Avocado Chocolate Mousse

In college, I was a health nut—the kind of crunchy granola gal who started each day with a green smoothie and took the time to soak psyllium husk powder for dense seed and nut loaves. I doused my food in nutritional yeast and abstained from refined sugar, choosing instead to whip up nut-and-date balls or chocolate mousse with avocados. My friends, patient as always, endured numerous dinner parties featuring grain bowls and “cheesecakes” made from cashews. Eventually, someone shook me from my stupor, I saw the light, and I have since returned to eating a more balanced diet filled with fried food and chocolate chip cookies.

But oh that avocado chocolate mousse! I may not use Bragg's as mouthwash anymore, but that is one recipe that remains firmly in my dessert repertoire, and is my go-to whenever I’m cooking for vegan friends or when I just want to eat chocolate mousse first thing in the morning—because it’s that easy.

Unlike a traditional French chocolate mousse, in which you have to melt chocolate, make a meringue, then carefully fold together the ingredients to avoid deflating the mixture, this avocado version cuts the work down to blend-and-eat simplicity and the cooking time from nearly five hours to barely five minutes. The avocados work so well because they manage to stand in for both the meringue, which makes the dessert just light enough, and the mixture of yolks, melted chocolate, and cream, which lends traditional mousse its rich flavor and texture. 

Being the miracle fruit they are, avocados provide richness, body, and silkiness—while also being whippable to a mousse-like consistency. And because they bring so much texture to the mousse, there’s no need for melting chocolate and its ample cocoa butter content. A good dose of cocoa powder is all that's needed for that deep chocolate flavor. 

Incorporating liquids like oat milk and agave syrup makes the dessert easier to blend and also helps sweeten it, which  the cocoa powder’s bitter notes (and, it's worth noting, if you're not vegan, you could just use whole milk). A little salt and vanilla bring it all together, resulting in a well-seasoned bittersweet chocolate mousse. 

If you didn’t tell people what the secret ingredient was, they likely wouldn’t be able to figure it out. My favorite party trick? Serving this mousse to everyone and revealing the surprise ingredient only after everyone’s happily eaten their dessert. It's a great game to play right before I pass around the obligatory after-dinner kale chips.