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Creamy Vegan Lemon Mousse (Gluten Free)

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This creamy and airy vegan lemon mousse is made with simple ingredients and does not need tofu or agar! This bright tasting dessert is elegant enough for a spring party, but it’s great any time of year as well!

Disclosure: this post was originally written as a sponsored post for So Delicious. We recently re-wrote the recipe and post. All opinions are my own.
A vegan dessert in a glass with berries.

I remember when I first had mousse for dessert at an Italian restaurant (back when I didn’t have food allergies), and mousse quickly became one of my favorite desserts.

As I got older, I developed multiple food allergies including dairy and eggs, 2 of the main ingredients in traditional mousse recipes. So several years ago I set out to make an allergy frienldy version that I could have, and this recipe was born.

I originally posted this recipe in March 2018 and decided to revisit it again for spring and make this recipe even smoother, creamier, and more flavorful!

The bright lemon flavors in this dessert make it perfect for spring holidays like Easter or Mother’s Day, but this is also perfect for any time you want a fresh lemon dessert.

Food allergy notes:

  • Dairy free
  • Egg free and vegan
  • Peanut free

Why you’ll love our dairy free lemon mousse recipe

Our creamy and bright tasting recipe for vegan lemon mousse is an elegant dessert to make for dinner party, but simple enough for a weekend treat. And it’s pretty unique in how it comes together.

Typically recipes for egg-free mousse call for gelatin, but this one doesn’t use gelatin, tofu, or agar (which can be hard to find in some grocery stores). Our version is made without those ingredients but you still get an airy and creamy mousse!

A bowl of vegan lemon mousse with a raspberry on top.

How to make vegan lemon mousse

Our version of lemon mousse is very different than a traditional lemon mousse that is typically made with eggs and cream. Since our recipe is egg free and dairy free, we start by making a dairy free lemon pudding and then folding the cooled pudding into fluffy coconut whipped cream.

Once this sets for several hours or overnight, it transforms into a thick, creamy, and airy mousse. The pudding firms up, trapping the air inside from the whipped cream. You don’t even need a stand mixer to make this!

Let’s dive into the steps to make this recipe (this is just an overview of the steps, the full recipe card is at the end of the post):

  1. In a small to medium-sized saucepan, combine the non-dairy milk, full-fat coconut milk, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and natural yellow coloring.
  2. Whisk together, add the lemon slices, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
  3. Simmer for 5 minutes then remove the lemon slices and discard those.
  4. Scoop out about 1/4 cup of the hot milk from the pot and whisk the cornstarch into this to create a cornstarch slurry. Whisk this cornstarch mix back into the simmering pot. It will start to thicken immediately.
  5. Continue to heat and whisk for another minute until it thickens more, making sure to whisk constantly to avoid lumps. This is lemon pudding and we’ll add a couple more steps for lemon mousse.
  6. Remove from the heat and allow to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes.
  7. Once the pudding has cooled for about 15 minutes, scoop it into a large mixing bowl and cover it with plastic wrap, allowing the plastic wrap to sit directly on the surface of the lemon pudding (this helps prevent a “pudding skin” that can cause lumps when we stir it again).
  8. Chill in the fridge for about 30 to 45 minutes.
  9. Remove from the fridge and using a spatula, fold a 9-ounce container of So Delicious Cocowhip (which is dairy free coconut whipped cream/whipped topping) into the pudding until it is all mixed together.
  10. Leave in the bowl or scoop into individual glass dishes and chill for several hours or overnight until it has set completely. It will transform into lemon mousse when it is completely set!
A series of photos showing how to make a vegan lemon pudding to make lemon mousse.

So there are two parts to this recipe: making the lemon pudding (shown above), then cooling and mixing the pudding with the dairy free whipped cream and chilling it until it firms up and it makes a mousse (shown below).

A series of photos showing how to make lemon mousse without tofu.

When I originally created this recipe, I used a So Delicious product called Culinary Coconutmilk, which has been discontinued. But the Thai Kitchen cartons of canned coconut milk are pretty much the same and one of my favorite products for cooking with canned coconut milk.

You can use an actual can of coconut milk in this recipe as well, just make sure that you shake it up if it’s separated and mix it well before measuring for this recipe. The canned coconut milk in this recipe adds thickness and creaminess to the lemon mousse.

To add more lemon flavor to our mousse without adding too many bits of lemon zest, we borrowed an idea out of our lemonade recipes and added some lemon slices to simmer with the milk to add flavor from the lemon rind without too much actual zest in the mousse.

This adds great lemon flavor from the rind without having too many of the lemon zest pieces in your mousse. Our original recipe had zest from 2 lemons, which ended up being a lot of zest pieces in the dessert so we tried out this technique in addition to the zest of 1 lemon. It turned out perfectly!

I didn’t use the lemon slices in our recipe video, so you’ll notice in the video the simmering lemon slices are missing since I didn’t come up with that until after I filmed the video.

