When Sandy Awari messaged me about participating in the 2013 Avocados From Mexico blogger campaign, I knew that I wanted to make something different – but what? I happened to mention my challenge at our last book club meeting and found exactly the different I was looking for…
Friends of ours, whom I love to cook for, have chosen to eat vegan. For a fearless foodie like myself, I can’t imagine having to spend every day trying to avoid so many of the foods I love. Nonetheless, to honour their courageous journey, I invited them to dinner then set about trying to figure out what to serve. I stood in the produce department of our local grocery store and spun in circles. It’s easy to prepare fruit and vegetables but try doing it without the luxury of adding eggs, cream or cheese.
After a few runs up and down the veg aisles, I decided on starting with Mexican appetizers then moving on to a fresh baby artichoke risotto complete with a vegetable stock and no parmigiana. Once all that was decided, all was well because my friend Brenda Stanley, book club hostess extraordinaire had given me her avocado chocolate pudding recipe.
Knowing that the pudding needed to be vegan, I made a few adjustments and created Vegan Chocolate Mousse using only ripe avocados, maple syrup and Dutch processed cocoa. I did cheat a little for the photographs by adding a plop of whipped cream and a bit of nougat. This is art after all!
Vegan Chocolate Mousse
adapted from my friend Brenda Stanley’s recipe
Serves 4
2 ripe avocados from Mexico, peeled and pitted
¼ cup maple syrup
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Put avocados in food processor chop.
Add maple syrup, cocoa powder and vanilla extract and process until smooth.
Chill then serve.
THE LOVE: Make sure the avocados are really ripe!
one year ago: lemon thyme ice cream
two years ago: vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sauce
Thanks for reading.
