Chai Chia Pudding with Teff Granola

Breakfast plans: Chai-spiced banana chia pudding with almond butter, fresh berries and crunchy teff granola! It’s vegan, naturally gluten free, and perfect for meal prep.

This post is sponsored by Woodward Corner Market. All opinions are our own. 

This post is the second in a series of recipes featuring local, Michigan-made products in partnership with the brand new Woodward Corner Market! 

In case you missed our first post last month, Woodward Corner Market is a brand new, Meijer-owned grocery store on Woodward in Royal Oak. It’s conveniently located just a few miles from my house (yay!) and it’s absolutely stunning. 

We had the pleasure of attending opening day a few weeks ago and gave out samples for our roasted vegetable quinoa salad. We had a blast and have since done quite a bit of grocery shopping there! 

Some of my favorite highlights include tons of fresh produce, a Great Lakes Coffee (I had the best oat milk cappuccino!), plenty of vegan products, and of course, a focus on locally-made products. We got to try so many local products that we’ve never seen before and we really love that they’re making a conscious effort to support local businesses! 

The Woodward Corner Team is so fantastic and supportive of Crowded Kitchen, too. Seriously the nicest people! We’re feeling very fortunate for this partnership and truly love the new store.

If you live in the area, I strongly encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think! We’ve heard so much positive feedback from local residents. 

This month, we’re featuring a product that we tried on opening day – Tenera Grains Teffola! It’s a delicious, crunchy granola made with teff, an ancient Ethiopian grain. Teff is extremely nutritious and has an earthy, nutty flavor. We’ve enjoyed it before in injera, an Ethiopian flatbread, but have never thought to put it in granola! 

The flavor is fantastic. I’m a granola addict (no joke!) and I couldn’t get enough of this stuff. It’s nutty, rich and crunchy (but not too crunchy, if you know what I mean! Some granolas are a tooth hazard). It’s studded with almonds, dried cranberries, buckwheat and a few other nuts and seeds. 

Such a great topping for yogurt, oatmeal, and chia pudding, of course! I also love eating it straight out of the bag as a snack. 

The granola is currently sold in stores only in Michigan (store locator here), but you can also order online to anywhere in the US. 

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Chai-spiced chia pudding 

This delicious chai-spiced chia pudding is easy to make and perfect for your weekly meal prep. You can prepare a big batch on Sunday and portion out for breakfasts all week! 

If you haven’t made it before, chia pudding is incredibly easy to make. In its most basic form, it essentially involves stirring together chia seeds, milk and some sort of sweetener. Chia seeds absorb up to 10x their weight in liquid, so after soaking for a while, the mixture thickens into a pudding. 

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Our chai-spiced version involves just a little more work, but it’s well worth the extra effort. 

Warming chai spices include cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. We typically have all of them in our pantry, but if you don’t, you can get by with just cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cardamom. 

In addition to chai spices, we also add in a whole banana, maple syrup for sweetness and some almond butter for creamy, nutty flavor. It couldn’t be easier to throw together. Simply add everything but the chia seeds to a blender, blend until smooth, then stir in the chia seeds. 

It will take at least 30 minutes for the chia to thicken, but you might as well make it overnight. We suggest stirring once after about 5 minutes to break up any chia clumps that may have formed. 

There you have it! Easy, delicious, chai-spiced chia pudding. 

Toppings

When it comes to toppings, I always say the more the better. Here are my essentials:

• Granola. Teff granola, specifically! Granola is a much-needed textural element. 
• Fresh fruit. I personally prefer raspberries and blueberries, but you can also use blackberries, strawberries, orange slices, banana, etc. 
• Nut butter. Peanut, almond, cashew, even tahini! They’re all good in my book. 

What’s your favorite chia pudding topping? Are you a purist, or do you load it up with everything in sight? (I’m the latter, in case you couldn’t tell.) 

More of our favorite chia pudding recipes

• Maple Vanilla Chia Pudding
• Lemon Turmeric Chia Pudding
• Pumpkin Spice Chia Pudding
• Carrot Cake Chia Overnight Oats
• Golden Milk Latte Chia Pudding via Choosing Chia

If you make this chai chia pudding, we’d love for you to leave a comment and rating below! We also love to see your creations on Instagram – tag us at @crowded_kitchen so we can see what you’ve been cooking.

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