High Fiber Chocolate Pudding

I'm not sure this could be much better for you, but I promise it doesn't taste it

My first love was discovered around the age of 8, in the dairy aisle of a health food store. Wrapped in panda paper, my eyes met a package that would forever change my approach to food. As my hands wrapped around the 4-pack of soy pudding perfection, I was met with a feeling of shame.

Both of my parents are, declaratively, not into pudding. My mother had bad memories of canned pudding from her youth at sleepaway camp, and I think my father had only ever had a snack pack. Need I remind you, beans were my choice, not the ways of my ancestors.

My desire for an ungodly amount of pudding left me feeling shame, but not as much shame as I had for my love of Jell-O… a story for a different day.

This weekend, for my bean-up (my community bean meet-ups, which I should write about soon), I was going to make brownies, so I cooked up a giant batch of black beans before I remembered that there are so many black bean brownie recipes—and even chocolate cakes. I wanted to make something different.

I thought, maybe pudding? I have made plenty of silken tofu chocolate pudding (blend silken tofu, melted chocolate, salt, and vanilla… or cut the melted chocolate and use cocoa powder and maple syrup), but that pudding, while protein-packed, is free of fiber and lacks my one true love—beans in their natural form.

I wanted to make a pudding that contained everything I needed in a complete meal while tasting like my complete comfort.

This pudding was born: free of refined sugar and thickeners, and vegan. You too can have your soy pudding childhood dreams—but out of the plastic snack pack.

One note: I advise a powerful blender or food process for this recipe such as this.

Recipe:
2 cups black beans