Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse
If you love desserts, and chocolate desserts especially, but were afraid you'd have to give them up in order to eat healthier, rejoice! It turns out that in the uber-healthy world of raw food, desserts are some of the easiest and most delicious dishes to make. And if you have a special relationship with chocolate, you'll be delighted to know that organic raw chocolate is not just good for you. It's a superfood! It's that good for you!
Organic raw chocolate, also known as raw cacao, is higher in magnesium than any other food on the planet. Magnesium is the number one mineral deficiency in the world. Raw cacao is also the #1 source of antioxidants, iron and chromium. So if you're a chocolate lover just trade the commercial, processed chocolate for raw organic cacao. Then trade in the guilt for the satisfaction and joy of knowing you're eating one of the healthiest foods on the planet. Yes, there is a god!Okay, so if you're new to raw cacao it comes in a few different forms. There are whole beans, broken bits of bean called nibs, cacao powder, and cacao licqor (no it's not alcoholic) which is made from beans that have been ground into a paste which hardens into something like a block of chocolate. They are all good for you. The cacao powder is convenient, but it has the cacao butter removed, so you are losing that healthy fat. The nibs, beans and licqor (if grated or cut into small pieces) can all be ground down into a powder in a coffee grinder, so I usually buy the nibs or licqor.
Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
1 ripe banana, peeled (can use a frozen banana if you want a chilled version)
2 tbsp sweeter (honey, agave syrup, soaked pitted medjool dates)
5 tbsp raw organic cacao powder or ground organic raw cacao nibs
1/2 tsp natural vanilla (extract or vanilla bean powder)
1 tsp maca powder (optional)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
dash of Himalayan sea salt
Instructions:
Add all the ingredients to your blender and blend until smooth and creamy. You can add a little water, if necessary to keep the ingredients moving so they blend thoroughly. If you used soaked dates as your sweetener, add the soak water.
Serve immediately.
Makes 2 servings… if you can share 😉
Hi Cheryl, you are right. Raw chocolate is very un-sweet. It’s like dark chocolate, which I’ve never liked. But you can add as much sweetener as you like to get it to the point where it tastes good to you. Both agave syrup and honey are more sweet than sugar in a nice way. So it doesn’t take too much, in fact this is my actual recipe with the amounts I used to taste good to me, and I was a real milk chocolate girl.
The banana also adds some sweetness. The avocado adds the thick, creamy richness, but the oils in the avocado also seem to cut down on the bitterness a bit. I will be putting up a recipe soon for raw chocolates, and I use coconut oil is that, which has a similar effect as the avocado. And maca adds a nice malty sweetness to it as well.
I actually think that processed dark chocolate is more bitter than raw chocolate. I think something about the processing of commercial chocolate adds a bitterness to it.
Thanks for the delicious recipe! Yum! Here is a good article about the nutritional content of cacao (truly a SUPERfood!): http://greentidings.blogspot.com/search/label/Iron%20Deficient%3F%20%20Forget%20Beef–Eat%20Some%20Chocolate
Hey Jenny, thank you! Great article you linked to, love the title! Some people think it’s hard getting their kids to eat healthy? Imagine if we just asked kids, which would you rather have for dinner? (You’ve got to click on the link in Jenny’s comment to get my drift).
I still have to figure out when I can give my son (13.5 months old) cacao. I imagine anytime, since he eats ground nuts now.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an age limit with cacao, but that’s not to say there isn’t one. I know there is with honey, you shouldn’t give it to young children. If you do find out about giving cacao to children can you let me know? If you do a post on it send me a link 🙂 thanks!
I actually gave him raw cacao soon after that- right around 14 months. He loves it, and has never had any reactions from it. He also loves chlorella tablets and dried goji berries. 🙂
interesting stuff i will have to try it out
I love your recipe! Made it this weekend for our vegan meetup group and EVERYONE loved it. You should be getting some new visitors to your site soon!
Here is where we usually go for raw vegan food, but we also hold meetups in our house, which in my opinion are more fun!
Have a healthy day!
Charlot 🙂
Charlot that’s great! Thanks so much for posting back and letting me know. It’s funny because I was just thinking of making this last night after seeing how many beautiful ripe avocados I have in the fridge and realizing I had bananas and cocoa powder too. Unfortunately I don’t have any raw cacao powder, so it will just have to be mostly-raw vegan chocolate mousse, but it will still be beautiful. I love avocado season! I’m hoping I can get a better photo this time, the one I’ve got now just doesn’t do it justice.
Thank you so much!
I have just made this today, as I have been meaning to make raw chocolate mousse for a while. Your recipe was the one that stuck out for me today, so I have adapted it in my own way, and even made a post about it.
A very Happy New Year to you.
Your website is very helpful.
Love
Ana
Thank you Ana! Your photo is much, much better than mine! Far more appetizing looking too. I like how you used the dates for sweetness. Looks like you have some beautiful recipes on your site too. I’m following it through facebook, and I’ll be back to read more 🙂
This recipe totally kicks my four-ingredient vegan chocolate mousse in the butt. http://www.carenbaginski.com/easy-vegan-chocolate-mousse-recipe/
Thanks for sharing! I would never have thought of maca powder in a mousse.
Ahhh Yay, so excited to make this!
Just curious, if I wanted to put it in the the fridge to keep it chilled/set it, would that be possible? Or would the avocado start to go funny?
Hi Georgia, I put mine in the fridge. It will be fine if you eat it that day. I think I have actually had some left over the next day once and it was still okay. It is yummy, enjoy it!
I just made this and it was delicious. Thank you.