Chia pudding, but make it high protein. This 4-ingredient greek yogurt chia pudding is tasty, filling, and the best healthy breakfast.
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Chia pudding is one of my favorite healthy breakfasts as a dietitian because it’s loaded with fiber and healthy fats. It’s good for heart health, good for gut health, and super filling.
This greek yogurt chia pudding improves on this already amazing breakfast because it’s got protein, too! With the addition of greek yogurt and flavored protein powder, you’re getting all the fiber goodness of regular chia pudding but it’s even better for cravings and fitness goals.
You will love this easy, customizable breakfast for busy weekday mornings.
Why you’ll love it
High protein: This recipe contains an impressive 36 grams of protein per serving.
High fiber: You’re getting 8 grams of heart-healthy fiber without accounting for toppings. When I add my usual berries and granola, this easily gets bumped up to 14 grams!
Minimal ingredients: You’ll only need four ingredients and some tasty toppings for this simple breakfast.
Easy to prep: Make several jars at the start of the week and have breakfast ready every morning.
Filling: The protein and fiber combo means this greek yogurt chia pudding will keep you full for hours.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- Greek yogurt — I use plain, but you can use whatever you like
- Milk — use dairy or soy milk for the extra protein
- Vanilla protein powder — optional, you can also sub for other flavors
- Chia seeds — for all that fiber!
I’ve also included cinnamon and maple syrup (or another liquid sweetener) as optional additions, if you want a little extra flavor and sweetness.
Toppings ideas
You’ll want to add toppings for extra flavor and nutrition, and these are my favorites:
- Frozen mixed berries
- Banana slices
- Granola
- Coconut flakes
- Nut butter
- Crushed nuts
- Cinnamon
- Nutella
- Hemp hearts
- Ground flaxseed
- Cocao nibs
- Chopped peaches
- Frozen mango
- Chocolate chips
- Crumbled muffin
How to make it
Add all ingredients to a jar and mix well, until no clumps remain.
Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours, or ideally overnight.
When you’re ready to eat, transfer greek yogurt chia pudding to a bowl and add toppings of choice. Enjoy!
How long will this stay good in the fridge?
This chia pudding recipe stays good in the fridge for up to three days.
Meal prep instructions
There are two ways to meal prep greek yogurt chia pudding.
Big batch: Your first option is to multiply the recipe by how many servings you want, and make a big batch in a larger food container. Store this big batch in the fridge, and scoop out a serving each time you’re ready to eat.
Individual containers: Or, you can make multiple single-serve puddings in their own jars. To do this, just follow the recipe instructions for each jar. You’ll want one jar for every serving you’re prepping.
More healthy breakfasts
Blueberry muffin smoothie
Cottage cheese oatmeal pancakes
Chocolate chip overnight oats
Protein baked oats
High protein overnight oats
3-Ingredient pancakes
Sweet scrambled oats
High protein yogurt bowls
Cottage cheese overnight oats
Important tips
Don’t use unsweetened protein powder! The protein powder adds protein to this recipe, but it also adds sweetness and flavor.
If possible, stir your chia pudding after the first 30-minutes of chilling time. This can help prevent possible clumps of chia seeds and/or protein powder.
Variations
- Chocolate — swap vanilla protein powder for chocolate and add chocolate chips
- Birthday cake — swap vanilla protein powder for birthday cake flavor, and add birthday cake granola on top
- PB & J — add 1-2 tsp of jam and 1 Tbsp peanut butter as toppings
- Banana coconut — mix 1/2 mashed banana into your pudding and top with coconut flakes
- Lemon — add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a dollop of lemon curd
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Don’t love protein powder?
No problem! You can make greek yogurt chia pudding without protein powder.
If you do, just make sure to add 1-2 teaspoons of maple syrup, honey, or sweetener of choice. The protein powder adds sweetness and flavor, so you’ll want to add that back if you’re omitting it. If you don’t want to add a sweetener, you could also use vanilla greek yogurt instead of plain.
