Vegan Chia and Pinole Pudding Recipe

The comforting flavor of corn is the main taste of this pinole pudding, thickened with chia seeds and sweetened with maple syrup. It’s not very sweet, and the flavor of the corn provides a wholesome and satisfying taste that sets itself apart from other cloyingly sweet dessert choices. Top with fruit for a perfectly satisfying dessert (or breakfast!) option. It’s the best smooth, slightly nutty pudding made from a vegetable you’ll ever try!

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What is Pinole?

Pinole is a corn product- it is ground maize mixed with sweeteners and spices to create a nutrient-dense powder that is consumed across Latin America. The word pinole comes from the Aztecs, and in the early 1700’s a town in California was named after the nutritious substance. As the Spanish headed North from Monterrey, they ran out of food and were gifted some pinole from a local Native American village, and decided to name their camp after the flour. While it is less commonly consumed nowadays, it’s certainly not lost. I get my pinole the same place I get most of my beans- Rancho Gordo– where they sell a version made with blue corn. It is often made into a drink, but can also be consumed as a powder or used to make some delicious pinole pancakes. For this recipe, we made the pinole into it’s drinkable form and then used chia seeds to set it into a delightful pudding you’ll be excited to eat spoonful after spoonful of.

The Trouble With Corn- but not Your Corn!

Corn has gotten a little bit of a bad reputation as America has grown. It went from being one of the first crops domesticated on our continent, grown with other edible plants by native people, to taking over fields and fields of monocultured American cropland. Corn was first subsidized by the United States government in the 1930’s, as a way to help farmers recover from poor growing seasons or low market prices. As the years went on, however, farmers were incentivized to grow more and more corn, even if they had to sell at a loss, so they could keep their farms. And where does all this corn go? Very little of it goes to human consumption, and the amount that does is usually in an altered form (like high-fructose corn syrup).  A lot of it goes to the animal agriculture industry, where it’s fed to animals that don’t naturally eat it. This leads to them developing different illnesses, but it doesn’t actually matter to us much- our only goal is to take cheap, government subsidized grain and turn it into calories of beef as fast as possible, regardless of the disease and suffering it causes. And I’m just scratching the surface.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still enjoy corn on the cob, cornbread, or this pinole pudding- just know that the story of corn is a complex one closely tied to that of American politics, health, history, and justice.

Feeling Corny? Try one of these Corn Recipes

• Flavor-Bomb Vegan Snacking Hominy Recipe
• Cheesy, Spicy, Vegan Nacho Popcorn
• Sweet or Savory Vegan Pawpaw Cornbread
• Tomato Masala Stuffed Spaghetti Squash with Corn and Spinach
• Cornbread with Roasted Tomato and Sunflower Seeds
• Kabocha Squash and Cheese Vegan Pupusas

Moody Blue Winter Vibes

It’s been a pretty warm winter this year (the temperatures have often been in the forties), and honestly that’s been getting me down. It’s not warm enough to do a lot of foraging, but there isn’t any snow which means no cross country skiing, plus the ever-present reminder of global warming and a constant sense that the planet I know is rapidly deteriorating. Does taking some dark, gloomy, blue photos of pudding make any of that better? No, not really, but it reminds me of what winter used to feel like. I miss winters where the light shines blue off the crisp new snow, or the gray and cloudy skies paint the whole world a little darker. I miss the feeling that when the days are so cold and dark outside, I spend those days looking inward. Winter has a reflective quality, and without the bitter cold and snowy streets it starts to feel a bit insincere and empty, but that seems to be the world we now live in- so a few blue, moody winter photographs will have to suffice. Or maybe it’s time to move north.

Making Vegan Chia and Pinole Pudding

Making this pinole pudding actually reminded me a lot of making Burmese tofu– but maybe that’s because it was only a few days ago. The general idea is you combine the pinole with milk, and stir frequently until it becomes thick and silky. We add the milk in a few batches, to avoid forming clumps. Towards the end we add the chia seeds with some more milk, and let it thicken again. We also added a little maple syrup- we only added a teaspoon for the entire batch, and enjoyed the lightly sweetened, corn flavor, but you could certainly add a little more for a sweeter dessert. After that, find your cutest little pudding vessels, and let them sit in the fridge for a few hours while they continue to thicken. We ate ours with blueberries and blackberries on top, but you can eat it plain, with vegan whipped cream, or with any of your favorite fruits to complete the dessert.

Vegan Chia and Pinole Pudding Recipe

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