Decadent Chocolate Quinoa Pudding

This past weekend we celebrated Christmas in Calgary with the Wiebe clan! One of my lovely gifts from Mom and Dad Wiebe was this beautiful new cookbook called "Quinoa 365"! The book itself is just so pretty to look at, let alone the recipes! So here marks the start of trying each recipe out. This one got thumbs up all around in our house!

Many recipes in this book call for Quinoa Flour...a type of flour I've never used before, but had no trouble finding at our local health food store. In fact, they carried 4 or 5 different brands of it!

Of course this would look MUCH prettier topped with some fresh whip and maybe a few berries too? I wish I would have had some fresh whipping cream on hand so I could have tried out my other fabulous Christmas gift!



This recipe takes about 5 minutes to make, and yields 6 portions...gotta love that! Like many things in our home, all were gone in less than 24 hours! I should let you know though that you definitely taste the quinoa in this pudding...perhaps adding extra chocolate would mask that more?...so if you're not a fan of that taste, then this recipe may not be for you. For the rest of us though, you'll find this to be a rich decadent dessert filled with protein! Jay topped his second helping with a dollop of peanut butter....GREAT idea!

Decadent Chocolate Quinoa Pudding

1/2 cup quinoa flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup ricotta cheese (I used mediterranean plain yogurt, cause that's what I had on had...totally worked, yet I think the ricotta would taste a little better)

Combine the flour and water in a pot on medium heat. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens and the water has been absorbed, 3 to 5 minutes. Don't worry if lumps form, these will disappear later. Remove from the heat, immediately add the chocolate chips and stir until melted. Stir in the ricotta cheese. Use a food processor or blender to puree the mixture until smooth. (I skipped this step since I used smooth yogurt rather than the ricotta) Poor into desert bowls and refrigerate until chilled.

I think next time I may even add a pinch of cinnamon or instant coffee?!

Jay asked me on the way out the door this afternoon if I could make this again today...I think I may give the Chocolate Almond Biscotti on page 139 a try instead! I'll let you know how it turns out!

*made this recipe again tonight....added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and about 3 or 4 tbsp of peanut butter right after the chocolate chips...AMAZING...and kills the quinoa taste a little for those wondering how to do that:)