Pumpkin Spice Mousse

Well it's 38°C (100°F) in Abu Dhabi at the moment, and oddly humid for this time of year, but with September two days away, it may as well be fall in this Canadian girl's brain, and that means pumpkin spice season has arrived. This light and fluffy creation is somewhere between a mousse and a pudding. It's not quite as airy or fluffy as a mousse, but also not really as thick and firm as a pudding. Whatever you want to call it, it's tasty and nutritious. Thanks to the pumpkin, there's almost 50% of an adult female's vitamin A in just a single serving (about 35% for adult males). See the note below the recipe if you'd like to make this a bit more akin to a chia pudding. Happy fall feasting (and can someone please send some chilly air my way)!
Yield: 10 servings of roughly ½ cup (125g) each, totaling about 5 cups (1,280g)
Macros (per serving): 130 calories | 5g protein | 9g fat | 3g net carbs
Prep: 10 minutes | Chill/Set: 2 hours
Equipment Required: a high-powered blender
Storage: refrigerated for up to 4 days.
Ingredients:
  • a 15-ounce (425g) can unsweetened pumpkin purée
  • a 13.5-ounce (400g) can full-fat coconut milk​
  • 12.3 ounces (349g) extra-firm silken tofu (e.g. Mori-Nu)✎ 
  • ⅓ cup (67g) granulated allulose or granulated keto-friendly sweetener of choice
  • 1½ teaspoons pumpkin spice ✎ 
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract​
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ cup (40g) chia seeds
Directions:
  1. ​Put all ingredients, apart from the chia seeds, in the carafe of a high-powered blender and blend to smooth.
  2. Add the chia seeds to the carafe and mix these in by hand until well distributed throughout the mixture. ✎
  3. Transfer the mousse to a large sealable bowl/container, or divide it into 8 small bowls/containers, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until fully chilled and chia seeds are plump and no longer crunchy. I like to let mine set overnight.
  4. Enjoy cold.
Topping Options: chopped nuts and/or seeds (I prefer toasted), nut/seed butter, keto-friendly granola, whipped coconut or low-carb plant-based cream.
Double the Chia Seeds: to make this a bit more like a chia pudding and to add a wee bit more protein, increase the chia seeds to ​½ cup (80g).
Macros (per serving - 130g): 150 calories | 6g protein | 10g fat | 3g net carbs
✎ ​Notes:
  • The amount of tofu given here is equivalent to one package of Mori-Nu silken tofu. This tofu has 0g net carbs. This is not the case with all silken tofu. Some are much higher in net carbs.
  • Pumpkin spice is a common spice blend in North America. If you happen to have my first book, you can find a recipe on page 78. If not, there are plenty of recipes available online.
  • Some people enjoy chia pudding with the chia seeds blended in. I tried this method at some point in the past and wasn't a fan. It creates a flavor I don't enjoy. If you like blended chia seeds, feel free to blend them in.
  • The coconut milk can be replaced with a very low-carb plant-based cooking cream if allergic to coconut.
  • Macros for this recipes are calculated with American national nutritional data (i.e. NCCDB & USDA entries in Cronometer) for all ingredients apart from the tofu (Mori-Nu), coconut milk (Aroy-D), allulose (Health Garden), and chia seeds (Bob's Redmill).
  • Macro numbers are rounded. Numbers equal to or greater than 10g are rounded to the nearest whole number (e.g. 10g, 11g, 12g, etc.) and numbers below 10g are rounded to the nearest 0.5g (0.5g, 1g, 1.5g ... 9g, 9.5g). Any numbers below 0.5g are given as is (e.g. 0.1g, 0.2g, etc.). Calories are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.