A glass dish of vegan lemon mousse next to a spoon of mousse.

Can I use a different brand of dairy free whipped cream?

So Delicious Cocowhip is a dairy free whipped topping made with coconut oil that is typically our go-to when we need whipped cream/whipped topping. It has a great taste and doesn’t taste strongly of coconut at all.

If you are wanting to use something different, you can try using whipped cream made from the Silk heavy whipping cream, but it won’t be as sweet or as airy. You’ll probably need to add a little more sugar to it since the Cocowhip is sweetened and the Silk heavy cream does not have sugar in it.

I don’t recommend using the dairy free Reddi-wip since it deflates pretty quickly and won’t add the air bubbles you need to make your mousse airy. Anytime we’ve used the dairy free Reddi-wip it usually will not hold it’s shape, so it’s not a good option for this mousse or our cheesecake where we use it as well.

What we changed with this updated recipe

I have a passion for creating amazing food, and when I revisit some of our older recipes, I find that some of them need a few adjustments to make them even better. Our tastes have changed over time, as well as my toolbox cooking, and I’ve found few of our older recipes just need some adjustments.

A bowl of vegan lemon mousse with blueberries and whipped cream.

I recently made our older recipe for lemon mousse again and thought it could be improved, so I revamped the recipe to add more flavor to this mousse but I used all the same ingredients as before. So the ingredients haven’t changed at all, just the amounts have changed a bit for better flavor and texture.

This post was also originally a sponsored post for So Delicious but we swapped the ingredients a bit with the remake so we removed some of the sponsored post language as well since some of the products we were highlighting are now discontinued, too.

We also have a chocolate mousse version of this recipe that I’ll be revisiting/making tweaks to as well soon!

Here are some of the photos from our original post below:

A vegan dessert in a glass with berries.

Easy Vegan Lemon Mousse (Gluten Free)

This easy lemon mousse is a creamy lemon dessert recipe that only looks complicated to make and is a great alternative to heavy sweets. This is perfect for spring holidays like Easter, but it's also great for any time of year when you want a special treat made with fresh lemons. 
Makes 3 ½ cups of mousse, about 7 servings of ½ cup each
Vegan, gluten free, peanut free, soy free
4.84 from 6 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: American
Keyword: dairy free mousse, lemon mousse, vegan mousse
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Chill time: 3 hours
Total Time: 3 hours 25 minutes
Servings: 7 servings
Calories: 257kcal

Ingredients

Instructions

  • In a small saucepan, combine the coconut milk, dairy free milk, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla, natural yellow coloring, and salt and whisk until combined. 
  • With the food coloring, add a few drops to start and add more to get the color you want. The yellow color of the mousse will be lighter since it will be folded with the coconut whipped cream.
  • Add the lemon slices to the saucepan in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat until simmering.
  • Simmer with the lemon slices for 5 minutes, then remove the lemon slices. Continue to cook the coconut milk mixture. The lemon slices help to add flavor from the lemon rind without adding too many lemon zest pieces in your mousse.
  • Scoop out about ¼ to ⅓ cup hot milk into a small bowl and whisk the cornstarch into the small bowl to create a cornstarch slurry.
  • Pour the corn starch-milk slurry back into the saucepan, whisking constantly. It will start to thicken immediately. Continue to cook and stir with a whisk or spoon constantly for about another minute until it is thickened and until it is mixed well and there are no lumps. You've made lemon pudding! One more step to make our mousse.
  • Remove the lemon pudding from the heat, and cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then scoop the lemon pudding into a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and lay the wrap directly on the surface of the pudding (this prevents the thickened "pudding skin" on top that can create lumps when you mix it again). 
  • Chill the lemon pudding in the fridge for about 30-45 minutes. It doesn't have to cool completely, we just need it to cool enough to mix with the Cocowhip.
  • Once the lemon pudding has cooled a bit, uncover it and fold in the container of Cocowhip with a spatula until well mixed. 
  • You can leave it all in one bowl or scoop the mousse into small glass dishes or ramekins, cover, and chill for several hours or overnight. 
  • Top with berries and more Cocowhip if you like before serving!

Video

Notes

*So Delicious Cocowhip is a dairy free whipped topping made with coconut oil. You can use whipped cream made from the Silk heavy whipping cream but it won’t be as sweet or as airy. I don’t recommend using the dairy free Reddi-wip since it deflates pretty quickly and won’t add the air bubbles you need to make your mousse airy. 
 
 

Nutrition

Serving: 0.5cup | Calories: 257kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Sodium: 28mg | Potassium: 120mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 21g | Vitamin A: 71IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 57mg | Iron: 1mg
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photo collage showing 2 photos of dairy free lemon mousse in a glass dish.

