This Fruit on The Bottom Chia Pudding recipe is a great way to start your day with protein AND fiber! It’s easy to make, nourishing, and delicious. What more could you want in a meal prep breakfast?
This Easy Meal Prep Breakfast Is Saving Me Right Now
I’m just a girl. Standing in front of her fridge. Trying to reach her protein & fiber goals. And this high protein, high fiber fruit on the bottom chia pudding recipe is making it easier! There’s so much to love!
🫐 EASY: Two bowls, simple ingredients, and no fancy skills required. If you can mash & mix, you can make this chia pudding recipe!
🍓 FLAVORS: You’ll get notes of sweetness from vanilla & a touch of pure maple syrup in the yogurt, then you can mix and match your favorite fruit to make the fruit puree! It’s light, fresh, and SO good!
🍊 MEAL PREP FRIENDLY. This yogurt chia pudding will stay fresh in the fridge up to 4 days, so you can prep a few days in advance. Yay!
Happy cooking! xo, Emily
Gather Your Ingredients
How To Make Fruit-On-The-Bottom Chia Pudding, Step By Step
As always, you can find the full recipe with ingredient amounts, detailed instructions, and tips in the recipe card below.
- Mix Up The Chia Pudding. In a medium bowl, combine yogurt, almond milk, chia seeds, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Whisk until evenly combined. Let this mixture stand for about 10 minutes to allow the seeds to bloom a bit. Give the mixture one more stir before layering in jars.
- Make The Fruit Layer. In a medium bowl (or a blender or food processor!), combine thawed fruit and 1 Tablespoon orange juice. Mash or puree until you reach your desired consistency, adding more orange juice, as needed. Taste the fruit mixture, and feel free to sweeten with honey, agave, maple syrup, or your favorite sweetener, as needed.
- Layer In Jars. Spoon half of the fruit layer into each jar. Next, add half of the chia pudding to each jar. I find it easiest to add the chia pudding around the bottom edges of the fruit layer before filling in the center, then filling the jars upward. This helps keep the fruit layer on the bottom of the pudding.
- Chill & Serve. Cover the jars and refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy with more fresh fruit, some granola, or your favorite toppings. Chia pudding will keep in the fridge 3-4 days.
FAQ + Tips And Tricks For The Best Fruit On The Bottom Chia Pudding
Different Fruits Work Differently. Part of what’s so great about this fruit on the bottom chia pudding recipe is that it works with so many different fruits, so you never run out of options. I’ve made it with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, and kiwi over the years, though you can certainly experiment with your favorites. Keep in mind some fruits may slightly brown or set up with time. Fruit like blueberries has more natural pectin, which can set up into a more jelly-like texture with time. Just give it a good stir into the pudding when serving and you’re good to go!
Trust Your Tastebuds. I usually don’t need to add any sweetener to the fruit besides the orange juice, but if your fruit is underripe or not sweet enough for your taste, feel free to add honey, agave, maple syrup, or your favorite sweetener to the fruit layer!
Do You Have To Put The Fruit On The Bottom? You can absolutely do the fruit puree on top of the chia layer. I do it on the bottom to keep it as fresh and vibrant as possible. When cut fruit is exposed to air, it can brown (think a sliced avocado or bananas). It’s still 100% safe to eat, but it doesn’t look as nice. Since I use this for a meal prep and do several days’ worth at once, I put the fruit on the bottom so they keep a little better.
Shortcut: Use Flavored Yogurt. If your’e short on time or just have flavored yogurt on hand, feel free to use vanilla Greek yogurt or your favorite flavored yogurt instead of plain. I use plain to moderate the sugar, but it’s DELICIOUS with flavored yogurt, too!
Can I Use Something Besides Yogurt? Yep! If you need a yogurt-free chia pudding, you can use our vanilla chia pudding recipe or chocolate chia pudding instead here, layered with the fruit! It’s dairy-free, vegan, paleo & whole30-friendly!
Did You Make This Recipe?
Tell me all about it! Leave a star rating below when you try our high protein Fruit On The Bottom Chia Pudding recipe. I can’t wait to hear how it goes!
Fruit on the Bottom Chia Pudding
Ingredients
For the Chia Pudding:
- 1 1/3 cup Plain Greek Yogurt (I like 2%) (or Two 5.3 oz containers)
- 1/2 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
- 1/4 cup Chia Seeds
- 1/2 Tablespoon Pure Maple Syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean Paste optional
- pinch salt optional
For the Fruit Layer::
- 2/3 cup Thawed Frozen Raspberries* (Or Your Favorite Fruit–See Notes!)
