NOAH'S ARK PUDDING: HEALTHY, LOW CALORIE AND VEGAN! EVEN GLUTEN FREE!

If you visit Turkey you will come across a very special dessert called Noah’s ark pudding. Noah’s pudding is a mouth watering, low calorie vegan dessert made from healthy ingridients such as dried fruits, legumes and whole grain wheat that are sweetened with brown sugar and fruit juiced and cooked all together in one pot. The pudding is traditionally made with apricots, raisins, figs, walnuts, hazelnuts, chick peas, cannellini beans(white beans) to name just a few of the ingredients that bring all the great flavors of the pudding. Some cooks prefer to add chestnuts, lima beans, bulgur wheat and flaked coconut. I love to add fresh pomegranate and even corn kernels to mine, almost anything goes.

The great part of this recipe is that it is so adaptable. The original recipes calls for wheat grains as the main ingredient, but you can make the GLUTEN-FREE version by using oat groats instead. You can also use pearled barley or even quinoa. You can really substitute a lot of the ingredients for whatever you have in your pantry. I've been dieting for a couple of weeks now and have been craving dessert and this is what i'll probably be eating for a while. I have Celiac and have been trying to stay Gluten-Free by juicing and it's great that I can do a Gluten-free version of this pudding.

In modern Turkish culture, month long festivities center on promoting friendship, good relations between neighbors and universal peace and understanding. This traditional dish is prepared during this month known as Noah’s pudding. It is meant to symbolize the celebratory meal Noah made when he was on the Ark. Noah’s pudding, like many other Turkish dishes has its own story behind it. Turkish legend has it that the first version of the pudding was made by Noah himself. After weeks on the ark, the waters began to recede and food stocks started to run out, Noah threw in everything that he had left in one pot and thats how the pudding was derived. The pudding kept him and the passengers alive until the ark finally rested on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey. This pudding it believed to be the oldest dessert in the world. For those who don’t know the story:

There came a time when there was only one good man in all the world, and his name was Noah. Everybody else was bad. God wanted to start over fresh. So He told Noah to build an ark. And Noah did. God told Noah to fill the animals—two of every kind. And Noah did. Noah went aboard too.

Then God made the rain come down. It rained and rained, until there was a great flood that covered the world. Only those who were in the ark were safe and dry. Everybody else was drowned. Then God made the sun shine and dry up the rain. Everyone in the ark came out. Noah said: “Look! God has sent us a sign in the sky. It means that He will never flood the world again.” The sign in the sky was the very first rainbow. 

NOAH'S ARK PUDDING 

(Makes 10 servings)

Prep Time: 60 minutes Cook Time: 60 minutes

Total Time: 120 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups uncooked whole grain wheat, barley or quinoa (Oat groats for Gluten-free)
• 1 ½ cups canned chick peas, rinsed and drained
• 1 ½ cups canned white beans(cannellini), rinsed and drained
• 3 tbsp. raisans
• 8 dried apricots, cut in chunks
• 8 dried figs, cut in chunks
• 3 cups sugar (brown sugar or vanilla sugar)
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• zest of 1 orange optional
• zest of 1 lemon optional
• walnuts(optional)
• hazelnuts(optional)
• pomegranate seeds(optional)
• ground cinnamon(optional)

PREPARATION

1. The night before, put the wheat or barley in a large pot and cover it with plenty of water. Bring it to a boil, cover and reduce the heat. Allow it boil gently for about ten minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the grain to cool and soak overnight.
2. The next morning, the grain should have absorbed most, if not all the liquid. Add the chick peas, beans, dried fruits, sugar and orange and lemon zest.
3. Add more water to just cover the ingredients, if needed. Bring the mixture to a boil. Stir the mixture gently with a wooden spoon as it cooks until it thickens. Remove it from the heat and fill dessert bowls or a large serving bowl with the pudding.
4. Once it cools down and sets, cover and refrigerate it for several hours. Before serving, it is optional but you can garnish the pudding to taste with fresh pomegranate seeds, coconut flakes, finely chopped dried fruits, walnuts, hazelnuts and ground cinnamon.
5. Some prefer their pudding more watery, some prefer it stiffer. If you prefer a stiffer pudding, add a teaspoon or two of powdered gelatin while the mixture cooks. This will give you a firmer pudding once it cools down.

Put them in mason jars and share this wonderful dessert with your family and friends!