Chilled Mango Custard with Chia Seeds
Few things in life give me as much pleasure as creating recipes that are both good for my parents and that they will fall in love with. Believe me, given their recent propensity towards sugar-laden desserts, this is no easy task. Since my whole family loves mangoes, I was thinking what kind of healthy dessert I could create using ripe mangoes that would still taste and feel like dessert without adding extra sugar and without baking some kind of cake. It dawned on me that Asian desserts, much like their European counterparts, feature a lot of custard-type textures. Typically custards require eggs, cream and sugar so I decided to substitute with a brilliant ingredient- agar agar. If you’re not familiar with this gelatin, please take a moment to read about its health benefits on my Ingredients Page. This one little ingredient is so potent in creating that custard texture but has zero calories, no sugar and is actually good for us. Add a few tablespoons of chia seeds and slivers of fresh mango, we’ve got an awesome and healthy dessert that the whole family loves!

Serves 2

Ingredients
1 small ripe mango, cut into chunks (~ 1 1/2 heaping cups)
1/2 cup chilled coconut milk
3 tablespoons hot water
1 teaspoon agar-agar (plain gelatin powder)
2 heaping tablespoons chia seeds, pre-soaked (soak chia seeds in water for 1 hour)
Mango slivers to garnish

Method

Mix the hot water and the agar-agar in a small cup until thoroughly dissolved. Set aside.

Place the mango chunks and the coconut milk in a blender or food processor and pulse until just smooth. Mix in the dissolved agar-agar into the mango coconut purée manually using a spoon or spatula. Pour the purée into individual serving bowls.

Top each serving with a tablespoon of the soaked chia seeds and mango slivers. Cool in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving.

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