This vegan mousse is made with aquafaba for the most fabulous chocolate mousse texture ever! It’s light and airy and simply perfect.
This vegan mousse has the most realistic mousse texture of any vegan mousse out there. You wanna know why?
Well…it’s because of the geniuses who discovered aquafaba. I certainly had nothing to do with it, but I sure am grateful!
What they discovered is that if you take the brine (liquid) from a can of chickpeas and whip it up, adding some cream of tartar for stabilization, it looks and acts like egg whites.
As you can imagine, this created big excitement in vegan land.
I mean now you can make vegan meringues that look and taste exactly like egg white meringues.
And if chickpea water in your chocolate mousse sounds too weird, suspend your judgement for a minute, at least until you taste it, because the end result tastes nothing at all like chickpea water. And let’s just call it aquafaba as that sounds much better anyway.
This mousse is light as air! It melts in your mouth with the most delicate and wonderful mousse texture ever.
And if you love chocolate mousse then also check out our other mousse recipes, we have a vegan chocolate mousse made with dates and coconut cream that has a much more dense consistency, but is nevertheless divine. And then we have a vegan chocolate avocado mousse made with, you guessed it, avocado that is also next level delicious.
How To Make Vegan Mousse
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Open a can of chickpeas and drain the water from the can into the bowl of your electric mixer. Add cream of tartar.
- Start mixing at low speed until the mix becomes foamy.
- Gradually increase the speed to high speed and let the mixer run until your mixture has reached the stiff peak stage. This can take varying amounts of time from a few minutes up to 10 minutes or more.
- Add powdered sugar and whisk again until it’s well mixed and there are stiff peaks again.
- Melt your vegan chocolate by breaking it up into pieces and placing it into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30-second increments, bringing it out to stir every 30-seconds until it’s melted.
- Add some peppermint extract (optional) to the melted chocolate and mix it in. Let it cool down to room temperature (while still being melted).
- Fold the melted chocolate into the whipped aquafaba mix being careful to incorporate it slowly, folding it in gently.
- You will notice that the aquafaba mix collapses a little once the chocolate is mixed in, that’s totally fine. As long as you fold the chocolate in and don’t mix it too much, it will still be fine.
- Pour equal amounts of the mousse into serving glasses and place them into the coldest part of your refrigerator to set for an hour or two and then your mousse is ready to serve!
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
Chickpea Water: You should get around ¾ cup (180ml) from draining a 15 ounce (425g) can of chickpeas. If you get a little more or a little less it won’t have an impact on this recipe.
Cream of Tartar: This helps to stabilize the mix and is the same as you would use if you were whipping up egg whites.
Powdered Sugar: We use a little powdered sugar to sweeten the mix as well as the chocolate. If you are not a sweet tooth you can omit it. You can also use regular granulated sugar but if you do, then add it in slowly while the mixer is running. If you’re using powdered sugar then there is no need to do this, you can just add it in all at once and then mix again.
Vegan Chocolate: We used a high quality vegan chocolate to melt down for this recipe. Something like Lindt (they do have some dark chocolate that is vegan by ingredient) works great. Vegan chocolate chips would also work.
Peppermint Extract: This is completely optional and you can leave it out if you prefer.
How To Serve Aquafaba Mousse
You can serve it just as it is, or you can decorate it with a little vegan whipped cream and some vegan chocolate shavings.
Storing and Freezing
This keeps very well in the fridge for up to a week.
It’s actually divine after freezing though the texture does change completely and it becomes more like a delicious chocolate ice cream than a mousse. So if you want it to stay a mousse then it’s not ideal for freezing. But if you don’t mind that it will change into something else equally delicious, then you can also freeze any leftovers you have.
