I have been experimenting lately a lot with Aquafaba - the liquid from canned chickpeas. It is a staple product in the vegan kitchen and is used as an egg white substitute in the pastry kitchen. If you use Aquafaba at room-temperature and whisk it for at least 10-15 minutes it turns into a shiny and stiff meringue consistency - very easy, it just requires a good hand-mixer (best if you have a standing mixer) and a little bit of patience. This chocolate mousse is really delicious and you can get creative with any additional flavour such as Baileys, rum, vanilla, chili etc. to bring the mousse to a next level taste.
For a serving of 4-6 portions you will need:
Liquid of 1 canned chickpeas, room-temperature (=Aquafaba)
140g vegan chocolate, I used milk chocolate, but dark chocolate works perfectly too
1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice
zest of 1 orange
First melt the chocolate in a bowl over a hot water bath, make sure the bowl is not touching the water. In the meantime open the can of chickpeas, drain them and save the liquid in a bowl. Add the vinegar or lemon juice to the Aquafaba and whip it up until stiff. This can take up to 10-15 minutes, the texture should be similar to stiff meringue. You know it is perfectly whisked, when you invert the bowl and nothing is moving around - the good thing with Aquafaba is that it cannot be over-whipped. Once it is fully stiff, take the chocolate - it should have cooled down at that stage - and very carefully fold it into the Aquafaba. The mousse will deflate slightly, so do not worry and keep on folding until everything is well combined. Now you can add any additional flavour you would like to have, I added orange zest. Fill everything into a big serving bowl and let the mousse fully set in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
Tipp: if you use dark chocolate, add a little bit of icing sugar or agave syrup to make the mousse really tasty.