Satisfy your sweet craving with this five-ingredient low sugar lemon pudding with almond milk.
Five Ingredients and No Cooking
This pudding recipe only has five ingredients, and no cooking is necessary.
When I made this five-ingredient low sugar lemon pudding recipe, I wanted the pudding mixture to be thick and sugar free. However, I was using almond milk to make the lemon pudding. It seemed like I had made pudding with almond milk but couldn’t remember how I made it.
I looked on the Internet for pudding recipes that included almond milk. Every one I found required cornstarch for thickening. There was a problem though.
Previously, I had cleaned, painted, and reorganized my pantry and couldn’t find my cornstarch. Apparently, I had thrown it in the trash.
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Can pudding made with almond milk thicken without cornstarch?
Determined to make my lemon pudding, I found that pudding with almond milk can thicken without cornstarch. At first, it looked a little bit jiggly.
I whisked together the lemon pudding mix and almond milk until smooth. And no, it didn’t look as thick as I wanted but was creamy and tasted delicious.
Once the lemon pudding was mixed, I added wafers and let it set in the fridge overnight. The next day the pudding looked looked like it should look (thickened and not jiggly at all like the night before).
To make this five-ingredient lemon pudding, you’ll need Nabisco mini Nilla wafers or the larger Nilla wafers like this:
And you’ll need lemon pudding mix that you can get the grocery store or order on Amazon:
Why Use Almond Milk in Pudding?
Almond milk is lower in sugar than regular milk. My husband and I follow a low-sugar eating lifestyle. We both experienced the diabetic borderline but work at keeping the sugar under control.
I do love sweets, though, so I make desserts and bread with low sugar or sugar alternatives.
Trying to Cut Back on Sugar
If you are trying to cut back on sugar but love to eat desserts, I know how you feel. When I was younger, I wasn’t so concerned about watching sugar content in foods.
Keep a Sugar-Free or Low-Sugar Dessert Cookbook on Hand
It’s nice to keep a sugar-free or low-sugar dessert cookbook on hand in the kitchen. Here are a few good ones:
This first cookbook has good reviews and is in my Amazon cart to order. I like that the author has a diabetic family connection and includes recipes with alternative sweeteners. Diabetes Desserts Cookbook would be a good gift for prediabetics, diabetics, and anyone trying to keep carbs and sugars low.
Naturally Sweet is for the person wanting to cut back on sugar and use natural sweeteners. Very good reviews.
This third cookbook, The Easy Diabetes Cookbook, is worth taking a look at. Though it isn’t just about desserts, it could be a good cookbook for individuals wanting to balance blood sugars. A lot of nice reviews, too.
Perhaps you prefer a different flavor than lemon. Change the flavor to one that you like. I’ve added a list of ideas for more five-ingredient puddings, easy to make and low sugar.
Five-Ingredient Puddings
Use this list of five more ideas to make five-ingredient puddings:
- instant sugar-free vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers, almond milk (or lactose-free which has less sugar than 2% regular milk), sugar-free Cool Whip, fat-free cream cheese
- instant sugar-free chocolate pudding, graham crackers, almond or lactose-free milk, fat-free cream cheese, dark chocolate shavings
- instant sugar-free vanilla pudding, bananas (not too ripe/the riper the banana, the more sugar it has), Nabisco’s mini Nilla wafers, almond milk, sugar-free Cool Whip
- instant sugar-free vanilla pudding, instant sugar-free chocolate pudding, almond milk or lactose-free milk, fat-free cream cheese, graham crackers
- instant sugar-free lemon pudding, graham crackers, lactose-free milk, Cool Whip, Greek yogurt
Since I make puddings often for my family, I keep several flavors on hand. When you need them, it’s nice to already have them in the pantry rather than run to the grocery store.
There have been many times when I needed a particular sugar-free pudding flavor but couldn’t find it at the store. But you can find several flavors on Amazon:
Butterscotch is a good one to have for holidays:
One box of pistachio…
or multiple boxes of pistachio:
How about chocolate fudge for the holidays?
The puddings shown from Amazon above are the sugar-free kind, but you can order the regular if you don’t need sugar-free.
Add a Low-Sugar Dessert to Your Holiday Menu
Add a low-sugar dessert to your holiday menu. The nice thing about preparing instant puddings is that it doesn’t take long to whip up. So keep that in mind for any diabetics or individuals on a low-carb diet.
When the turkey is baking and side dishes are cooking on the stove, mixing a quick pudding won’t take long. Go ahead and make the rich desserts. But those who are being careful about carbs and sugars will appreciate you thinking of them with a low-sugar dessert.
5 Ingredient Low Sugar Lemon Pudding with Almond Milk
low-sugar lemon pudding with almond milk
Ingredients
- 1 1-oz box Sugar Free Fat Free Lemon Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
- 2 cups Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 container Lite Cool Whip
- 50 Mini Nilla Wafers approximate amount
Instructions
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Mix the pudding filling and almond milk with a wire whisk for about 2 minutes.
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Stir in the vanilla extract.
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Mix in the Cool Whip.
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Line the bottom of a 9"x7" or small square dish with the mini wafers.
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Pour the pudding mixture over the wafers.
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Crush approximately 1 cup of the wafers and sprinkle them all over the top of the pudding.
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Place mini wafers all along the edges of the dish, barely placing them into the pudding.
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Cover the dish and put the pudding into the fridge overnight (for thicker pudding) or serve as is (soft set).
Recipe Notes
The calories are estimated. Although the serving size is 1 cup, sometimes I only ate a half serving to cut calories. In that case, it would be about 50 calories. Hint: It helps to cut calories by serving the pudding in a small cup rather than a bowl (you eat less).
You can mix the pudding with an electric hand mixer.
If you want to find more recipe ideas for the holidays, check out Full Plate Thursday.
You’ll find many different and delicious-looking recipes each week at Miz Helen’s Full Plate Thursday.
Next Time I Make Lemon Pudding
The next time I make lemon pudding, I’ll make it just like this recipe but with vanilla Greek yogurt. When I was enjoying a serving of the pudding, I thought, “I should have added cream cheese.” I even looked in the fridge to see if I had any on hand, but I didn’t.
However, I did have vanilla Greek yogurt. I mixed a teaspoon of the yogurt into my serving of pudding. It actually gave it a tangy taste, kind of like adding lemon juice.
So next time, I’ll add vanilla Greek yogurt to the lemon pudding.
Lemon and Vanilla Puddings
If you like lemon and vanilla puddings, how about mixing them together?
This Strawberry Lemon Vanilla Pudding recipe is easy to adapt to low sugar by using sugar-free pudding mixes. You can also use Sugar-Free Cool Whip.
You can also use lactose-free milk instead of regular or 2% milk. I often use the HEB brand of lactaid milk bec ause it has less sugar.
My aunt used to make a lemon pie using vanilla wafers and all of us loved it. Thanks for bringing back good memories with this recipe. I can’t wait to try it.