This Chocolate Avocado Pudding is a healthy dairy-free dessert, made with just a handful of ingredients that you probably already have on hand. I love how you can’t even tell there’s avocado in this easy chocolate pudding!
How to Make Chocolate Avocado Pudding
Making this pudding is as easy as it gets. When you combine avocado, cacao powder, and maple syrup with a touch of vanilla and salt, it becomes silky-smooth, with a pudding-like texture.
You don’t need any special thickeners or dairy-free milks!
As with any no-bake recipe, this one can vary due to the size of the avocado you use, and how ripe it is. Some avocados taste more “avocado-y” than others. Luckily, you can taste this pudding as you make it and adjust any ingredients to your taste.
How to Hide the Avocado Flavor
Sometimes you may need a little extra cacao powder to hide the avocado flavor, or an extra splash of maple syrup, to make the flavor pop. If you want to add an extra flavoring, such as a touch of almond extract or a spoonful of peanut butter, you can do that, too!
If you really don’t want to taste any trace of avocado, try blending in 1/2 cup of frozen fruit, too. (Frozen cherries and raspberries work best, in my opinion.)
My Cherry Chocolate Avocado Pudding has been a fan favorite for years, because you can’t taste the avocado at all!
When I first started making this avocado pudding (nearly 10 years ago!) I only had a mini food chopper to blend it together. And it still gets the job done!
But, for a silky-smooth pudding that could fool picky eaters, I highly recommend using a high-speed blender, like a Vitamix, if you can. It makes this pudding totally luscious!
What are the Benefits of Avocado?
If you’re like me and may not love the taste of avocado on its own, this pudding is a great way to get more of this nutritious fruit into your day. Did you know that avocados contain more potassium than a banana?
Here are more avocado benefits:
- Most of the fat found in avocado is oleic acid, which has been associated with lowering inflammation. (source)
- Avocados are high in fiber, which may aid in weight loss and help prevent blood sugar spikes.
- They can lower total cholesterol levels, and increase HDL (the “good” kind). (source)
- Their fat content may help you to absorb certain nutrients better, such as Vitamins A, D, E and K, which are fat-soluble.
In addition, one study has shown that people who eat avocados tend to be healthier than people who don’t! In fact, this survey revealed that people who eat avocados tend to also weigh less, have a lower BMI, less belly fat, and were half as likely to have metabolic syndrome, which is a risk factor for heart disease.
Chocolate Avocado Pudding (5-Minute Dessert!)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 avocado (ripe)
- 2 tablespoons raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons water (or more as needed to blend)
Instructions
- Scoop the flesh of the avocado into a mini-food processor or blender. Add in the cacao powder, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, vanilla, salt, and water, and blend until smooth.
- Taste the pudding and add more maple syrup if needed. (Or anything other extra flavorings you like!) You can serve this right away, or put it in an airtight container in the fridge to chill.
- Leftovers can be stored in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 48 hours. The pudding can sometimes separate, but stirring it should restore the texture.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Recipe Notes:
- If you’d rather sweeten this pudding with dates instead of maple syrup, I would start with 2 dates and add a little extra water for blending. If you don’t have a high speed blender, start by blending the dates with water first, then add in the rest of the pudding ingredients. You may need to use up to 4 dates depending on their size and sweetness.
- If you have a particularly potent-tasting avocado, try adding 1/2 cup of frozen fruit to the mix. I love using frozen cherries or blueberries. You can also add extra cacao or maple syrup to mask the flavor even more.
- If you need a totally sugar-free pudding, you can use any other sweetener that you like. (I used to use stevia in this, before I stopped using it.) Honey can also work, but it won’t be a vegan dessert in that case.
More Healthy Pudding Recipes You’ll Love
- Chocolate Chia Pudding
- Cherry Chocolate Avocado Pudding
- Classic Chia Pudding
- 3-Ingredient Chocolate Avocado Pudding (no added sugar)
- Chai-Spiced Chia Pudding
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Reader Feedback: Have you tried avocado pudding before? What’s your favorite vegan dessert?
I LOVE all the info you included in this post! I honestly didn’t know much of that info about fruits!
I have a wicked sweet tooth. My all time favorite treat is Lindt’s sea salt chocolate, but supercharge me cookies or yogurt can usually tame it too!
I have yet to try a Supercharge Me cookie, and I’ve had the recipe for months! Thanks for reminding me of those. 😉
I love anything sweet with sea-salt… YUM.
THat pudding sounds wonderful! I’ll have to give it a try!
Yes I love sweet foods — usually I’ll have fruit, or some dates with PB to help those cravings.
I am totally going to make this pudding tonight — looks delicious!
Hope you enjoy the pudding!! (I’m addicted…)
I love dates stuffed with pecans, too– it tastes like pecan pie!!
I feel exactly the same way about sweets (especially chocolate)!! This pudding looks delicious! I tried making an avocado + chocolate pudding once and failed MISERABLY…so I’ll definitely have to try again with your recipe 🙂
Adding the frozen fruit to the avocado makes ALL the difference!
