Sabyasachi's Walnut Avocado Chocolate Mousse

Give the chocolate mousse a healthy upgrade! Add walnuts and avocados, yes avocados. Walnuts and avocados provide an excellent combination of good fats.

Chef Sabyasachi Gorai 's easy-to-make Walnut Avocado Mousse has super-healthy ingredients and is a tasty mousse for all diets.

Walnut Avocado Mousse

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 1½ cups walnut butter (please see the note below)
• 3 tbsp sweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
• Honey, fresh berries and chopped glazed walnuts, optional

Method

• Puree the walnut butter, cocoa powder, honey, vanilla, and avocado in a blender/food processor until smooth.
  Spoon into small, preferably dainty, bowls.
  Drizzle with honey and garnish with berries and glazed walnuts.

Note: For the walnut butter, blend 1½ cups walnuts along with a pinch of salt for 3-4 minutes until the mixture becomes a creamy paste. There is no need to add water.
You may prefer to roast the walnuts beforehand.

Consider making an additional quanity of walnut butter and store in a tightly lidded container in the refrigerator for use as a healthy spread.

Those on a diabetic diet should swap the sweetened cocoa powder for unsweetened cocoa powder and use stevia instead of honey. Each brand of stevia has its own stevia for sugar substitution ratio provided on its packing.

The avocado, which is a berry botanically, is a very versatile nutritious fruit and is a lovely addition in both sweet and savoury items, be it jams, milkshakes, juices or sandwiches, salads and tortillas.

Finding an avocado that is just ripe enough is a challenge. A well-stocked vegetable vendor is your most reliable bet. It is always best to buy an already-ripened avocado or ready avocado, but not an over-ripe one. If you can, choose it yourself.

A ready avocado -- check it by giving it a light squeeze -- should be firm but not over-firm and not too soft either. This diagram (external link) is helpful.
Do not buy hard avocados. If you buy an unripened one, chances are it will never ripen because the vendor or grocery store probably stored it in the fridge.

A good avocado, especially a black-skinned one, is usually expensive, but gourmet grocery stores and online stores often sell highly overpriced ones of poor quality.
Store a totally ready avocado in the fridge and use soon.
If still not soft enough, ripen one more day wrapped in paper. When it is cut open, if it has a few brown dots, remove those.

Chef Sabyasachi Gorai is a consultant chef and mentor.

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