More Vegan Chocolate Recipes
- Vegan Chocolate Cookies
- Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Brownies
- Vegan Chocolate Sauce
- Homemade Vegan Chocolate
- Vegan Chocolate Muffins
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Mousse
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Aquafaba (180ml) Liquid from a can of chickpeas
- ¼ teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- 2 Tablespoons Powdered Sugar
- 7 ounces Vegan Chocolate (200g)
- ¼ teaspoon Peppermint Extract Optional
For Serving (Optional):
- Vegan Whipped Cream
- Vegan Chocolate Shavings
Instructions
- Open a can of chickpeas and drain the water out of the can and into the bowl of your electric mixer. It should be around ¾ cups (180ml). Add in the cream of tartar.
- Start mixing at low speed until the mix becomes foamy.
- Gradually increase the speed to high speed and let the mixer run until your mixture has reached the stiff peak stage. This can take varying amounts of time from a few minutes up to 10 minutes or more.
- Add the powdered sugar and whisk again until well mixed and there are stiff peaks again.
- Melt your vegan chocolate by breaking it up into pieces and placing it into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30-second increments, bringing it out to stir every 30-seconds until it's melted.
- Add peppermint extract (optional) to the melted chocolate and mix it in. Let the chocolate cool down to room temperature (while still being melted).
- Fold the melted chocolate into the whipped aquafaba mix being careful to incorporate it slowly, folding it in gently.
- You will notice that the aquafaba mix collapses a little once the chocolate is mixed in, don’t worry about this, it’s fine. As long as you fold the chocolate in and don’t mix too much, it will still be fine.
- Pour equal amounts of the mousse into serving glasses and place them into the coldest part of your refrigerator to set for an hour or two.
- Serve with vegan whipped cream and vegan chocolate shavings (optional).
Video
Notes
- The amount of chickpea water (aquafaba) is what you’ll get from one 15-ounce (425g) can of chickpeas. If there is a tiny bit more or less (a teaspoon or two either way) this won’t have an impact.
- This keeps very well in the fridge for up to a week.
- Nutrition information is for the mousse only and does not include whipped cream topping or chocolate shavings.
- This recipe was first published in September 2015 and has now been updated with new photos and text.
Can the sugar be left out or is it crucial to firm up the aquafaba?
Hi Petra, you can absolutely leave it out, but I find it works very well for masking any remnants of chickpea flavor. But the chocolate may be enough for that anyway. All the best! 🙂
Would this work in between cake layers or will the cake flatten the air pockets in the mousse?
I think the cake may flatten out the mousse aspects of it, it may also make the cake soggy, so I’m not sure how well it would work at all.
So good I was actually trying to make a chocolate mousse cake so I used your chocolate cake recipe for my base and this for the top then I topped that with chocolate ganache! Was a hit!
Sounds divine! Thanks for sharing Dawn!
My chocolate kind of solidified back into chocolate bits in the mousse. Are you supposed to let it cool a bit before adding the whipped Aquafina!
Hi Roslyn, this can happen if you go a little too quickly, you just have to add the chocolate in very slowly and fold it in. If you pour too fast so you can’t fold it in fast enough then this can happen. Usually it’s not something that will ruin your chocolate mousse, it will just have some hard bits of chocolate in. Hope you still enjoyed it!
Sorry to appear dense, but what is powdered sugar?
Is it what we call ‘icing sugar’?
Love the recipes, many thanks,
Mark
Hi Mark, yes it’s icing sugar! So glad you like the recipes, thank you! 🙂
Loved this, so tasty!!!!! Really really lovely consistency.
But don’t think you can make it using a Vitamix blender. I wasted 10 minutes of my life waiting for my aquafaba to be fluffy. Had almost given up when I took out the electric whisk and tried again and it was perfect in less than a minute. 🙂
I used a mint chocolate instead of adding mint extract. Next time I’ll try an orange chocolate. 🙂
Hi Martin, so glad you liked it! And thanks for sharing your experience with the blender, I’m sure it will help others to know that it will never work that way! Thanks for the great review.
