Mango Chia Pudding with Micro Fruit Salad and Agar Jelly

I loved all the Asian desserts we used to have growing up with tropical fruit, crunchy agar jelly and an assortment of seaweed, sweet basil seeds, barley, lotus nuts and Chinese red dates. All the crunchy textures and bursts of sweet fruit is something I wanted to recreate but much simpler because we are all way to busy! Chopping up the fruit into little cubes (doesn’t take as long as you think!) helps add to the texture and flavour as you can get lots of different bursts of fruit at the same time mixed in with the coconut water agar jelly for crunch. This mango chia pudding base is made with only 4 ingredients and also great for breakfast as you can make it the night before in a jar to grab and go in the morning.

Mango Chia Pudding with Micro Fruit Salad and Agar Jelly

I like to make my own coconut milk and am very lucky freshly grated coconut is readily available here in Vietnam. It really is the best tasting coconut milk I have ever tasted. If you cannot find freshly grated coconut you can also make your own using unsweetened shredded coconut (check there are no preservatives) with a blender or food processor (see here) or canned coconut milk is fine but do check the label and try to find one with out additives, thickeners and preservatives (I would also try and find a brand that doesn’t have BPA lining in their tins).

How to make your own coconut milk with freshly grated coconut the traditional Vietnamese way

MANGO CHIA PUDDING WITH MICRO FRUIT SALAD AND AGAR JELLY

Mango Chia Pudding with Micro Fruit Salad and Agar Jelly

Makes 4-8 servings (depending on serving size)

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There are three parts to this recipe:

Prep time: 1 hour

1. For the mango chia pudding:

Prep time: 4 hrs 10 mins

This can be made the day before

• 1/2 cup ripe mango
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/4 cup chia seeds (buy on iherb or amazon)
• 2 tbsp maple syrup (buy on iherb or amazon)

Method:

• Place the mango and coconut milk in the blender or magic bullet and puree
• Pour mango puree in a small mixing bowl with maple syrup and chia seeds

Puree the mango and coconut milk then add the chia and maple syrup

• Mix well and divide equally into serving glasses (I would recommend a shallow wide mouth glass, the glasses I used are pretty for the photo but hard to get to the pudding underneath the fruit 🙂
• Allow to set for  4 hours or overnight, continue to make the agar jelly

Mix well and divide equally into serving glasses

 

2. For the coconut water agar jelly:

This can be made a couple days ahead

• 1 cup of coconut water (filtered water is ok, I prefer coconut water as it is more nutritious)
• 1 tsp agar powder (buy on iherb or amazon)
• 1 tbsp sweetener of choice (maple, honey or coconut sugar works well – coconut sugar will make the agar brown)

Method:

• Find a glass container that is large enough for 1 cup of liquid to sit about 5mm thick (you can test this by pouring 1 cup of water in the container)
• Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil
• Simmer for 5 minutes until dissolved
• Pour into a glass container large enough so the agar jelly
• Allow to cool then move to the fridge

3. For the micro fruit salad with agar jelly:

Prep time: 20 minutes

This is best made on the day to avoid the juices from the fruit accumulating. You can use any fruit that is in season, I recommend about 5 different fruit for colour, flavour and texture and about 1/2 to 1 cup of each fruit.

Start this step once your mango chia pudding has set for at least 4 hours.

• finely dice your fruit of choice into 5mm cubes (about 1/2 to 1 cup per fruit) some suggested fruit are watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, pear, apple, pineapple, kiwi, dragonfruit and mango

Finely dice the fruit and set aside

• the agar jelly should now be set, remove from the container and finely dice into 5mm cubes

finely dice the coconut agar jelly

• Mix the fruit and agar jelly together

Mix the fruit and agar jelly together

• Divide the fruit salad over the agar jelly, you want to have at least the same thickness of fruit as the mango chia pudding

• You should have some micro fruit salad left over which can be stored in a container for a day or eaten on its own
• I’ve had many non paleo / non real food guests love this as a dessert and we have had leftovers the next day for breakfast! It is well worth the three stages 🙂

Mango Chia Pudding with Micro Fruit Salad and Agar Jelly

Hope you enjoy!

May x

Love, Create, Explore & Inspire <3

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