Raspberry Chia Pudding with Banana Spears
Allergen lists cover the priority allergens in the recipe as written. Always check your own ingredient labels, and introduce each new allergen on its own first.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp (10 g) chia seeds
- 150 g (⅔ cup) plain unsweetened full-fat pasteurised yogurt
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) whole pasteurised milk (used in the food only — not offered as a drink before 12 months)
- 80 g (⅔ cup) raspberries, fresh or thawed from frozen
- 1 tsp ground flaxseed (linseed)
- 1 large ripe banana
Method
- 1. Whisk the chia seeds into the yogurt and milk, leave for 10 minutes, then whisk hard a second time to break up any clumps of seeds. Keep the liquid generous — this ratio gives the seeds far more liquid than they can absorb, which is what guarantees they gel fully.
- 2. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes, or overnight, until thick and spoonable.
- 3. Check the texture before serving: every seed should be plump and gel-coated, with no dry or gritty seeds left anywhere in the bowl. If you find any, whisk again and give it another 15 minutes.
- 4. Mash the raspberries with a fork (push through a sieve first if you prefer it seed-free) and ripple them through the pudding with the ground flaxseed.
- 5. Peel the banana, cut it in half crosswise, then cut each half lengthwise into quarters — eight spears about 8–9 cm long. Never serve banana as round coin-shaped slices.
- 6. Coat the spears in the pudding and serve. Keep leftover pudding covered in the fridge for up to 2 days.
How to serve by age
6–8 months
Use banana spears cut lengthwise, about 8–9 cm long and two adult fingers wide, coated thinly with pudding over the top two thirds — the bare bottom third gives a handle for the whole-hand (palmar) grasp, and rolling that end in ground flaxseed stops it slipping out of the fist.
9–12 months
Dice the banana into 1 cm pea-sized pieces, fold half of them through the pudding and scatter the rest on the tray, so baby picks them up one at a time with the pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger); offer a pre-loaded spoon for the pudding itself.
Paediatric note
Chia must be fully hydrated before it is served — dry seeds absorb many times their own weight in liquid and can swell and clump after they are swallowed, so keep the liquid generous and soak for at least 30 minutes, then check that no dry seeds remain. Chia and flax give the plant omega-3 ALA, but infants convert only a small fraction of ALA to DHA, so oily fish remains the main DHA source.
Source guidance: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/weaning-and-feeding/
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