Purple Sweet Potato Chocolate Pudding (Vegan, Paleo)

It is a 5-ingredient vegan chocolate pudding recipe that is rich, creamy, and decadent. Instead of tofu, avocado, banana, or coconut cream, the secret ingredient is purple sweet potatoes (yams). You’ll see it gives a wonderful chestnutty flavor to it compared to orange sweet potatoes.

I think you can tell by now that we love to hide veggies. It is especially fun to hide them in desserts. I am not talking about the obvious ones, like black bean brownies or zucchini muffins. Oh no, I have some very interesting recipes apart from this one – obviously – for you to try like our crispy red lentil waffles or our fluffy red lentil pancakes recipes.

Why purple sweet potato?

Well, to me purple sweet potato has this lovely, candied, chestnutty flavor that goes perfectly with chocolate. Not to mention its starchy nature gives this dessert the well-known pudding consistency. Like a rich sweet potato chocolate mousse.

If you look around, there is always some kind of starch (corn, tapioca, arrowroot, etc.) in all milk-based puddings to turn them into – well – puddings. What you get with this recipe is a naturally grain-free chocolate pudding.

Ingredients

It is a delicious and light, 5-ingredient vegan chocolate pudding that is also a perfect fit for the paleo diet. There are no eggs, no flour, no nuts, no avocado, and no tofu. This one is special:

• purple sweet potato puree
• dairy-free milk -> we use our homemade cashew milk or almond milk, but you can use any milk of your choice e.g. light coconut milk
• cane sugar or coconut sugar for paleo -> liquid sweeteners like maple syrup may change the texture slightly
• unsweetened cocoa powder
• vanilla extract -> if you add a few drops of peppermint, coconut, orange, or other extracts besides vanilla, you can literally spice things up

How to make sweet potato chocolate pudding?

1. Take a long slim container and add homemade purple sweet potato puree.
2. Add dairy-free milk of your choice. We used homemade cashew milk, but any light types are suitable.
3. Add cane sugar or the sweetener of your choice.
4. Finally, add the cocoa powder and the vanilla extract and blend them with an immersion blender until creamy. Your easy vegan chocolate pudding is best served chilled!

How to make sweet potato puree from scratch?

For this recipe, we used homemade purple sweet potato puree. It is really easy to do. Wash, poke, and bake. You can do it easily in just 3 steps:

Wash (step 1)

It is a root vegetable, so even if it looks clean you need to wash them thoroughly. You can even use a vegetable scrub to get rid of any dirt (like this zero waste scrub made of wood and plant bristles). Now, dry them with a kitchen towel.

Poke (step 2)

Use a fork or a sharp knife to poke the skin of the sweet potatoes. This step is important as sweet potatoes can build up steam while baking. The small wholes release them so they don’t burst.

Bake (step 3)

We recommend using an oven-safe glass baking dish so you can easily bake them without oil or any additional seasoning. Although you can use any baking tray or non-stick baking sheet. Depending on the size of the sweet potatoes, the baking time may vary. You know they are ready if the skin looks shriveled and soft and you can pierce it easily with a fork.

Prepare the purple sweet potato puree

Let them cool a bit. If it is not too hot to touch, peel them and mash the sweet potato flesh with a fork. Now, it is ready to be used to make nutrient-packed vegan chocolate pudding.

Toppings for vegan chocolate pudding

You can add so many different toppings to make this chocolate pudding even more delicious like

• Fresh fruits (chocolate especially goes well with any berries from blueberries to strawberries)
• Caramelized bananas
• Berry jam or sauce (mixed berries sauce or strawberry puree)
• Chopped nuts or slivered almonds or coconut flakes
• Caramel sauce
• Coconut whipped cream
• Vanilla pudding (my husband loves to mix the two puddings together – he especially loves Alpro’s Vanilla Dessert)

Using chocolate pudding as frosting?

Yes. We do have a quick, 2-ingredient chocolate coconut whipped cream frosting recipe which we use in our chocolate cake recipe, but frosted our sweet potato brownies with this pudding (see below photo). If you follow a whole foods plant-based diet, then this is a compliant frosting for sure.

Top tips to make it perfectly

• Wait for the sweet potato puree to chill completely before using it to make the chocolate pudding.
• If you make a small batch, you might want to use a hand blender. It might be a too-small portion for the regular blender or for the food processor.
• Depending on the size of the sweet potatoes, the baking time varies. Always pierce it with a fork to see if it is soft enough.
• You can keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days.

FAQ and substitutions

Can I use orange sweet potato instead of purple?

Yes, of course. You’re welcome to use baked orange sweet potato puree. The chocolate pudding will likely have a slightly different taste as purple sweet potato has this lovely, candied, chestnutty flavor, which the orange one can’t seem to have.

Can I use canned sweet potato puree?

I baked the purple sweet potato from scratch and I haven’t tested this recipe with canned sweet potato. Please do let me know in the comments if you try it. I’d love to know.

This Chocolate Sweet Potato Pudding recipe is vegan, so dairy-free, and egg-free. It is also suitable for WFPB, vegetarian, paleo, gluten-free, and whole30 diets.

More vegan pudding-like recipes

You can browse through our vegan and gluten-free dessert recipes or check out

UPDATED: This recipe was originally posted in May 2019. It has been updated with info and tips as well as new photos. It was republished in April 2022.