food to glow

I really really wanted to title this, “Bloody Freakin’ Genius Chocolate Mousse,” but that a) might have sounded a bit rude to the more sensitive among you (sorry), and you might have clicked away; and b) it might have sounded a bit hyperbolic – and you might have clicked away, this time shaking your head at the egotism the title implies.

But, I am not the genius. Someone else is. {It may be this person.} Someone whose hand I wish to give a hearty shake, and on whose cheek I wish to give a chocolate-scented kiss. Folks, you may wish to be sitting when I tell you this.

The secret, the magic, well, it is *drum roll* chickpea liquid.

I know, yes, the icky goo that you pour down the drain. It sounds utterly bonkers; and my brain is still recovering from trying this and it absolutely, 100 per cent, working. But work it does. Those starches and proteins that we willy-nilly chuck away are thousands of recipes waiting to be developed.

Don’t believe me? Well, just go – right now – and get a can of chickpeas. Drain the peas over a medium sized bowl. Now pull out your electric mixer and plunge them into that bowl, and whisk that gunge on high. That’s all. Almost immediately it goes encouragingly frothy, but as you keep it in and move the beaters around the bowl – as you would for whipping cream (this is essentially the process you are mimicking) – it whitens and swells with high-velocity air. Remove the beaters from the bowl and admire your soft peaks. 😉 Soft peaks that stay, even when you turn your back to now gently heat some best dark chocolate.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I have to thank Fran down in Tasmania for mentioning this method to me a few times in the comments. I was initially intrigued, but as I can’t really eat chickpeas the notion sat in an unused and spacious crevice in my brain.  Luckily, opening some chickpeas recently for a recipe (soon to be blogged), that notion sprang to my prefrontal cortex and demanded that I immediately pop a bowl under the chickpeas rather than let this goo escape. Sidetracked to a terrifyingly manic degree I then grabbed chocolate and some other bits, pushing the other recipe’s ingredients to the side. In my haste – and excitement once I saw those fluffy peaks appear – I burned two batches of good chocolate. I’m rubbish at patience and chocolate melting, but I imagine you are better about both of these things. It all came good in the end, and is too easy for anyone not to try. Once I decided that I could just add chocolate to this cloudlike entity I looked on the Internet and found this recipe on Mouthwatering Vegan. I have adapted it lightly, but with so few ingredients it is hard to stray far from Miriam’s original.

Apparently this whole chickpea liquid thing started on a Facebook page at the beginning of the year, and by March a few people had posted about it, and with other beans and tinned hearts of palm (!). But this is still ahead-of-the-curve stuff, and I have Fran – or Narf77 as is her nom de plume – to thank.

So, the magic is not chia seeds, avocado, coconut milk, cashews, or any other ‘super food’ we healthy types like to play with. Nope, just plain old chickpea liquid.

Have you already discovered this gob-smackingly genius trick? Did you make macarons, meringues, marshmallow fluff, torrone, mousse? Let me know! Here’s a page you may be interested in too. Oh, and btw, Elaine has made a savoury mousse with hers. She saw my experiments on Instagram and had a play herself. Genius! Bl**dy freakin’ genius. 😉