I’ve seen a few renditions of chocolate mousse made with avocado.

And it’s the perfect substitute to traditional chocolate mousse, since it’s dairy and egg free, and full of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats from the avocado.

Recipe

Serves 4 | Prep time 5 minutes | dairy free, gluten-free, vegan, paleo friendly

• 2 medium (or 1½ large) ripe avocados
• 1 small (1/2 large) banana
• 1/3–1/2 cup cocoa/raw cacao powder
• ¼ cup pure maple syrup
• 2 tbsp nut/coconut milk or coconut water
• 1 tsp vanilla powder/essence
• pinch Himalayan/Celtic salt

Add all ingredients to a high-powered blender/processor, and process until smooth and silky.

Use the higher amount of cocoa/cacao powder if you’d like it chocolatier. If you do this, you may need to increase the amount of maple syrup to balance the bitterness.

Refrigerate leftovers (if you have any!) in an airtight dish for up to 3 days.

Serving ideas

Serve as is, or sprinkle some nuts or cacao nibs for texture. It’ll go well with fresh berries in summer.

You can also use it as a filling to make individual mousse tarts, using a bliss ball mixture to make the base, or use this ‘cheesecake’ base to make the tart shell.

And to use it as a cake/muffin icing, add a little melted coconut oil/cacao butter/dark chocolate, so that it becomes firmer

Variations

• sans banana — the banana helps to make the mousse lighter. If you’d rather not have any banana, just add another 2 tablespoons nut/coconut milk or water. You may need to add a touch more maple syrup too
• different sweetener — try 4 fresh medjool dates, ¼ cup honey, or some stevia (only use stevia if you need it to be sugar-free)
• jaffa — follow the sans banana variation, but replace the milk with freshly squeezed orange juice and a few drops of pure orange essence oil
• choc-mint — follow the sans banana variation, and add a few drops of pure mint essence oil
• choc-chilli — follow the sans banana variation, and add ¼ – ½ tsp cayenne pepper