This is the most bizarre thing I’ve ever done in the kitchen — I am still astounded by the transformation chickpea water undergoes after 15 minutes of intense whipping. But I would never blog about this if I didn’t also think this were not completely delicious. This vegan chocolate mousse is SO tasty, SO light, SO satisfying. It’s kind of a miracle.

Notes:

• When I cooked chickpeas with the intention of making mousse with the liquid, I didn’t do my usual brining, then cooking with seasonings method. Instead, I soaked the chickpeas overnight, then transferred them to the pot, soaking liquid and all and added a little more water to ensure they were covered by an inch or so. Then I simmered the chickpeas until they were cooked through, about 1 hour. I didn’t add any salt or seasonings. I stored the cooled chickpeas in their cooking liquid in the fridge for 2 days before I drained them, measured out 200 ml (about a cup) of aquafaba, and proceeded with the recipe.
• If you don’t care about keeping this recipe vegan, use any milk you’d like in place of the almond. I prefer Califia Farms almond milk. Most recently I made it with Oatly oat milk and loved it.
• Re chocolate and sugar: I think you need to make this once to gauge the ratio of sugar to chocolate, which will depend on the kind of chocolate you like. Every time I’ve made this, I’ve used a mix of what I’ve had on hand, all of which were in the 62%- to 70%-cacao range. In the most recent batch I used a part of a bar of Sharffen Berger, which was flavored with cacao nibs, which offered the nicest little bits of texture. Loved it.