- 1-2 Tablespoons Orange Juice
Instructions
- Mix Up The Chia Pudding. In a medium bowl, combine yogurt, almond milk, chia seeds, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Whisk until evenly combined. Let this mixture stand for about 10 minutes to allow the seeds to bloom a bit. Give the mixture one more stir before layering in jars. (If you want thinner pudding, feel free to add more milk here!)
- Make The Fruit Layer. In a medium bowl (or a blender or food processor!), combine thawed fruit and 1 Tablespoon orange juice. Mash or puree until you reach your desired consistency, adding more orange juice, as needed. Taste the fruit mixture, and feel free to sweeten with honey, agave, maple syrup, or your favorite sweetener, as needed. Divide the fruit layer between 2 jars.
- Layer In Jars. Next, add half of the chia pudding to each jar. I find it easiest to add the chia pudding around the bottom edges of the fruit layer before filling in the center, then filling the jars upward. This helps keep the fruit layer on the bottom of the pudding.
- Chill & Serve. Cover the jars and refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy with more fresh fruit, some granola, or your favorite toppings. Chia pudding will keep in the fridge 3-4 days.
Notes
- Fruit. You can use almost ANY fruit you like here–blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, kiwi, mango, peach, etc. It all works! Depending on the kind of fruit and juice you use, you *may* find you prefer to add a little bit of honey or pure maple syrup to your fruit mixture if it tastes a little tart. It’s up to you!
- Different Fruits Work Differently. Part of what’s so great about this fruit on the bottom chia pudding recipe is that it works with so many different fruits, so you never run out of options. I’ve made it with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, and kiwi over the years, though you can certainly experiment with your favorites. Keep in mind some fruits may slightly brown or set up with time. Fruit like blueberries has more natural pectin, which can set up into a more jelly-like texture with time. Just give it a good stir into the pudding when serving and you’re good to go!
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition facts are an estimate only and will vary based on brands and amounts used.
Find it Online:
https://www.onelovelylife.com/fruit-on-the-bottom-chia-pudding/Originally shared December 2017. Fully updated with improved recipe notes, new photos and video and republished January 2026.
So easy to make and a great breakfast! Love the versatility
So good and easy to make. Thank you! This recipe will be on regular rotation in my household 🙂
Oh, I’m SO glad to hear it! I’m mixing up another batch of the strawberry for meal prep this week. (It’s my favorite!)
This looks so yummy! Can’t wait to try! Do you know if mixing chia seeds with yogurt would work as well?
Dianne – a lot of people put chia seeds into their yogurt. I usually like to mix it up about half milk/half yogurt if I do it that way so that it’s not SUPER thick, but it’s a matter of preference. I’d love to know what you think if you try it with yogurt!
How many servings is this recipe this girl has got to watch that waistline lol. thank you☺
Sherry – It serves 2. 🙂
Is the chilling of the coconut milk what makes this thicken? I am allergic to coconut, so I would need to substitute something, but I’m guessing that it what is making that later set up.
Kristie – Coconut milk will make for the thickest pudding, but the real thickening is because of the chia seeds. They continue to absorb liquid and expand, which thickens the pudding over time. Coconut milk has a higher fat content, so it will create the naturally thickest chia pudding (and the best layers), but other milks DO work. I’ve done it with all almond milk, etc. It’s slightly thinner (so I try to be more careful when layering), but it will also thicken up overnight. Hope that helps!
I love the glass jars you used (with glass lids!). Where can I find some?!!
I love them too! I got a set from Amazon, but I’ve also seen them sometimes sold individually from World Market!
Ok.. Did I do something wrong? The coconut/chia mixture was very thin. I used light coconut milk in the can. When I added it on top of fruit it didnt layer. This looks so good I wanted to love it.
Nikki – I’d love to help! Did they set up more in the fridge? How long after you mixed up the chia mixture did you pour it over the fruit layer?
Using lighter milks will make the chia mixture thinner, but sometimes this can be offset by waiting a little bit longer before pouring the chia mixture over the fruit layer (since it thickens as it sits).
If you don’t want to use full-fat coconut milk and you want to get nice, crisp layers, you can try pouring holding a spoon over the fruit layer and pouring the chia mixture over the spoon, which will slow it down and give it a chance to spread out a bit instead of sinking down.
I hope those tips help! I’m happy to trouble shoot more if you’d like!
These are so fun and cute! We’re totally going to make these this week!
I hope you LOVE them!
I’m excited to try this one out! Have you ever tried substituting the OJ for other fruit juices? I am allergic to citrus and am hoping Apple juice would work. Looks like a fun treat!
Katie – I like the brightness of citrus, but I’m SURE that other juices would work!