Healthy Banana Chia Pudding
This banana chia pudding is the best healthy vegan breakfast for banana lovers.
It’s a creamy chia seed pudding with sweet banana pieces and topped with almond butter and crunchy nuts.

What’s A Banana Chia Seed Pudding?
A chia seed pudding is a 3-ingredient healthy vegan breakfast made of chia seeds, plant-based milk, and sweetener.
It’s a healthy alternative to oatmeal, flaxseed pudding, or overnight oats recipes for breakfast. Also, chia puddings are paleo, grain-free, and low in carbs.
This banana chia seed pudding is a flavored version of the classic chia pudding, adding fresh banana pieces and a few spices to flavor it.
How To Make Chia Pudding With Bananas
Below, I will give you all my tips and tricks to make the best banana chia pudding. If you want to see the recipe measurements, jump to the recipe below!
So, the key to making a delicious banana pudding is to choose a yellow, fresh banana.
Don’t use ripe bananas in chia pudding, or the pudding turns grey, and dark in color, and the banana flavor is too strong.
Choice Of Ingredients
So the ingredients you need to make this whole30 chia banana pudding are:
- Large banana – yellow, no- or very few black spots on the skin to avoid a dark pudding.
- Chia seeds – white or black chia seeds work well. I prefer the white chia seeds to keep the color of this banana chia pudding recipe light.
- Unsweetened almond milk – of course, any plant-based milk will work here, but I found the flavor of oat milk overpowering in chia pudding, so I often prefer almond milk.
- Maple syrup – this is optional, but if you have a sweet tooth, adding a touch of maple syrup brings out the sweeteners of the banana, and you will love the light maple flavor it also adds to the recipe.
- Vanilla extract – It’s optional as well, but any pudding is better with a hint of vanilla!
Combine The Ingredients
First, prepare a tall glass mason jar with a volume of about 2 cups (500ml) with a sealed lid.
Then, peel the banana and mash with a fork roughly. I like to keep banana chunks in my pudding for texture.
Pour the mashed banana into the jar and stir in almond milk, vanilla, and maple syrup.
If you want to make a banana peanut butter chia pudding, stir 2 tablespoons of drippy peanut butter in the jar.
Finally, add the chia seeds, give a good stir, close the jar’s lid, and shake for a few seconds.
Refrigerate
Finally, place the jar in the fridge and refrigerate for 20 minutes. After that time, open the jar and give a good stir to avoid the seeds from clumping together or gravitating to the bottom of your jar.
Close the lid, shake a few seconds again and place it back in the refrigerator overnight.
Creating Different Flavors
Chia puddings are perfect for meal prepping a week of healthy vegan breakfast.
They are also very versatile, meaning that you can add only 1 or 2 ingredients to this recipe to create amazing new flavors!
- Peanut butter banana chia pudding – stir in 2 tablespoons of peanut butter in the jar along with the banana, maple syrup, and vanilla. Then, add almond milk and chia seeds.
- Banana chocolate chia pudding – stir in 1 1/2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the jar, just before adding the chia seeds.
- Banana coconut pudding – use canned coconut milk instead of almond milk and add 2 tablespoons of unsweetened shredded coconut to the jar.
Serving Banana Chia Pudding
A chia seed pudding is even better served with lots of toppings.
Add toppings
Always add the toppings just before serving, not the day before. Below I listed my favorite vegan toppings that go very well with this banana chia seed pudding recipe.
- Nut butter – add a drizzle of your favorite nut butter on top of the pudding. Almond butter, cashew butter, or my favorite combo: peanut butter, banana, and chia!
- Fruits – sliced bananas, fresh or frozen raspberries, blueberries, or strawberries. All these fruits go well with this chia banana pudding with almond milk.
- Nuts – sprinkle roasted peanuts, sliced almonds, crushed pecans, or walnuts.
- Seeds – add plant-based proteins to your pudding by adding some hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, or sesame seeds.
- Coconut – toasted coconut flakes or shredded coconut marry very well with bananas.
- Chocolate – a drizzle of melted dark chocolate or chunks of 85% cocoa chocolate
Make layers!
An even better way to serve a chia pudding is to make layers of different food flavors and textures.
First, add a layer of banana chia pudding. Then, add a layer of fresh coconut yogurt and sliced banana. Repeat until you reach the top of the jar.
Finally, drizzle nut butter, add more banana slices, and crushed toasted nuts! Et voila, it is ready to eat!
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Chia Puddings Healthy?
Chia puddings are one of the healthiest breakfasts to start the day and are even more powerful on a vegan diet. In fact, chia seeds’ nutritional properties are complete.
Two tablespoons of chia seeds will bring you:
- 17% RDI in calcium.
- 10 grams of fiber – the daily recommendation is about 30 grams.
