Delicious VEGAN chocolate mousse - packing a secret antioxidant punch!

The year before last we attended a GREEN Tasting evening. Everything was organic, from the coffee to the meat to the cheese to the wine - even the packaging! It was a wonderful evening hosted by The Big Green Directory, and we were amazed at the range of GREEN options available, not to mention how reasonably priced everything was.

Our favourite items that evening were the Moroccan Lamb sausage from Hope Meats (also available on Saturday mornings from our farmers' market. Brilliant!), and the chocolate mousse. Well, naturally.

The reasons we loved loved loved this mousse were:

• It's packed full of antioxidants (from the cocoa and the secret ingredient).
• It's vegan (we're not, but we're sympathisers. As long as there's biltong, I'll never be vegan).
• It's free of bad fats and full of good ones.
• It tastes AMAZING.
• You don't have to stop eating it for any reason - except the clang of the bottom of the bowl hitting your teeth, of course!

So, without further ado, and with permission from the incredibly clever and inspired Rolene of RAWLean, here's the solution to your chocolate cravings:

RAWLean's Delicious Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe avocados
• ½ cup organic raw cacao powder (most health stores will have this)
• ¼ cup agave nectar (check sweetness to taste)
• ½ vanilla pod or 2tbs vanilla extract
• 1tbs coconut oil
• Seasonal berries

Method: 

Blend all ingredients in a food blender until smooth. Allow to set in the fridge for one hour. Serve in a wine glass with seasonal berries for garnish.

FUDGE!

We LOVE Chocolate-Covered Katie. Pretty much everything on her blog is awesome and we've tried all of it! Well, all the things we're allowed, anyway. An Aunty Em permanent favourite is the vegan sugar-free chocolate fudge. Ever since we started down the gluten-free/dairy-free/sugar-free road we've tried to create a substitute for fudge, one of the few things we could never replicate. However, thanks to Chocolate-Covered Katie we now have the perfect solution with the added virtues of good health and veganism (selective, you understand).

 We've been battling to get the coconut butter in this recipe perfect, but today we had a major breakthrough (which I will post about tomorrow). The result was awesome, delicious, smooth fudgey heaven!

Chocolate-Covered Katie's Sugar-free Vegan Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp coconut butter (see tomorrow's post)
• 1/2 a large very ripe banana
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder*
• 2 tbsp honey* (or to taste)

Method

1. Make sure your coconut butter is melted before use. (Freshly home-made coconut butter is smooth and soft already but sets if left for a while). 
2. Combine all ingredients in a small blender (or double the recipe for a bigger blender).
3. Smooth the fudge into a plastic container or chocolate molds. (Katie says plastic containers work well because it's so easy to pop the fudge out once it's set).
4. Refrigerate until set, then cut up and serve (or gobble!).

Yummmm .....

* Always, wherever possible, use pure, raw organic ingredients.

Coconut Flour Brownies

These brownies are cakey and delicious - hard to stop eating! I'm sure they'd be great with the marshmallow frosting, too.

Coconut Flour Brownies

Ingredients

• 1 cup of dessicated coconut
• 4 eggs
• 2 bananas
• 1tsp vanilla extract (NOT essence)
• 3 tbsp honey (or more, to taste)
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tbsp lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp cocoa (or more, to taste)

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C.
2. Lightly toast the coconut until just golden.
3. Blend the toasted coconut until very fine.
4. Grease and line a square baking tin (the baking paper is important, otherwise it sticks).
5. Blend all the ingredients except the lemon juice/vinegar in the blender until smooth.
6. Add the vinegar/lemon juice and blend some more.
7. Pour the mixture into the baking tray and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes, just until a skewer comes out clean. These should be a little moist.
8. Cool slightly then chop into squares and serve.