My husband LOVES dessert, so I made a chocolate vegan pudding from sweet potatoes. Although I don't care for sweets and prefer savory foods, I try to make healthy desserts at home to satisfy his sweet tooth. Not only is this vegan chocolate pudding recipe easy, but it contains very few ingredients.
Because sweet potatoes are naturally sweet, you can make a healthy chocolate vegan pudding with very few ingredients. And, my vegan chocolate pudding recipe doesn't have any refined sugar.
I use dates and maple syrup to enhance the flavor of the sweet potatoes and other ingredients.
And, did I mention the pudding freezes well for fudsicles? YUM!
WHAT SWEET POTATOES TO CHOOSE TO MAKE VEGAN PUDDING
Although there are 4,000 different types of potatoes, five main sweet potato varieties have various functions:
- Purple Stokes: slow bake, mash, curries, soups, dessert
- Garnet: Roasting, baking, stuffing, mashing, casseroles, soups, pureeing, pies
- Hannah: Roasting, baking, mashing, putting in stews and soups, fries
- Japanese: Roasting, stuffing, steaming, fries, soups, stews
- Jewel: Boiling, baking, casseroles, sweet potato pie
Compared to other sweet potatoes and yams, purple potatoes' flavor and texture are favorably drier, denser, and richer taste with well-balanced sweetness. So, I chose purple potatoes for my chocolate vegan pudding recipe.
However, purple sweet potatoes are sometimes challenging to find, but garnet sweet potatoes work perfectly for this vegan chocolate pudding.
HOW TO PICK AND STORE SWEET POTATOES AT THE STORE
Choose sweet potatoes with tight, unwrinkled skins without any bruises or blemishes. Bigger, however, is not always better; larger sweet potatoes are starchier. So, look at small- to medium-sized sweet potatoes.
Unfortunately, sweet potatoes generally do not store well, and once they start to spoil, they rot quickly. So even if you think you can cut away the spoiled parts of sweet potato, it negatively affects the entire potato's taste.
WHAT INGREDIENTS ARE IN VEGAN CHOCOLATE PUDDING?
- Purple Sweet Potatoes (or Garnet Sweet Potatoes)
- Medjool Dates
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- Maple Syrup
- Vanilla Extract
- Oat Milk (or preferred plant milk)
HOW TO SOFTEN DATES FOR EASY BLENDING
Although most dates are soft enough to be blended, sometimes they harden a bit. To soften dates quickly, boil a cup of water, soak the dates for 10 minutes, drain them, and then add them to the pudding ingredients.
When making chocolate vegan pudding recipe, it helps add some milk to the base of the food processor or high-speed blender. As a result, the ingredients blend well together.
Furthermore, I suggest blending on high and stopping several times to scrape the sides until the pudding mixture is thin. Once blended to a smooth texture, the vegan chocolate pudding is refrigerated and thickens while it cools.
POSSIBLE ADDITIONS FOR FOR SERVING
Even though the vegan chocolate pudding is fabulous on its own, I like to give it a little pizazz sometimes. For instance, there are ways to change or enhance the flavor of the base recipe.
- Add 1/2 cup peanut butter to the food processor or blender for peanut butter chocolate pudding.
- Top with fresh raspberries, blueberries, mandarin orange segments, or pineapple
- Put sliced bananas and strawberries for a banana split pudding.
- Sprinkle with Spanish peanut or your favorite nuts
- Crush peppermint candy for a Christmas treat
- Toast unsweetened coconut flakes and sprinkle on top of the pudding
- Blend fresh cherries in the pudding recipe for cherry pudding
Next, make the vegan pudding a little fancy by putting it in a favorite dessert dish and serving it. My husband loved this vegan pudding recipe and asked if there was more for tomorrow. Lucky for him, I made a whole recipe!
If you LOVE chocolate and something sweet, try this chocolate vegan pudding recipe made from sweet potatoes.
Also Read: Can Vegans Eat M&M's Candies?
HERE ARE MORE HEALTHY DESSERT RECIPES YOU MAY ENJOY
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
- Simple Vegan Chocolate Covered Strawberries
- Vegan Pumpkin Crack Dip
- Vegan Apple Crisp
- Mini Vegan Pumpkin Pies
Chocolate Vegan Pudding
Chocolate vegan pudding is made with sweet potatoes, dates, and other simple ingredients. Refined sugar-free, oil-free, gluten-free, and nut-free, this vegan chocolate pudding recipe is creamy, delicious, and compliant.
Ingredients
- 2 Purple Sweet Potatoes (or orange sweet potatoes) (yield 2 1/2 cups), peeled and cut into equal-sized chunks.
- 2 cups oat milk (or plant milk of choice)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 Medjool dates, pitted
Instructions
- Peel and cut sweet potatoes into equal-sized chunks
- Place cut and peeled potato chunks in a pot and cover with water.
- Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, and cover for 20-25 minutes or until potatoes are soft and can be pierced with a fork.
- In the meantime, in a glass measuring cup, boil one cup of water in the microwave and place the pitted dates in the water to soften, for easier blending.
- Drain dates.
- Drain potatoes and allow to cool to the touch
- In a food processor or high-speed blender, add 1/2 cup of plant milk first, followed by the sweet potatoes, pitted dates, cocoa powder, maple syrup, and vanilla extract
- Process/blend on high
- Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of plant milk
- Process blend again, scraping down the sides with a spatula and blending again, until smooth
- Then, transfer the contents of the food processor/blender to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for a few hours to chill
- The mixture will thicken in the refrigerator.
- Serve as is, or add a variety of possible toppings.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6 servingsServing Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 190Total Fat 1gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 18mgCarbohydrates 51gFiber 5gSugar 35gProtein 3g
Nutrition facts may not be 100% accurate.
Hi! My name is Kathy, I am a retired high school English teacher & vegan enthusiast and blogger. My entire blog is fully plant-based vegan. I truly believe what we eat & how we live determines our health & the preservation of our planet! 🙂
Brenda R
Hi Kathy,
I'm new to eating vegan and healthier really. I'd like to know what all the sources are of unrefined sugar. You use maple syrup in this recipe...can I use honey? Is honey an unrefined sugar?
Thanks, and by the way I love your website and recipes. I made the minestrone soup and my family loved it! I'm going to try many other recipes soon!
Brenda
Kathy Carmichael
Hi Brenda! Thanks for your feedback. Honey is a controversial vegan issue. Honey is a natural unrefined sugar. However, the controversy is based on the idea that because it is produced from bees' labor, it isn't vegan. So, it all depends on how you feel about that idea. Honey, maple syrup, agave, Molasses, Coconut Sugar, Sucanat, Brown Rice Syrup, Date Sugar, and maple sugar are sources of unrefined sugar. I'm so glad you liked the Minestrone. Please let me know if you have any other questions. And, Happy New Year to you and your family.
Larry Fried
I am not able to Print this recipe. The print button doesn't work. I went to the vanilla pudding recipe and was able to print that out just fine.
Kathy Carmichael
Hi Larry, Thank you for letting me know. I will let my tech guy know so that it can be fixed. I appreciate the information.
ACC
I need to use up half a container of silken tofu; looking at this recipe, was wondering if you think it would be good as an additional ingredient?
Kathy Carmichael
Hi Amelia, there are recipes that you can use the silken tofu instead of the sweet potatoes, but I wouldn't add it to the recipe. However, you could make a separate batch exchanging the sweet potatoes with the silken tofu. Or, if you are looking for a way to use up your silken tofu, I would make a salad dressing to replace cashews in a dressing recipe.