- 12% RDI iron.
- 23% RDI magnesium.
- 9 grams of fat – they are full-fat seeds but a good kind of fat, mostly polyunsaturated fat.
Plus, chia pudding is whole30-compliant, low-carb, and keto-friendly, if not made with banana, of course. It’s the perfect addition to any healthy meal plan to start the day with energy!
How Does Banana Pudding Taste?
This banana chia pudding is very similar to tapioca puddings in texture.
It is fresh, creamy, with slimy little pieces of chia seeds. It has a delicious maple banana flavor.
More Healthy Vegan Breakfasts
I love starting the day with a healthy breakfast high in plant-based protein and fiber to feel full and stabilize my blood sugar level.
Below I listed my favorite easy vegan breakfast to try:
Don’t forget to check all my Ripe Banana Recipes ideas for more ways to use those ripe bananas!
Have you tried this easy banana chia pudding recipe? Please take a minute to review the recipe below and leave me a comment or join me on Instagram to share a picture of your creation.
Did You Like This Recipe?
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Banana Chia Seed Pudding
Ingredients
- 1 Large Banana - yellow, soft but no black spots on the skin
- ¾ cup Almond Milk - or coconut milk or hemp milk
- 3 tablespoons Chia Seeds
- 1 tablespoon Maple Syrup
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla
Optional flavoring
- ¼ teaspoon Cinnamon - optional
- 2 tablespoons Peanut Butter (Unsalted) - optional for a peanut butter banana version!
Instructions
- Before you start, prepare a 2-cup glass mason jar with a lid. Clean, sterilize with boiling water, and dry.
- Peel and roughly mash a large yellow banana on a plate. If there are black/brown spots on the flesh, discard them, or the pudding will turn brown.
- Transfer to a medium-size bowl and add maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and drippy peanut butter (if used).
- Stir until smooth, then add almond milk, chia seeds and stir vigorously to combine.
- Transfer to the glass mason jar, close the lid, and shake vigorously for a few seconds.
- Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. After that time, open the lid and give a good stir with a fork. This step loosens the seeds and prevents the seeds from clumping together or migrating to the bottom of the jar.
- Close the jar, shake again for a few seconds, and place it back in the refrigerator overnight.
- Serve half of the recipe the next day as a healthy breakfast. Serve with layers of sliced banana and coconut yogurt or plain with toppings: toasted peanuts, a drizzle of almond/peanut butter, raspberries, etc.
Store
- Store leftovers for up to 48 hours in the fridge in a closed, sealed jar. Note that the color of the pudding may darken with time.
Love this recipe. I use almond milk, a bit of cardamom, and honey (because I don’t have maple syrup). This is delicious and a small serving (as little as 6 oz) fills you up.
I tend to have a sweet tooth in the afternoon so I made this for my snack today and it was perfect! I skipped the maple syrup and included raw almond butter since I love the banana-almond combo. So easy and delicious!
This is not a Whole30 recipe. Chia Seed Puddings are specifically Labeled an non-compliant on the Whole30 website. Please remove the Whole30 label/copy on this page, now that you know better it would be irresponsible not to correct the error.
As you can read here on the official whole30 website chia seeds are totally fine! I quote “These “seeds” aren’t the same botanical family of seeds that we eliminate with grains and legumes, so that makes them fine to eat during your Whole30.. This said, feel free to not eat chia seeds on your own term. Enjoy the recipes.
Hi Carine & Damien,
I am so glad to find recipes not including sugar. I have baked for many years, but now my family & I are trying to get away from refined sugar. Can you tell me how to replace sugar with stevia in pies, cookies & cake recipes? I feel totally lost because no one I know uses Stevia in their dessert recipes. It is hard to do better when you don’t know how!!! Any information you can give me will be much appreciated.
It pretty much depends on the recipe, if it’s a bread, cookie or cake recipe then sugar is often used for texture so stevia drops won’t work but instead you can always swap for same amount of erythritol – a granulated natural sugar-free sweetener. Maple syrup can be replaced by liquid monk fruit sweetener in no-bake recipes. Finally, I would use stevia drops only for drinks – smoothie or coffee. I hope it helps,
What is drippy peanut butter
It’s simply natural peanut butter, fresh from the jar
This was my first time ever trying chia seed pudding. I was nervous I wouldn’t like it but I loved it!! Thank you for this recipe! I warmed my pudding up after opening in the morning. It was delicious!
Giving ides for toppings
Gave me a wide range ideas as whys to use nu-tritunon. Thanks
Grinding the chia seeds makes it a nice smooth pudding. I’ve made a chocolate pudding like this and it was great as well.
I agree but it gives a grey brown color to banana pudding that is not appealing but it work well if you add cocoa powder to the mix!