Instant Avocado Chocolate Pudding

Ahh its been a crazy past week and a half, hence the lack of posts. I had to go to Tijuana to get a new visa stamp (it ain’t easy being a foreigner) and while I was there the visa issuing system crashed so they were not able to issue any visas. So I was kind of a little bit stuck there and told the timeline for when my passport would be returned to me was ‘indefinite’. My only comfort as I fretted over missing an ‘indefinite’ amount of work was the lovely host family that owned the room I had rented with Airbnb and all the amazing food in TJ! Yes that is correct, the food there was amazing. But that is for another post, for another trip to TJ where I remember to take my camera and where hopefully I am not daunted by the prospect of having to spend the rest of my days in good ol’ Mexico (I have an American-born cat to get back to! You can’t separate familia).

Instant Avocado Chocolate Pudding

But this post is about something I whipped up when I got back to America and found some just-nearly-almost-but-not-quite past their prime avocados in my fridge. As I had had my fill of ceviche, tortas, tacos, guacamole, aguachile, and tostadas nearly all topped with avocado I did not feel particularly inclined to use them in a savoury application. In fact what I wanted was an All-American dessert: instant pudding.

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So. I loveeee pudding. In college when my idea of eating healthy was Lean Cuisines and frozen yogurt (it’s yogurt) I used to love getting the fat-free Jell-O cup things. I would stock my little dorm mini-fridge full of those things (even though truly I don’t even think they have to be refrigerated). My diet in college was so different from what I eat now, although I have always eaten good food – the virtuous stuff like fruits and salads and the not-so-virtuous like great Korean BBQ – and I did eat good meals in college….The stuff I bought from the grocery store was all just 100-calorie snack packs, fat-free ranch, artificially sweetened ‘fruit’ yogurt (I used to dip Oreos in sugar-free strawberry yogurt ew) and sooo much Diet Coke. Even though I had normal meals I thought all these snacks were pretty healthy, even though they were super artificial and mostly very unsatisfying. Have you seen how small Lean Cuisines are?? I don’t know how people can eat that for lunch and be good for the day. I think I would pass out around 4 pm.

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There was once a sorority recruitment where Monster (the energy drink) was ‘sponsoring’ recruitment so I would basically starve all day from setting up at 8 am to tallying votes/discussion time (read: judging people) until midnight and just get by by eating the leftover cookies or stale candy from table centerpieces during breaks and drinking at least 3 Monster Milk Mocha Lattes. Then at night we would go back home and have fat-free sugar-free mint chocolate chip ice cream and Rossi sangria. SO GROSS RIGHT. Also how did I survive for 4 days like this.

Anyways after you start eating like a normal human being its hard to imagine eating all that weird fake junk food. When I eat junk food now its at least real junk food and it has sugar and fat and it is what it is. But also when I want to eat a healthy dessert, instead of eating something with aspartame or where all the fat is replaced by modified starches I use normal things like agave or avocado. It tastes much better and it is actually healthy.

And so with minimal effort and minimal time I made myself some instant chocolate pudding; some raw vegan, paleo-friendly, dairy-free, gluten-free, stovetop-free, ALLTHEHEALTHYTHINGS pudding. I am not a raw vegan, do not keep to paleo and I generally do not abstain from dairy, gluten, or stove tops. But I do try to eat healthy and nothing makes me happier than a tasty dessert that also happens to be quite good for you.

INSTANT AVOCADO CHOCOLATE PUDDING
Serves 1

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 refrigerated ripe avocado
• 2/3 cup of vanilla almond milk
• 2 dates
• 2 tbsp agave (or other sweetener)
• 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
• chilled can of coconut cream for topping with (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Make sure the avocado and the vanilla almond milk are cold beforehand. It is not necessary for the texture of the pudding (it will be fine) but room temperature pudding is just not as good as cold.
2. Blend all the ingredients in a blender until completely blended. This might take a minute or more due to the dates and depending on the speed of your blender. Also might take some stopping and prodding things with spoons unless you have a Vitamix (lucky you!).
3. Top with the chilled coconut cream if desired. I like to sweeten my coconut cream with a bit of agave but it can be eaten unsweetened as well.

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The texture ends up being a mix between a pudding and a mousse. It is super smooth and airy yet really luscious and creamy. And I will be completely honest with you, there is a hint of an avocado taste. The cocoa adds a dark chocolate taste and the dates add caramel-y brown sugar notes which I think mostly overpowers the mild avocado flavor, but nonetheless it is still there in the background. So if you do not like avocados this may not be the dessert for you. You can always add more cocoa and more agave or dates but I found that with this amount it is sweet enough and chocolate-y enough for me. I have a hard time thinking of any non-dairy or egg substitute that would work as well for the dessert as avocado, even coconut cream would not be quite as substantial and satisfying as this.

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