In today’s video, I show you how to make one of my favorites — my kabocha coconut chia dessert.
This three-ingredient paleo porridge is delicious and easy, and makes for a unique and healthy dessert, a flavorful breakfast, or a nutrient-dense afternoon snack.
Don’t forget to garnish with plenty of fresh mint on top! 😋This paleo porridge is my version of Chè- the Vietnamese word for any traditional sweet beverage. Chè often comes as pudding and incorporates fruit, vegetables, beans, seeds, glutinous rice and tapioca powder, topped with coconut milk. It’s definitely one of my top favorite foods, but hard to find sugar free, and paleo, so I present to you my homemade solution.
Served warm, this creamy and deeply satisfying porridge is perfect for this cozy fall weather!
Keto-friendly version: Use pumpkin or cauliflower rice instead of kabocha squash, soaked nuts like pecans, walnuts, Brazil nuts (just a handful provides a your daily selenium requirement), coconut flakes, and/or a tablespoon of almond, sunflower, or good ol’ peanut butter.
Try it out and let me know if you love it!
Video Transcript
Hi! I’m Chef Angela Huang and I’m here to show you how to make my kabocha coconut chia dessert.
We’re going to need just 3 ingredients. It’s going to be coconut milk, kabocha squash, and some chia seeds.
The first thing I’m going to do is soak the chia seeds. So I’m going to take the chia seeds. Chia seeds absorb about 10 times their weight in water. I eye it and add about that much, because I want it to be pretty thick. And what you want to make sure to do when soaking chia seeds, is stirring it really well so you don’t get any clumps.
And that seems perfect right there. Now we’re going to cut our kabocha squash. Here is a piece from which I’ve already removed the seeds, about a quarter of a squash. Here you want to cut it into bite-sized pieces. The more evenly-sized the pieces, the more easily they will cook.
Put them in a bowl. I have my Asian steamer, and I’m going to fill it up with an inch of water. And then I’m going to put the bowl directly in here, put the lid on here, and turn it on.
Some time later…
As you can see, the kabocha squash is steaming. And about halfway through it steaming, I’m going to add the coconut milk right into this bowl. I’m not going to add all the liquid in here, but I’m going to add most of the fat and solids.
Then I’m going to close it back up and let it keep steaming.
And now that our steamer is done steaming, we’re going to open it up, and it’s perfect! You can grab a fork, and check it, it’s nice and tender. Just like when you’re checking a potato, and you see that you can stick your fork into it. It’s perfect right now.
And we’re all done! I’m going to pour it in these nice mason jars. A little bit of the chia. This is really hot so I'm going to pour it from here.
And then I’m going to garnish with a little fresh mint. Just a little bit of salt on top, not much.
And if you want, you can sweeten it with honey or maple syrup. It’s up to you and the level of sweetness you like.