37 thoughts on “Creamy Vegan Lemon Mousse (Gluten Free)”

  1. Hi, could this be made into a pie filling, say a graham cracker one than topped in cool whip Non dairy and than topped with fruit?

    Reply
    • Hi Kim, I think this would work great to fill a graham cracker crust pie! This recipe should fill a pre-made graham crust, but if you make one of your own that’s bigger, you might need to 1.5x this recipe.

      Reply
  2. Hi! I was wondering, can you make the lemon mousse in advance and freeze it?? And if you can how long will it keep in the freezer??

    Reply
    • Hi Wendy! I’m not sure if this would freeze well or for how long, I haven’t tried freezing this recipe. The So Delicious Cocowhip freezes well by itself, but I can’t safely say that the final recipe would do well frozen and then thawed or if it might ruin the texture of it. You can try it and see how it goes, regular dairy mousse can be frozen for up to 2 months, you just can’t heat it to thaw (thaw it in the fridge). I’d start there and see how it goes for you!

      Reply
  3. Hi Sarah! I’m excited about your blog. I would love to email you but don’t see a way to do so. Please email me so I can ask a couple of questions about your blog ( which is awesome btw). Thank you
    O.S. I’m vegan so I’m loving the recipes. I’m printing them out as I write lol

    Reply
  4. 5 stars
    I made this recipe yesterday! It was…so delicious! (Ha! No, but really it was!)

    The So Delicious culinary coconut milk doesn’t seem to be available anymore so I compared the ingredients two cans of coconut milk at the store and it seemed like it had the same ingredients in the same order as *light* coconut milk. I did find some vanilla almond cashew milk made by Blue Almond, so I bought that.

    When I added the cornstarch milk mixture back into the pot it didn’t seem to be very thick but I figured when it cooled it would thicken. The texture was definitely less like mousse and more like pudding even after I let it cool for the rest of the afternoon before bringing it to a neighbor’s house for dinner, but it was really yummy. For the record I put the lemon zest directly into the milk mixture and it tasted lovely.

    I had enough left over from the can of coconut milk that I decided to make a second batch today. I had about 3/4 of a cup so I try to adjust the other ingredients accordingly. This time I wanted to add a little bit more cornstarch to see if that would thicken it up more. Well I guess I added the milk to the cornstarch too quickly because I ended up with lumps that would not fully disappear no matter how much I whisked and whisked.

    So my recommendation would be two things: one, slowly add cornstarch to the milk and whisk it in rather than having the cornstarch in a separate bowl and adding milk to that; two, don’t worry if it doesn’t look thick enough after you add the 3 tablespoons of cornstarch because if you add more than that you will risk it becoming too thick and then it won’t mix well with the CoCo Whip! With my second batch I just got to the step where I mixed in the CoCo Whip and because the pudding was so thick and still had some little lumps here and there, it did not mix in well. So people should just follow this recipe exactly! 🙂

    Reply
    • So glad this recipe worked out for you Nicole!! I have noticed that the culinary coconut milk has been unavailable for a long time, which is sad because I loved cooking with it so much. I think I’ll have to add a note to the recipe for replacing the culinary coconut milk. I think full fat canned coconut milk would probably be the best replacement to get the thickness for the mousse. Thank you so much for the kind words! <3

      Reply
    • And thank you so much for taking the time to come back and review the recipe! I have a lot of people try the recipes but not come back and let others know how they turned out for them 🙂

      Reply
    • I think the canned coconut milk should work, as long as it’s mixed or blended really well so it’s smooth. I’m having a hard time locating the So Delicious Culinary Coconut milk here lately!

      Reply
  5. This sounds wonderful but I am allergic to corn and rice along with grains what can I use to thicken it without using cornstarch

    Reply
    • Hi Charmaine! Arrowroot starch, potato starch, and tapioca starch are grain-free thickening starches that you might be able to try instead of corn starch in this recipe. I have not tried any of those in this recipe, so I’m not sure how it would turn out, but you can give it a try and see. I’ll have to try making this recipe with another starch/thickener in place of cornstarch soon to see how it would work out

      Reply
    • Hi Kristin! Some people use tapioca starch or arrowroot starch as a substitute for corn starch, but I’m not sure how they would work in this recipe since they tend to have a different texture than corn starch. Sometimes starches like arrowroot and tapioca can be slimy in texture, so I’d Google some good substitute ideas for cornstarch (maybe a mix of arrowroot and tapioca starches might work?). I haven’t used either of those much, so I can’t help a ton with substitutes

      Reply
  6. I am a sucker for a good lemon dessert! Let me tell you that I can’t wait to try this lemon mousse! It seriously looks so smooth and creamy!

    Reply
  7. What a great product and a scrumptious treat. I love the berries in this dish to accompany the lemon flavor as well.

    Reply
  8. You can tell when everyone gets spring fever. All the lemon and blueberry recipes come out. I for one am really glad! I love the fresh tang of lemon.

    Reply

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