Ooh, Look...: Enigmatic Chocolate Tofu Mousse

Here’s an enigma wrapped in a riddle – decadent dark chocolate paired with healthy silken tofu. In a dessert that looks and tastes just like rich, indulgent chocolate mousse. What?? Lead me to it!

This recipe actually came about because I had a pack of silken tofu that was fast approaching its use-by date – actually, it may have been a day past, but don’t tell anyone. The other half does not really like anything that even whispers “I’m quite a healthy food, y’know”, so I had to find some way of disguising the normally placid (neé boring?) nature of the tofu before it could be served up.

Now I don’t know who came up with this idea of making Chocolate Tofu Mousse (probably not a Frenchman), but once you get over the slightly medicinal soybean-ish flavour of the ‘mousse’, it’s really quite nice. That description probably doesn’t do it justice, but suffice to say that the anti-health food nut gobbled down most of this dessert and came back asking for more. High praise indeed for food that is borderline ‘off’ (I told you not to tell anyone!)

Chocolate Tofu Mousse

serves 4

Ingredients

300g soft silken tofu

200g dark or milk chocolate, broken into pieces

1 tblsp maple syrup

½ tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Process the tofu: Put the tofu in a bowl and use a stick blender (or a normal blender) to process the tofu until it is smooth. Set aside.

2. Melt the chocolate: Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (do not let the water touch the bowl). Stir until the chocolate is melted, then let cool slightly.

3. Gently combine the tofu, chocolate, maple syrup and vanilla together until there are no streaky bits, then spoon into 4 small cups or glasses. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours, then serve.