Chocolate Mousse - with a secret ingredient (V)

With Valentine’s Day on everyone’s mind, there's sometimes the desire to overindulge in sweet foods. So, to keep January's healthiness going, we wanted to create a recipe that was tasty treat, but with a healthy balance. This recipe is vegan and easy to make and can be adapted with your favourite fruit - we've added some recommendations below. It's so easy and so healthy, your partner or Galentine's, or whoever you'll be sharing it with will be super impressed and if you didn't tell them the superfood secret ingredient was in it, they'd never guess. 

Ingredients:

120g of dark chocolate (cut into chunks or chocolate chips)

2 large ripe avocados (the secret ingredient!)

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla essence 

1 tablespoon maple syrup

pinch of salt

To serve: raspberries, blueberries or strawberries, whipped vegan cream, chopped pistachios or nuts of choice, chocolate curls or chopped chocolate flakes.

Steps:

1. Place the chocolate in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave in short bursts (15-30 secs) stirring between each, until fully melted and stir until smooth. Set aside until cooled. 
2. Remove the stones from the avocados and place the flesh from the avocado along with the cooled melted chocolate, cocoa powder, vanilla essence, maple syrup and salt into a food processor.
3. Whizz in the processor until smooth, you may need to scrape down the sides with a spatula to get everything mixed in. 
4. Taste and add more maple syrup if you prefer a slightly sweeter taste.
5. To make the chocolate swirls - take your bar of dark chocolate and with a sharp grater, grate along an edge of the bar to create a curl shaving or alternatively, chop from the edges to create shards of chocolate to sprinkle on top. 
6. To Scoop a tablespoon amount into your dessert glass, or ramekin and then layer with the whipped cream, fruit of choice and then repeat with a chocolate mousse layer. You should have two layers of chocolate (one at the top and bottom and one cream layer in the middle. You can top the chocolate layer with a spoon of cream or pipe on to make it a little more fancy.
7. Finish with a sprinkle of chopped nuts and place your chocolate swirls on top. 
8. Eat straight away or store in the fridge until later.