4-Ingredient Greek Yogurt Chia Pudding
Equipment
- 1 glass jar with lid
Ingredients
Chia Pudding Base
- 1/2 cup greek or skyr yogurt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 Tbsp chia seeds
Optional Mix-Ins
- 2 Tbsp vanilla protein powder
- 1-2 tsp maple syrup or liquid sweetener of choice, optional
- dash cinnamon, optional
Optional Toppings
- nut butter, crushed nuts, coconut flakes, granola, berries, chopped fruit
Instructions
- Add yogurt, milk, chia seeds, and any of the listed mix-ins, to a jar and stir until no clumps remain.
- Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours, or ideally overnight. If possible, stir again after the first 30 minutes in the fridge to minimize clumps. The longer it sits in the fridge, the thicker your pudding will be.
- When you're ready to eat, transfer greek yogurt chia pudding to a bowl and add toppings of choice. Enjoy!
Notes
- Feel free to use plain or vanilla Greek yogurt.
- If you’re omitting protein powder or using plain yogurt, add 1-2 teaspoons of maple syrup, honey, or another liquid sweetener.
- The thickness of your chia pudding can be impacted by the exact yogurt brand you use. If it’s looking thin, stir in an extra 1-2 teaspoons of chia seeds.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Leave a rating and review!
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I made this according to directions but it did not congeal. Any suggestions on what I did wrong?
Hi Dee, I’m so sorry this didn’t work out for you! When chia seeds don’t gel up as expected, the usual culprit is stale chia seeds. Sometimes they’re old by the time they reach the store, and once they go stale they won’t have the same absorbing qualities. Otherwise, you may just need to give it a few more hours in the fridge. I’d recommending trying again with a fresh batch of chia, and making sure they stay stored in the fridge. Hope that helps!
Dom you have a recommendation for a good low fat granola brand that you like?
I really love the Nature’a Path Granolas (specifically the coconut and cashew butter — so yummy!) and the almond crunch by Inno Foods. Neither are particularly low fat, but they’re really flavorful so you can get away with using a little less!
Can I skip the milk and just add the protein powder and chia seeds or will the seeds not absorb liquid from just the yogurt?
I prefer the texture with the milk, but you could sub any other liquid! If you want a super thick pudding, you could try without. 🙂
I I used coconut milk, vanilla Greek yogurt, and omitted the protein powder(because I had none on hand)
My doctor recommended that I try chia seed pudding to help get rid of constipation. I love the taste and consistency and will be making this again. Hopefully, it will give me constipation relief. Only time will tell.
Great recipe! I omitted the protein powder and added a drizzle of honey and a splash of vanilla. It was a really nice pudding-like consistency after sitting in the fridge overnight.
This was brilliant idea!! Will make on repeat!
I made this with:
Califia Toasted Coconut Milk
Clean Simple Eat Coconut Protein Powder
and topped with Mango & Toasted coconut
YAY I’m so glad you enjoyed!
This was so yummy! I didn’t have any vanilla protein powder on hand so I omitted it. Do you possibly know how many grams of protein the recipe is without the powder?? Thanks so much!
Just made this for the third time. This time is for my son because he kept eating mine in the mornings. Definitely a go-to Greek yogurt chia pudding as it’s so easy and tastes great.
I’m new to this type of pudding, but found it easy to assemble and tasty. After sitting overnight, it was still more like a sauce than a pudding and required stirring because the seeds rose to the top, but I’m very happy to have it to accompany fruit or high fiber cereal.
Under important tips there’s this that will help:
If possible, stir your chia pudding after the first 30-minutes of chilling time. This can help prevent possible clumps of chia seeds and/or protein powder.
I did try this and really liked it! I added some of the extra options and it turned out well. I went with 1t honey for sweetness, 2T almond butter, heavy sprinkle of cinnamon, diced strawberries, blueberries and almonds. Delish! And by my calculation it was > 40g of protein! And super filling b/c of all the fiber!
Amazing!! So glad you liked it!
This was super! I’ve tried many different chia seed pudding type recipes and they just never did it for me – this did! I think the protein powder added enough sweetness and I’m already prepping another bowl for tomorrow. I topped mine with almonds, cacao nibs, hemp seeds and blueberries and it was divine – go make this!
I’m so glad you liked it!! Thanks for reviewing, Meg!