*You can use water in place of the plant milk. The pudding just won’t have as much flavour and won’t have a creamy texture.

1. Add the chia seeds to a medium sized bowl and pour in the plant milk. Quickly use a whisk or fork to disperse the seeds right away. The seeds will want to clump immediately so make sure to not let them sit in the milk without stirring.
2. Zest your lemon, reserve the zest, and squeeze the lemon juice into the chia pudding, stirring right away to incorporate it. *Feel free to start with half the lemon juice if you suspect it might be too tart for your liking. I like to reserve some zest for garnishing individual portions but you can add half or all of it into the pudding if desired.
3. Stir in the vanilla extract and any sweetener you desire to balance out the tang from the lemon juice. A liquid sweetener makes for a very quick preparation but feel free to chop up 2-3 pitted dates and disperse them through the pudding for little morsels of sweetness. *If your plant milk is already sweetened you may find that you don’t need much (or any) sweetener.
4. Finally, stir in the toasted coconut if using (reserving a little bit to garnish).
5. Allow the pudding to sit and thicken in the fridge for 10 – 15  minutes. Give it another stir to disperse any chia seeds that may have clumped. Enjoy right away or portion into individual servings and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
6. Garnish individual portions with any reserved lemon zest, toasted coconut, or even toasted almonds.