Recipe of the Week: Vegan Lemon Mousse with Pomegranate Flair

It’s a new year and after the holidays we all swore we were going to cut back on all the heavy sweets, right?

Right. 

Still, sometimes you just can’t shake that craving for a sugary bite. Don’t worry! We have a dessert recipe for a dairy-free and gluten-free lemon mousse from Mackenzie Schieck’s Pine and Crave blog that’s creamy, refreshing and guiltless. 

“I’ve been doing this blog for about a year now, and this is easily in my top ten favorite recipes I’ve created so far. I really love the lemon flavor in the form of a velvety mousse. (The texture is beyond creamy—you would never know it’s dairy free.) And the pomegranate adds soft, berry-like bursts of flavor to each bite, while giving the presentation a little sparkle.”

Sweet, slimming and stunning? What’s not to love?

Vegan Lemon Mousse with Pomegranate Flair
Prep time: 20 min | Ready in: 2 hours 20 min
Yields: 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup cashews

1/2 cup + 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Zest from one lemon

1 14-ounce package extra-firm tofu

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 pomegranate

Directions:

1. Soak cashews in 1/2 cup lemon juice for 1 to 2 hours.

2. Remove arils from pomegranate. 

3. Use a zester to get all that yellow-y flavor off the lemon. If you don’t have a zester, you can use a potato peeler, but you’ll also want to dice it up.

4. In a blender, process soaked cashews with the lemon juice, zest (save a little bit if you’d like to use some for garnishing), tofu, brown sugar, and honey. Add extra lemon juice or non-dairy milk a little at a time if needed to get the ingredients moving around. Use as little liquid as possible, though.

5. Spoon into serving dishes, top with pomegranate arils, and refrigerate for two hours until set and chilled. NOTE: If your serving dishes have small openings, spoon the mousse into a large Ziploc, snip 1/4 inch off one corner, and pipe into the dishes.