Love is in the air…

Tags

Chocolate, chocolate mousse, dairy-free, dessert, Food photography, protein, tofu, Valentines Day, Vegan, Vegan Recipe Club, Vegetarian, Vegetarian Recipe Club, Viva!

… and so is the smell of chocolate in my house! With Valentine’s Day just round the corner this rich, indulgent chocolate mousse is the perfect dessert treat for two! But it’s so good that you might not even want to share this with anybody else!

Last week I worked on a fabulous commission for Viva!, the largest vegetarian and vegan organisation in Europe. I have always had a soft spot for this passionate campaign group from Bristol, as they were one of my very first clients. Without their support in the early days and regular commissions, who knows if I would still be photographing food today. Scroll right down on my page of published articles to see these very early beginnings. Haven’t photography styles changed!

Viva! produces a large number of guides on all things animal-free, health, nutrition and diet. My mission was to create an updated image for the cover of their ‘How to be dairy-free’ guide. The chocolate mousse recipe is from their Vegan and Vegetarian Recipe Club and is the quickest, most indulgent way to turn tofu and chocolate into a mouth-watering treat that will make you go weak at the knees with delight. Yes really… tofu!

If anybody ever asks me again where I get my protein from I might just show them this picture!!!

Luxury Chocolate Mousse

1 pack silken tofu (approximately 350g)
150g vegan chocolate
3-4 tbsp maple or agave syrup
½ tsp vanilla extract
Pinch salt

Blend tofu and salt until completely smooth and creamy, scraping the sides of the bowl to ensure everything is blended properly.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler: Heat a couple of inches of water to boiling point in a saucepan. Turn the heat down and place a heat-proof bowl over the pan of water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the base of the pan. Now break the chocolate into chunks and place it in the bowl with the syrup and vanilla extract. Stir gently with a rubber or plastic spatula until the chocolate has completely melted.

Add the chocolate mixture to the tofu and blend again, using the spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl, as before. Taste and add more syrup if necessary and blend again. Refrigerate in individual serving dishes of your choice for an hour or so – nice shot glasses or little expresso cups look lovely.

I’ve used a piping bag for this mousse and added some dairy-free squirting cream.

Have you got a favourite tofu recipe, sweet or savoury? I bet there are some fabulous ideas out there!
Would be lovely to hear your comments. I hope you stick around for a bit and follow me on twitter or Facebook. Lots of love, Chava

Recipe from the Vegan and Vegetarian Recipe Club.
Link to Viva!’s Guides