Vegan "Cold" Hot Chocolate anyone?

For this week's Raw/Vegan Post, Nida brings us a gorgeous, comforting recipe from "Oh she Glows". How people come up with such wonderful vegan replacements for their favourite meals/drinks, I will forever wonder! So creative. Enjoy. W.P

Slippers, flats, boots, scarves all in 3 days?! Toronto, i feel for ya! I say fuhgedaboudit and have a hot chocolate thats cold! hee hee :) The weather has been crazy up and down the east coast, why not arrange your DSW stores at your door entrance from all the varied crazy weather and sip on this yummy drink?! It has tons of protein, fiber, omega-3 and is like a smoothie or a pudding.

What you need:

3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
4 large almond milk ice cubes (see note)
1/4 cup chia seeds
5-6 pitted Medjool dates, to taste
2-3.5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (see note)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, to taste
pinch fine grain sea salt or pink Himalayan sea salt

Directions:

Fill an ice cube tray with almond milk. Freeze until solid. You can use leftovers in smoothies or for more pudding in the future.
To make the pudding: Add 3/4 cup almond milk into a high speed blender. Now add the rest of the ingredients, including the almond milk ice cubes.
Blend on the highest speed until super smooth. Enjoy immediately or chill in the fridge where it will thicken up even more.

Notes:

Add the cocoa powder to taste. Some brands will be more pungent than others. 3.5 tablespoons of cocoa powder is great with Camino brand however you may need to use less depending on what kind you use. My advice is to add the cocoa powder slowly to taste.
You will want around 12 tablespoons of almond milk ice cubes added to the pudding though You can skip the almond milk ice cubes and simply add a splash more almond milk. Chill in the fridge the old-fashioned way.
If your dates are firm, I suggest soaking them in hot water for at least 30 minutes before you begin. Drain well.
To turn this into a chocolate "frosty" add more ice cubes to make it super icy.
To make this nut-free, use a nut-free non-dairy milk of your choice.

Hat tip: Oh She Glows

Nida Kazmi
Twitter: @Nida84