A vegan chocolate mousse (eggless)
Hello everyone! On this Valentine's Day, I'm proposing a stunning recipe that's super simple, vegan, gluten-free and requires only 2 ingredients: chocolate and chickpea juice. 10 minutes of prep and a little over an hour of chilling and boom: a vegan chickpea chocolate mousse for tonight's dinner!
Well ok, for the purists it's not technically vegan because my chocolate may contain traces of milk. I looked for vegan chocolate but couldn't find any, even in organic stores. But given the (potential) quantity of milk, let's agree to give it the vegan label, right? Especially since what we're really interested in here is mainly the chickpea juice.
What is aquafaba?
Well behind this funny term hides simply the juice of legumes (chickpeas, lentils...). It's a slightly sticky liquid, made up of water and albumin just like in an egg. And so when you whip it vigorously, it rises exactly like egg whites (for the curious, I'll let you check the Wikipedia page on aquafaba.
It's a technique that's starting to become more common. It's used extensively in vegan pastries or for those with egg intolerances. It's quite simple to do because you can simply use the juice from a can of chickpeas like the ones lying around in your cabinets.
You can also choose to buy your dried vegetables and soak them all night in water. You then need to reduce the juice in a pan to get aquafaba (but it's a bit more complicated).
Does whisking chickpea juice into peaks really work?
Yes it does! I had heard a lot about it but I had never tried it. I have to admit I was unsure of myself when I started whisking. But actually it works really well! You have to be a bit more patient than with eggs but it's amazing. By the way, you can admire the bowl of the Titanium food processor that Kenwood lent me for a test, I'll give you a full report soon.
The chocolate
For the rest of the recipe, nothing really complicated. You melt the chocolate slowly in the microwave or in a double boiler. You need to let it cool slightly.
Then, you just have to add the whipped aquafaba and bam! A little chocolate mousse with only 2 ingredients and no added sugar.
But does it taste like chickpeas?
Well no! In this chickpea chocolate mousse, you absolutely don't taste the chickpea flavor! It's really the chocolate that stands out. It appears that in meringues (yes because aquafaba can be cooked too), you can taste it a little. But it remains very subtle.
And what's the texture like in this chickpea chocolate mousse?
The texture is a bit different from a classic chocolate mousse. Denser. With the quantities I was able to make 6 mini glasses and that's enough. You can possibly make 4 slightly larger glasses but the chocolate really packs a punch so prefer rather small quantities. But this chickpea chocolate mousse is really amazing and I'll make it often. No sugar, no butter... in terms of calories it's rather a good point.
All that's left for me is to find a solution to find a light equivalent for chocolate ^^. But in the meantime, you can also check out my recipe for white chocolate mousse or tea chocolate mousse
Chickpea Chocolate Mousse
