Vegan Chocolate Mousse [Recipe]

I know what you’re thinking. Hmmm isn’t ‘vegan’ code for ‘healthy’ which is code for ‘tastes like crap’?! Well you’d be wrong on both counts. Vegan isn’t always healthy, swedish fish are vegan but other than calories and energy, they’re not exactly giving you a lot of nutrition – shhh don’t tell Jason I said that! And vegan food is certainly far from tasteless, I had one of the juiciest burgers of my life at Smorgasburg in Brooklyn from Chickpea & Olive. Behold!

Seriously, if you’re in the Brooklyn area you HAVE to taste this entirely plant-based, beet burger. If only I had a vegan chef in my kitchen to balance all my macros and make delicious flavorful meals like this, I’d be vegan in a heartbeat! 🙂

I stumbled across this chocolate mousse recipe from Its Not So Easy Eating Green, whilst I was trying to get ahead and think of something decadent I could make for Valentine’s Day. I wanted something that wouldn’t completely destroy our macros and that was also relatively clean. Since Jay got back from Greece he’s been doing his utmost to stay 80/20 with his diet and keep processed foods to a minimum. He’s also watching his intake of dairy. So when I came across this dessert it sounded like it would fit the bill perfectly! After some research and recipe tweaking, I was happy with how easily I was able to reduce the macros.

So now that I’ve peaked your interest, I hope you trust me when I tell you that you won’t be disappointed when you make this! I’ve managed to cut this usually macro-dense dessert down by 300 calories and slashed the fat and carb content by half when compared to Sur La Table’s Dark Chocolate Mousse creation.

I was so happy with how these turned out! I was a little worried that the reduced fat coconut milk may not achieve the desired consistency but after a night’s chilling in the fridge they came out perfectly and super tasty!

The best thing about them is that they require very few ingredients. Check it out!

Ingredients

• 14 oz can reduced fat coconut milk – place in the fridge overnight
• ¼ cup hersheys cocoa powder
• 6 tbsp pyure all-purpose blend sweetener or Splenda.
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 4 oz. Green & Black’s 70% dark chocolate, chopped fine

Method

1. Make sure your can of coconut milk has been in the fridge overnight and is upside down. This will help to solidify the fat and separate the water (note there may not be a big difference if your coconut milk is very low in fat. Don’t worry it will still thicken up after whisking and chilling later on). Open it from the bottom, most of the water should be at the top and the coconut cream should be underneath. Drain or scoop the water off the top.
2. Pour the coconut milk into a saucepan over medium heat and add the cocoa powder, sweetener and salt.
3. Stir until the cocoa and sweetener have dissolved into the milk. Bring to a simmer and then remove from the heat.
4. Add the vanilla and chopped chocolate and stir until all the chocolate has melted.
5. Transfer to a shallow pan or bowl and refrigerate until completely firm and cold. Roughly 6 hours.
6. When the mixture is completely chilled transfer it to the bowl of a mixer (or a regular bowl and use a handheld mixer).
7. Beat the mixture on high until lighter in color and volume is increased by 30%. About 3-5 minutes.
8. Spoon the mixture into small soufflé dishes or ramekins and cover with a small piece of wrap.
9. Return to the fridge and chill for at least 4 hours. Serve cold as is or with some fresh mixed berries.

I made 6 little desserts out of my mixture each weighing 75g. Yours might differ a little – I’m not gonna lie, there was a decent amount of mousse left in the bowl for me to lick! 🙂

Enjoy!