Pineapple Flurry + Coconut Chia Seed Pudding

June 2, 2014
Food,Recipes

This is a healthier riff on the red wine granita + vanilla bean ice cream I made a couple weeks ago. I initially wanted to make this with tapioca pudding– inspired by my ultimate childhood favorite treat: baobing, Chinese shaved ice topped with all kinds of fruit, red bean, tapioca, almond jello, etc, etc. Alas, I couldn’t find any tapioca so instead made a chia seed pudding, which I’ve seen trending all over the internet. I just love the texture and it worked great! And of course, there’s the pineapple flurry. Or granita. Or whatever you want to call it, like damn refreshing soft flakes of icy pineapple snow. This whole thing is just perfect– summer in a cup.

Pineapple flurries with coconut chia seed pudding

Start by making the pineapple flurry. Pour fresh pineapple juice into a shallow pan and place in the freezer. After about an hour or when ice crystals start to form on the edges, use a fork and scrape the sides into the center. Repeat this every hour or so until it turn slushy. Keep raking your fork and scraping the ice until you get ice crystals. To see what the progression looks like check out how I made a red wine granita.

Pineapple top

To make the chia seed pudding, combine the yogurt, coconut milk, and honey in a bowl and mix to combine. Add the chia seeds. If you want to make this vegan you can substitute the yogurt for almond milk or coconut water, but I don’t recommend using all coconut milk as the aftertaste can be pretty oily. The mixture will become more like pudding the longer it sits, but give it at least a couple hours to do its thing.

Pineapple and chia seeds

To assemble just place a few spoonfuls of the coconut chia seed pudding in a bowl or small cup and top with pineapple flurries.

Pineapple granita

Garnish with pineapple.

Pineapple flurries with chia seed pudding

And dig in!

Pineapple flurries

Ingredients:

  • 18 ounces of fresh pineapple juice
  • 1 cup of coconut milk
  • 1 cup of plain strained yogurt (or substitute with almond milk or coconut water)
  • 1/3 cup of chia seeds
  • honey to taste, about 2 tablespoons (or other sweetener)

Directions:

  • Pour pineapple juice into a shallow pan. Freeze for about one hour. Scrape ice crystals forming on the edges of the pan to the center. Repeat every hour until icy and flaky, about 4/5 hours.
  • Stir yogurt, coconut milk and honey in a bowl to combine. Add chia seeds. Let sit at room temperature for at least 3 hours.
  • To assemble, place chia seed pudding at the bottom of a cup and add pineapple flurries to the top.

(images by HonestlyYUM)

Conversation

This looks delish. Where do you get that much fresh pineapple juice though?

This looks beautiful. How lovely to be able to serve to friends. How many servings will one recipe provide? A granita would be perfect for a hot summer day!

LOVE this recipe and love this site! I have made a couple of your recipes and loved them!
Just wanted to mention though: chia seeds should never be brown. Brown seeds are immature seeds- they aren’t bad for you per say, but they do not have nearly the nutritional content as mature black or white speckled seeds- that have seen proper amounts of water/sunlight- do. Just wanted to pass on the knowledge! I HAVE to try this recipe!

I pinned this a week ago, but needed to check it out again. Because this might be my new favorite thing. I am going to make this soon!

I couldn’t love this more if I tried. You finally convinced me to try chia seeds!

Wow! I love the sound of this. Bookmarking to try soon 🙂

This looks so refreshing and screams out Summer to me! Love this recipe!

This looks really good. Chia seeds are everywhere, I’d love to give this a try. A perfect treat for summer. : )

This takes my breath away – stunning! And I love how simple the ingredient list is. Yum!

This is an awesome twist on baobing and I love the idea of a flurry!

Summer in a cup – couldn’t have put that better myself. This looks so incredibly good. Bookmarked and will be made here soon. Thanks!

This looks incredible! I love that pinneapple flurry! And gorgeous photos!

i’ve never tried (to make or to taste!) a granita before… but after this recipe i need to get on it! it looks delicious! i love the idea of the chia seed pudding underneath!

This is so my thing. I cannot get enough pineapple right now, so this is perfect!

That looks delicious! Love the photographs, they’re so bright and atmospheric. 🙂

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