We attended a birthday party on the weekend, and my friend Sonya, who is an AMAZING cook made a dairy-free chocolate mousse for my kids and I. Mousse is one of those things I fell in love with long before I knew I was dairy intolerant, and basically, eating it makes me think of high-school and going to my friend’s birthday parties at Sizzler:-). Mousse wasn’t one of those desserts I’d tried to convert until I tasted Sonya’s and I have to say, I am in LOVE!! I was so eager to try it again, I got the basic recipe off her and have played with the relative amounts of the ingredients myself (so when I get her actual recipe, I’ll upload that too) though I think my version came out pretty close.
Please look at the allergen information and links below for more details.
Serves: 2 Preparation time: 10 minutes + 1 hour for chilling (you can eat it as soon as it is made, but it tastes nice chilled).
Ingredients:
- 1/2 big avocado or 1 small avocado
- 1tbsp raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder – see note below)
- 1.5 tbsp agave (or you could use honey- see note below)
- 1/2 medium sized banana
- 4 juicy red strawberries
- 1 mint leaf to garnish (I didn’t eat mine, but I liked the contrast of the green with the strawberries;-)
Method
- Place avocado, cacao, banana and agave in a container (eg the one that comes with your stick blender) and blend with stick-blender until combined and smooth.
- Transfer to serving glass/ bowl and add chopped strawberries and garnish (if you wish) and chill in fridge for at least an hour.
- Eat!!!
This recipe is everything I love about whole-food cooking. It tastes fantastic, it’s quick, it is suitable for so many different people with diet restrictions, it’s packed full of nutrients with no colours, flavours or additives, whats not to love??
How to adapt this recipe
- Allergen info: This recipe is suitable for people with food intolerances to dairy, gluten, soy, egg and nuts or seeds but as some of the ingredients may contain traces of allergens you need to ensure that all the ingredients you choose suit your specific needs in order to be adapted for people with food allergies as some food allergies can be life threatening.
- Vegan/ non-vegan: if you are not vegan, and you don’t have agave in the house, you could just use honey in your mousse (honey is non-vegan as it is produced by bees). Taste wise, agave and honey are very similar. Agave is extracted from a type of cactus. If you would like to try some agave, you can either buy it in the health-food section of your local supermarket (I shop at Coles, and they have their own brand of it which is also certified organic) or your local health food shop or organic supermarket.
- For more information see the articles on: Food Allergies, Food Intolerances and Food Sensitivities which is which? and Food Labels
Happy Eating!!