Can you use any bean liquid to replace the chickpea? Just curious as just opened a can of white canellini beans.
Hi Kathleen, apparently other bean water, specifically from neutral flavored beans like white beans, can also be used, but I have to say I’ve only ever tried chickpea water, so I’m not entirely sure what differences there might be. Let us know if you try it! 🙂
I’d like to add Frangelico for a chocolate hazelnut flavour. I think I’d probably need more than 1/4 teaspoon (i.e. instead of the mint extract) to be able to taste it – do you know how much I could add without it affecting the consistency or the mousse setting? Thank you!
Hi Sam, it’s not something I’ve tried, but I would probably start with a couple of tablespoons and see how it goes in terms of flavor and setting.
Is the peppermint extract necessary or can I leave it out?
You can leave it out!
Hi Alison
I need to make Chocolate Mousse for our family lunch – do you know if this will hold if I make it the day before? (In case i fail and need to do a plan B!)
Thanks 🙂
Christmas lunch that is 🙂
Yes definitely! It lasts no problem in the fridge. And I think it’s an excellent idea to test it out first, I always do this too if I have people coming for something. 🙂
How much actual liquid do you get from the can of chickpeas? I’ve got some aquafaba sitting in the fridge from cooking my own chickpeas but i don’t know how much to use to make this recipe…
Hi Holly, it’s about 12 Tbsp or around 2/3 of a cup (180ml). 🙂
This dessert looks delicious! I haven’t made it yet because I wanted to ask if there is a certain size or amount of grams the chickpea can should be? It doesn’t have to be exact, but a rough estimate helps a lot.
Hi Alice, yes, it’s a standard 15oz (425g) can of chickpeas, I should have said, I will update the recipe. 🙂
What size can of chickpeas is used?
I used a 15 oz (425g) can.
I followed your recipe but did not get the mousse-like result at all 🙁 I just had this really foamy dessert 🙁 I used my electric mixer for over 15 minutes too until it was kind of stiff but still no luck 🙁 Any ideas?? Thank you!!
Hi! What a pity. The stiff peaks is crucial. It has to be those super stiff peaks, if it hasn’t reached that stage yet, then keep on mixing. And if it just doesn’t reach that stage even after say… 20 mins, then I would throw it out and start again with a different can of chickpeas. Could be a dud can. It happens occasionally, even when making whipped coconut cream, occasionally people report getting a dud can that just doesn’t separate. Very annoying, but it happens. The technique to beating the aquafaba is you have to start off slow and allow it to reach that foamy stage and only then increase the speed but very gradually. If you already did it like that, then I would think that it either could have gone for a bit longer or it was a dud can of chickpeas and try a different brand next time. There are a bunch of FAQ’s on the Aquafaba website which also might help.
Thank you!! Perhaps this means round 2. Going to finish off the hummus I made, thrn try agaim Cross fingers. Will let you know!!
This freaks my brain! I guess I got used to avocado chocolate mousse so I can get used to this! Now I’ll just have to try it and report back 🙂
Hahaha! Yeah you’ve just got to get your head around it, which happens surprisingly fast once you taste it! 🙂
Hello, can i use cocoa powder instead of hard chocolate?
Hi Jeff, I don’t think so. I haven’t tried it that way but my feeling is that it wouldn’t work nearly so well.
Any alternative to cream of tartar as i dont get it in india. Any homemade alternative? Just a thought, can the aquafaba without the tartar be used as a cream filling like say substitute your lemon cake. This instead of vegan butter?
If you search online there are all sorts of suggested alternatives but I’m not sure if they would work in this recipe. You can leave it out, it may just take longer to whip it and it may not be as firm. You can make a frosting from aquafaba, this recipe from Awe Filled Homemaker looks good!
OMG this is mouthwatering! I love the awesome graphics, these pics are so good, I could stare at them all day. Please keep these gorgeous recipes coming.
Thanks Karen! 🙂