Introduction
Alright, I know: vegan mousse? But, it’s high-protein, sweetened by fruit, and pretty tasty (in my estimation). This recipe is more of a pudding than a mousse, but I like the idea of calling it a vegan mousse. Someone forwarded me a video of a four-ingredient chocolate mousse [1]. This video did not give the provenance of the dish and I could not figure out if this recipe was original or taken from somewhere else. (If you know, please tell me!) I tried it, it was pretty good, but I had to futz with the quantities and the process a bit. What follows in my version of the recipe.
Ingredients and Supplies
- 1 block of medium firm tofu, 14–16 oz. (I think this provides texture?)
- 1/4 cup of cocoa powder (I should have weighed this, but I didn’t)
- 1 cup of almond milk
- 10 medjool dates (sweetens and thickens the mousse)
You’ll need a blender and a refrigerator.
Instructions
- Drain the tofu, but do not dehyrdate it, press it, or otherwise remove water.
- Warm the almond milk and mix the cocoa powder into it.
- Pit the dates (cut them in half, remove the seed, and remove any stem) and roughly chop them.
- Blend the tofu, cocoa powder, and almond milk-chocolate mixture for 2–3 minutes.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
Adjustments and Prior Art
I’ve tried the recipe as-is and it tastes good to me: not too sweet and not powder-y. But, I’m sure you could swap out the almond milk for something else and perhaps starting with a different form of chocolate would also work.
I tried searching for this recipe and found a delightful array of variations under both mousse [2, 3, 4, 5] and pudding [6, 7]. Interestingly, all of them called for silken tofu, but the medium firm tofu seemed to work well for me. Many recipes called for sweeteners, rather than sweetening with dates, and some also added other sources of chocolate like using vegan chocolate chips.
Personally, I am a big fan of berries (blue, rasp, straw, or otherwise) and they are a tasy topping for this mousse.
Tips from Friends
My friend, Jess—a brilliant engineer by profession, and it shows—made the bold decision to try this recipe. She is a committed vegan1 and she experimented with her own prepartion of this dish. She tried using an immersion blender2. My hypothesis was that an immersion blender would give a better texture but, alas, it did not. But, still, a glowing review:
It’s still yummy and fun that it’s a chunk of protein
She also ended up using proportionally more tofu than the rest of the ingredients and that seemed, at least to her taste, to be suboptimal. I abhor saccarine desserts and adding too much chocolate can make the mousse taste chalky (I found out the hard way); therefore, I erred on the side of less sweet and less cocoa-y. But apparently, the ratio listed in the ingredients, is reasonable.