Cooking in a kitchen that isn't mine.
Hubby and I just moved to St. John's this past weekend. We're really excited about the move overall, but unfortunately we weren't able to find a house to buy over the holidays (shocker, I know) so we're temporarily living in a furnished (basement) short-term rental apartment.
I like to pretend that I'm not someone who needs a lot of stuff. And through most of the house this
To start, the appliances are ancient. The burners are glorified hot plates... If that was all though, it would be OK; they do work, it's just taking some practice to get used to the heat of them.
They're just happily living back in our old house until we have somewhere new to put them...
All of that said, obviously it's not going to keep me from cooking. Not by a long shot. You are simply going to see much fewer pictures of the food (and those you do see will be coming SOOC from my iPhone), and we're definitely going to have to make fewer things requiring good non-food materials.
So on to today's recipe!
Hubby has a major sweet tooth and his appetite will not be satisfied after dinner until he gets something desserty in him, but he also is very diet conscious so I've been working on a lot of these sorts of recipes for him. I'm very excited about this mousse because it's a powerhouse of antioxidants, healthy fats, and fibre, so there's no guilt, but it's still crazy delicious! You can top it with whatever you like; here I've used toasted walnuts and pomegranate arils to keep with the superfoods theme, but if I had my way it would be toasted coconut and caramel sauce.
I'm a little less diet conscious...
Chocolate Avocado Mousse
Inspired by How Sweet Eats
Yield: 4 x
½-cup servings
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups
prepared whipped topping*
1 very ripe
avocado
1 tbsp
coconut milk
1-2 tbsp
unsweetened dark cocoa powder (to taste)
2 tbsp honey
1 ounce dark
(at least 70%) semi-sweet chocolate, melted
½ tsp
vanilla extract
A generous
pinch of salt
½ cup walnut
pieces
½ cup
pomegranate arils
Directions:
1.
Toast walnuts in a dry pan over med-high heat;
keep a close eye on them and stir frequently. Remove from heat when desired level of toastiness is reached, and set aside to
cool.
2.
Puree avocado flesh using a mixer or food
processor on high speed; blend until creamy and smooth (you will get a smoother texture from a food processor).
3.
Add in remaining ingredients (except
pomegranate and walnuts), blending until well mixed, scraping down the sides
when needed.
4.
Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Divide
between serving dishes and top with walnuts and pomegranate arils.
5.
Add additional toppings as desired: whipped
(coconut) cream, toasted coconut, chocolate shavings or sprinkles… the mind
boggles!
*I used a DreamWhip-type of whipped topping, which I prepared with coconut milk. Now, typically I like to use as few processed foods as possible in our house; but in the effort to not increase the fat content too much here (I think the avocado has that part covered), I resorted to it... If you're OK with adding the fat, I would use either whipped cream or whipped coconut cream. If you're willing to loose some of the moussey texture in favour of keeping the fat content lower, try plain Greek yogurt or silken tofu, although I would definitely use the full 2tbsp cocoa in that case and you may need additional honey as well.
1 comment:
The sign of a good cook is being able to make good food no matter the equipment! After all you roots are of people that cooked on a wood burning stove within your mother's lifetime! Keep on cooking my little Nomad! I am going to make your mousse, it sounds delicious!
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