I’m not a super fan of desserts and for that reason you may have noticed that I don’t have too many sweet things on the blog. Today’s vegan strawberry mousse will be an exception, however. Following the popularity of my easy Spanish alioli with aquafaba, I was inspired to see what else this magical ingredient can do.
I noticed that chocolate mousse with aquafaba is a popular recipe in the vegan blogger repertoire, but there is a strange dearth of mousses with fruit. Why is that? What is a mousse, after all? Just flavour (chocolate, strawberry, coffee, etc.), whipped cream and whipped egg white. It should be simple enough to replace the whipped cream with whipped coconut cream and the whipped egg white with aquafaba.
Yes, it’s almost that simple. My first attempts proved that coconut cream is too fatty to blend into fruit puree. Again, aquafaba to the rescue. Since aquafaba works as an emulsifier, mixing a little in with the coconut cream allows it to blend perfectly into the fruit puree resulting in a super creamy strawberry base. Whipped aquafaba folded into the mixture provides the airiness of a mousse. A couple hours in the fridge to set and you’ve got a super creamy, light and airy strawberry mousse!
I received quite a few questions about aquafaba after publishing the easy Spanish alioli so just to clarify:
1. Yes, you can use other types of beans.
2. Different brands of chickpeas have more or less salt and different flavours. Find a brand with a mild taste and low salt.
3. If you don’t want to use aquafaba from a can, you can make your own from the water used to boil dry beans. You may need to reduce it a little more until you reach the consistency of an egg white.
4. No, it doesn’t taste like beans or have any other weird taste. It tastes like strawberry cream. Yum!
Vegan Strawberry Mousse with Aquafaba
Light and airy vegan strawberry mousse made with the magic of aquafaba!
Ingredients
- 180 grams (6.5 oz) strawberries, plus a couple more to decorate
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- Pinch of salt
- Squeeze of lemon
- 4 tablespoons coconut cream
- 5 tablespoons aquafaba (the liquid from a can of garbanzo beans), divided
- Sweetener (sugar, agave, maple syrup, etc.), to taste
Instructions
1. To get coconut cream, put a can of full fat coconut milk in the fridge overnight. Make sure it’s a good quality coconut milk in order to be able to separate the cream (I like Aroy-D). Carefully open the can and scoop out the hardened cream. Save the water for smoothies or something else.
2. Roughly chop the strawberries in a food processor, or by hand, and place in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt for 30 minutes. Strain off the juice and transfer to a small pot. Simmer the juice over medium heat until reduced to a syrup.
3. Meanwhile, blend the strawberry pulp to a puree in a blender or food processor. If you’re anal, you can strain the seeds. Or not. Return the strawberry syrup to the puree, add a squeeze of lemon and mix well.
4. Put 2 tablespoons of aquafaba in a bowl with the coconut cream. Blend with an immersion blender or hand blender until creamy. At first the coconut cream will release a lot of liquid. Keep blending and it will come together to the consistency of whipped cream – 3 to 5 minutes.
5. One tablespoon at a time, fold the coconut cream into the strawberry puree. At this point you can taste and add sweetener to your liking. 2 teaspoons of sugar was enough for me.
6. Using the whisk attachment of your immersion blender or the balloon whisk of your stand mixer, whip the remaining 3 tablespoons of aquafaba until it has the consistency of soft peaked whipped egg whites. Gently fold into the strawberry cream mixture tablespoon by tablespoon.
7. Divide into your serving cups and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
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Jong-Hwa says
This looks amazing!! I'm looking for a vegan strawberry mousse to fill some vanilla cupcakes for my sister's birthday and this looks just like what I was thinking. However, I was wondering if you had any issues with the aquafaba separating out after some time in the fridge or will it hold together for a day or two?
Melissa says
For a day or two it should be ok. I didn't notice it separating in the fridge.
Rebecca says
This looks fabulous! Do you think it could work with raspberries instead? One of my favorite desserts before I went vegan was a raspberry mousse cake and I’ve always wanted to try to recreate it