I love guacamole and have often felt disappointed when fancying a lunchtime snack of guacamole and nachos only to find pre-prepared guacamole can contain sour or double cream.  Making guacamole from scratch at home, is so simple and quick, I now love having access to Dairy Free Guacamole which suits all my dietary requirements.

Dairy Free Guacamole Ingredients: (serves 6)

• 3 avocados
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 3 ripe plum / vine tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped (optional)
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• Salt & pepper to taste

Dairy Free Guacamole Recipe:

Peel and stone the avocadoes, roughly chop the avocado flesh into pieces and add to a mixing bowl.

Finely chop the red onion, red chilli and tomatoes and add to the bowl.

Squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lime and add to the mixture.

Mash the avocadoes using a fork, mixing in the red onion, chilli, tomatoes and lime juice.

Taste and season accordingly with salt & pepper.

Cover and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Dairy Free Guacamole is a tasty and healthy lunchtime snack served with Toasted Corn Tortillas and crudites or spread on Herb Oatcakes, Corn Thins or in a sandwich. It is also a delicious, cooling and creamy accompaniment to chilli con carne, fajitas and burritos. Yum!

The avocados create a rich creamy mousse, the zing of the lemons give your tastebuds a proper citrus kick and the crunchy oats give it all structure, creating a long awaited and suitably loved dairy free, sugar free Lemon Mousse Cake.  It was been a definite hit with my fellow fussy foodies and I really hope you find it just as good! 

Recipe (makes 9″ cake tin size mousse cake / 6 individual ramekins)

• 3 packs of 6 oatcakes (rough / fine milled / combo of both)
• 3 tablespoons of melted Soya spread
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 whole lemons, skinned, deseeded and chopped
• Juice of further half a lemon
• 2 avocados, stoned, peeled and chopped
• 125g pitted dates (softened in hot water)

To make the oatcake base….

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Blitz the oatcakes in the food processor until they become a fine crumb. Melt the Soya gently in a saucepan.  Mix the oatcake crumbs into the melted soya, transfer the mixture to a cake tin (I line mine with cling film or greaseproof paper to make it easier to remove once the moussecake is ready. It would be preferable to use a special cake tin where you can unclip and remove the edge).  Pat the mixture down firmly, bake in a preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Leave to cool then chill in fridge until ready to use.

To make the lemon mousse….

Soak the dates in hot water to soften them.

Meanwhile grate the zest of 1 whole lemon and keep to one side. 

With a sharp knife, remove the remaining pith from the lemon, cut in half and remove the seeds. 

Remove the skin from the second whole lemon, cut in half and remove the seeds.

Juice a further half of lemon.

De-skin the avocados, remove the stone and chop into chunks.

Drain the dates of the water.  Place in the food processor along with the chopped lemons, avocados, juice of half a lemon and lemon zest.  Blitz until the ingredients are combined and is a smooth paste.

Remove the oatcake base from the fridge, smooth the lemon mousse over the top and return to the fridge to chill for 2 hours.

Lemon Mousse Cake

And there you have it, a pure slice of perfection – yum, and not only that the use of avocados means this dessert is a great source of much needed essential fatty acids! 

Okay, so I admit the colour takes a little getting used to, there are definitely not many bright green foods out there(!) but I can assure you its all perfectly natural and it may take a while for dinner guests to be convinced about giving it a go but once they do they will definitely be converted!