Ingredients
Method
- Start the compote. Tip 300 g of the chopped strawberries into your small saucepan with the lemon juice, cornflour and water. Set it over a medium heat and stir gently. After about three minutes you'll see the berries collapse and release a glossy, deep-red syrup — that's your cue. Let it bubble for one more minute until it thickens enough to coat the back of your spoon, then pull it off the heat and leave it to cool for ten minutes.
- Whisk the base. In your large mixing bowl, combine the coconut milk, Greek yogurt, honey, vanilla extract and sea salt. Whisk until it's completely smooth and pale ivory in colour, with no streaks of yogurt left. It should look like thin pouring cream at this stage.
- Add the chia seeds. Pour in the chia seeds and whisk firmly for about thirty seconds. You'll notice the mixture immediately starting to thicken and tiny seeds suspending evenly throughout — if they clump at the bottom, keep whisking. Let it sit for five minutes, then whisk again to break up any clusters. This second whisk is the difference between a smooth pudding and a lumpy one.
- Fold through the strawberries. Stir the remaining 100 g of chopped fresh strawberries into the chia base with your spatula. You want visible flecks of red running through the pale mixture, not a uniform pink.
- Layer it up. Spoon a couple of tablespoons of the cooled compote into the bottom of each jar, then top with the chia mixture, filling each jar about three-quarters full. Finish with a final spoonful of compote on top. The layers will look a bit messy — that's exactly right.
- Chill. Cover each jar and refrigerate for at least four hours, but overnight is where the magic happens. By morning the pudding will have set to a thick, spoonable consistency, and the compote will have bled slightly into the chia layer, creating a pretty marbled effect.
- Serve. Top with extra sliced strawberries, a scatter of toasted almonds and a mint leaf if you're feeling fancy. The first spoonful should be cool, creamy and just barely sweet, with a gentle pop from the chia seeds.
Notes
Chilling time (at least 4 hours, preferably overnight) is not included in the total time. For a dairy-free version, use coconut yogurt. Adjust sweetness to taste. The compote can be made ahead and stored in the fridge.
