Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Vegan Chocolate Mousse?  Is that possible? I have been baking for a while now and I think I have tried a few things: I have baked cakes with so many different flours and sugars, I tried EVERY coconut product on the market and I also added funky vegetables to cakes in order to improve texture. So last week when someone told me that chickpea water (yes that bizarre liquid you discard in your sink when you open a can of chickpeas) can be whipped like egg whites I was amazed. How come Had I never heard of it?

No surprise: I went home for the weekend and I was committed to making a chocolate mousse using chickpea water for brunch. And so this vegan chocolate mousse was born. The secret is using good chocolate: sweet potatoes bring creaminess and sweetness, while chickpea water gives some fluffiness to the mousse. The result: a decadent but not too indulgent small dessert to finish a meal. Chickpea water whips pretty well, but it’s less firm than egg whites so the final texture of the mousse is a little different to a regular non-vegan mousse.

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients 

• 1 scant cup sweet potato puree (from one large sweet potato)
• 150 g (3 oz.) dark chocolate (minimum 70)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup chickpea water (from 1 can 15 oz. of chickpeas)
• 2 tbsp sugar (any)

Instructions 

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C °(F°)
2. Peel the sweet potato, pierce it with a fork and cover it with aluminium foil
3. Bake the sweet potato until tender (about 45 min/1h)
4. In the meanwhile chop the chocolate into small pieces and place it in a medium bowl
5. Smash the potatoes with a fork and mix it with the chocolate (leave 2 min aside to let the chocolate melt).
6. Add the vanilla extract and sugar, blend everything until smooth. Set aside.
7. Whip the chickpea water in the bowl of a stand mixer (it will start to look like medium-stiff whipped egg whites, however when you stop the mixer you will notice that the mixture is less firm than egg whites)
8. Now it’s time to incorporate the whipped chickpea water into the chocolate mixture. The chocolate mixture must be smooth for this step, if it has hardened in the meantime, gently warm it over a pot of hot water until smooth (but not hot!). Add a couple of tablespoons of whipped chickpea to the chocolate mixture and stir everything to soften the chocolate a bit.
9. Add the rest of the whipped chickpeas in 3 times, gently incorporating it into the chocolate with a rubber spatula (you are hoping to have the fluffier mousse possible)
10. Divide the mousse into 4 small glasses, top with chopped pistachios or any other nut. Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.