients to a bowl or mug and stir well to combine.
Place in the fridge overnight or for at least 4 hours.
When you want to eat it, remove from the fridge and stir, then consume immediately.
Currently…
Reading: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (specifically I’m listening to the Audible audiobook narrated by Richard Armitage - audiobooks are my favourite way of consuming Dickens novels, especially with narrators that really bring the humour and the characters to life)
Eating: lots of roasted winter veg - squash, beetroot, Brussels sprouts, etc. This week I’ve been enjoying simple bowls of roasted veg with salt, olive oil, chopped walnuts, and lashings of tahini.
Enjoying: watching Badwater 135: A Documentary. There is something somehow reassuring about knowing there are actually people out there who choose to run 135 miles across a desert (and so by extension, I’ll probably be ok wih my 26 miles in relatively flat and temperate Paris).