I had tried many other versions before a “lightbulb” went off in my head to add the frozen fruit! It makes it cold, sweet and creamy!! The cherry-chocolate version has everyone fooled– my dad didn’t believe there was even avocado in it!
Hi there, thanks for stopping by my site! 🙂 This pudding sounds lovely, I actually make something very similar with equal parts of avocado and banana blending with chocolate. So rich and delicious!
I am definitely more of salty eater than a sweet eater. Honestly if it was social acceptable to a salt lick I would. But on the occasion that I do crave something sweet…I want a warm batch of chocolate chip cookies.
I’m an avocado fiend! I bet i’d love this! =)
After many well-intentions and spoiled avocados, I have finally made this decadent dessert. The texture is perfect, with a rich chocolatey taste (no avocado taste). As I have a huge sweet tooth, I am always on the hunt and making healthy desserts. This one has been added to my list. Anything dark chocolate+nut butter usually satisfies my craving though 🙂
Wow – this is AMAZING. I didn’t have stevia, so I used a bit of honey instead, but it is absolutely decadent. If I didn’t know there where blueberries in it, I never would have believed it after tasting it. This is just as rich as old fashion chocolate pudding made with cornstarch, but some much better for you!
I must be missing something… I see comments about the blueberries or frozen fruit but it’s not listed in the ingredients. We tried this tonight and none of us cared for it. Now we can’t get the taste out of our mouths. Love chocolate and love avocado, but this didn’t do it for us, although the texture was perfect. We could taste the avocado, big time, unlike some others.
Sorry to hear that! Sometimes you can get a very potent-flavored avocado and then it’s hard to hide the flavor. You can try adding frozen cherries to hide the flavor even more, and I like to add a 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract in that case which makes the flavor even better.
I loved this! I was a bit skeptical at first because I’ve never used avocados fo a dessert. However, it was delicious. Thank you!
I have figured the calorie count on this recipe with a couple of different web sites and they come up with at least 100 cal higher then listed per serving. could you recalculate? this is very good but people trying to watch their wt may be surprised at the calories.
OH MY GOSH, THIS IS DELICIOUS. My 2.5 year old son and I just made it together, and I could seriously eat it all! We tripled the recipe because we had 3 avocados to use up, and I’m glad we made so much! Thank you so much for this recipe. I’ve been trying to have him help me cook more, and recipes like this are perfect for him!
I need to try this! Looks amazing. Would it freeze well if I made in bigger batch?
Awesome recipe. Just made these because we had some ripe avocados. Doubled the recipe and used 4 tbsps of maple syrup and 5 tbsps of water. I will say the avocados we used were very flavorful and we couldn’t taste the avocado. Definitely will make again!
This puddings divine! I did use a little more maple syrup as suggested. And I found that you need to really whirl the food processor on high for a minute or two to smooth avocado chunks. Not a problem though. Also doubled recipe, b/c I just knew two servings wouldn’t be enough!
I just made this (almost) exactly as written (I used almond milk instead of water) and it is FANTASTIC!!! It’s so light and fluffy, definitely doesn’t taste like avocado! I urge everyone to try this. I think with a little bit of peppermint extract it would make a wonderful mint chocolate mousse!
I just made this and added frozen raspberries. It was easy to put together – I even eye-balled the amonts – and delicious. Two thumbs up from me and my daughter.
I wanted to like this so badly. But it was horrid. I could taste the chocolate flavor but it was overpowered by the avocado and it just did NOT work.
There are keto maple syrups, they sell.one at whole foods it uses monk fruit and is a very low carb. I swap it for all maple syrups recipes.its called Lakanto.
So creamy and chocolately. Don’t realize you are eating avocado.
Can this be frozen for an “icecream” type treat?
Yes, I bet it could! Avocado freezes well, just like bananas do!
This is so freaking delicious. The texture is exactly the same as chocolate pudding. I will make it again definitely!
So simple and delicious!
This was amazing, easy, and delicious! I wanted something chocolate but not cookies or candy. THIS IS DELICIOUS! Thanks for the recipe. I’m going to try adding different flavors, but this is perfect as is!
Thank you for an easy dairy free dessert! I didn’t have cherries, but I threw in some frozen blueberries and it worked great.
Whoops, sorry, I was looking at this recipe and the one with cherries at the same time! Still awesome.
Delicious! I used frozen blueberries and a shake of cinnamon. Tastes divine!
I LOVED this! I used one medjool date and a bit of milk to make it fluffy. So good! Thank you!
This is the best recipe for chocolate avocado pudding! I tried it and everyone in the family loved it. I double down water and maple syrup. Thanks
I don’t often share recipes but this is a must for any dairy-free diet people out there. It was by far the simplest, best vegan version of chocolate pudding. I made it with a cheap mini food processor and a very overdue avocado and it was just the perfect balance of texture and sweetness. I made it in 2minutes and it fully satisfied my chocolate craving. I highly recommend, esp. when you have a sad avocado (brown bits and all). Once the cacao powder gets in, it’s all the same brown!
This is absolutely my NEW favorite cheat dessert! I also love that it is so filling. Thank you you!