Kickstart your morning with make-ahead coffee chia pudding. Adjust the recipe to your preferences, and enjoy this quick breakfast that's perfect to grab and go or eat at the table.
[This coffee chia pudding recipe was originally posted in January 2023. It has been updated with cooking instructions, storage tips and substitutions, FAQ, related recipes and ways to repurpose/use up ingredients]
Table of contents
If you're like me, and definitely need to eat in the morning, but don't want to spend time cooking or preparing anything, make-ahead breakfasts like this coffee chia pudding (gluten free) will save you in the mornings.
It's got a small jolt of caffeine, and brown sugar to add delicious flavor to plain chia pudding, which is a great substitution for oatmeal if you need something different.
Adjust the sweetener and milk to your liking, the coffee too and you're ready to go!
Ingredients
Scroll down to the coffee chia pudding recipe card for the amounts of each ingredient, but here's a quick visual + description of what's in this recipe.
- Brewed coffee
- Chia seeds
- Milk: you'll need liquid to hydrate the chia seeds, use your favorite type of milk, just know that whole milk and high protein milks will help fill you up more.
- Brown sugar: You can add any sweetener to this, the brown sugar tastes so good with coffee.
- Vanilla
Instructions
Scroll down to the recipe card for more detailed instructions. Here's a quick overview + photos to see how to make this recipe in general.
1. To make your coffee chia pudding recipe, add all ingredients (coffee, milk, vanilla, sweetener, chia seeds) to a jar or bowl with a lid.
2. Stir or add lid and shake. Taste and adjust milk and sweetener if desired.
You can add some cream, peanut butter, and/or yogurt to your chia pudding here if you want a more filling breakfast/snack. You can also add these ingredients just before serving. Either works.
3. Refrigerate your coffee chia pudding at least 3 hours, or overnight.
4. Stir together, taste, adjust milk and/or sweetener if desired. Add additional ingredients if desired. Stir again. Enjoy your coffee chia pudding right out of the jar, pour into a bowl or cup.
Storage Tips
Cover and store in the fridge for 3-5 days, or until smell changes (better than counting days).
Substitutions/Tips
- If you don't have brewed coffee, add 2 teaspoons instant coffee to hot water. Or adjust to preference.
- Use your favorite milk or cream here (dairy milk, soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk, vanilla almond milk, oat milk, etc).
- If you enjoy a light breakfast/snack, cut the recipe in half or save leftovers for later.
- Make chocolate chia pudding by adding ½-1 teaspoon cocoa powder to your coffee chia pudding. Add more sweetener if needed.
- Sweetener options: brown sugar, white sugar, turbinado sugar, honey, maple syrup, other favorite sweetener.
- Other great add-ins: Peanut butter/other nut butter, cream, chocolate shavings/chips, yogurt (if using plain, you may want to add more sweetener).
- Peanut butter, yogurt, and cream are great additions to make your coffee chia pudding more filling.
FAQ
There are lots of liquids you can mix chia seeds into. Just note that chia seeds usually take 10-30 minutes to start to absorb the liquid they're in to soften. Until then it's like eating slightly bigger poppyseeds.
I recommend refrigerating them for 30 minutes-overnight. The Coffee Chia Pudding recipe on this page, Peanut Butter Chia Pudding, and Versatile Chia Pudding recipe are great options.
Yes, make your chia pudding, stir, cover with a lid, and then store in the fridge overnight, or up to a couple days.
Let your chia pudding set up at least 10-30 minutes. I recommend letting your chia seeds absorb liquid for at least 30 minutes, you can also let it sit overnight or longer. Just refrigerate it since there's milk in it.
Repurpose chia pudding
- Add leftovers to yogurt and banana to make a delicious coffee banana smoothie. You can also just add some leftover chia pudding ingredients and make a smoothie without letting the chia pudding sit overnight
- Add chocolate in any form for a treat
- Stir leftover coffee chia pudding into oatmeal
- Add more milk and drink it instead of using a spoon.
What to do with leftover ingredients
When you're cooking for one, you often have leftover produce, cans of whatever ingredient, etc. Here are a couple ideas on how to use up the leftover ingredients. It'll help you save money by wasting fewer ingredients.
Did you make this coffee chia pudding? Leave me a comment & rating to share how it turned out!
Coffee Chia Pudding
Equipment
- Measuring cups, spoons
- Jar or bowl with lid
- Spoon or small whisk
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup brewed coffee or ⅓ cup hot water + 1 heaping teaspoon instant coffee
- ⅓ cup milk
- ¼-1/2 teaspoon vanilla personally, I liked ¼ teaspoon vanilla when I didn't add extra ingredients, but ½ teaspoon is good with extra add-ins
- 1 ½ teaspoon sweetener brown sugar, white sugar, honey, maple syrup, etc.
- 3 Tablespoons chia seeds
- Optional add-ins: spoonful peanut butter, yogurt, whipped cream/cream, chocolate shavings or cocoa powder
Instructions
- Add the following ingredients to a jar or bowl with a lid: ⅓ cup brewed coffee, ⅓ cup milk, ¼-1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 ½ teaspoon sweetener of choice (I used brown sugar), 3 Tablespoons chia seeds. Taste and adjust milk/sweetener to preference.Add additional ingredients, if desired: yogurt, peanut butter, cream, etc.
- Cover with lid and shake well, until combined. Or stir with a spoon or whisk.
- Refrigerate at least 3 hours, or overnight +
- Before eating, taste and add additional ingredients or adjust milk, sweetener if needed. Stir and enjoy immediately. Store leftovers in fridge for 3-5 days, or until smell changes.
Notes
- Use milk of preference
- Use sweetener of preference, I recommend brown sugar or white sugar
- If you're very hungry, I recommend adding yogurt or peanut butter to your coffee chia pudding
- Adjust amounts of milk, sweetener, coffee, vanilla to your preference. It's easier to add more, so start small. Test after mixing and then again before serving.
- This recipe is easy to make multiple servings for the week at the same time. Store each in individual containers or a big batch to spoon out each serving.
- Optional add-ins: more sweetener, Greek or regular yogurt (if using plain yogurt, add extra sweetener), cream, whipped cream, peanut butter, cocoa powder or chocolate shavings
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Tayler says
I had this for breakfast this morning and it was delicious! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!
Rebecca says
great to hear!
Jen says
Wow! I really enjoyed this for breakfast today! I love finding new ways to use chia seeds!
Rebecca says
there are so many uses!
Sonal says
As soon as I saw this recipe, I made it.. 2 of my fav ingredients- coffee and chia.. sooo good.
Rebecca says
right, classics
Nancy says
Tasty coffee pudding. Great way to wake up to and get my breakfast and caffeine fix in one
Rebecca says
perfect! enjoy
justin says
Favorite all time late night treat, saves well too so I make double
Rebecca says
and you can use decaf coffee or regular depending on whether you need to sleep or not!