Recipe: Strawberry “Mousse”

I almost called this strawberry soup, but somehow soup doesn’t sound as appetizing as mousse. Also C, from whom I got this recipe, calls it mousse, too, so I decided to stick to the dish’s roots in naming my version. In any case, this “mousse” is an entirely delicious springy-summery dessert. C made it for us when we were in Brussels with my parents last month, and F — not known for his sweet tooth — easily slurped down two servings.

Seeing as F’s birthday was this week, and remembering how much he loved C’s strawberry mousse, I had the brilliant idea to surprise him by making it myself.

He certainly was surprised and loved the mousse as much as he did in Belgium. I believe “this is awesome” was repeated quite a few times as he was consuming it.

Despite being a dessert, this mousse isn’t entirely unhealthy. Sure, there’s some double cream and sugar, but not that much in relation to the volume produced. Yogurt lends a nice tang at the finish, and lemon juice brightens everything up. C had told us that her mother — from whom the original recipe comes — adamantly said not to whip the cream first. I whipped it, just to add a bit more body to the mousse; it is still soup-like but in the best way possible. I also stirred in some diced strawberries for chew-factor.

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Strawberry “Mousse” (adapted from C’s mom’s recipe)

Ingredients

• 1-2 kg (4-6 cups) fresh ripe strawberries
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 250g (1 cup) low-fat yogurt (use full-fat or non-fat, if you prefer)
• 150g (2/3 – 3/4 cup) double cream (aka heavy/whipping) cream
• 75-100g (1/3 cup) granulated sugar

Procedure

• Wash and cut the tops off of the strawberries. Put most of them (all less 1 cup or so) in a bowl with the lemon juice and blend with an immersion blender until smooth. (Alternately, throw them all in a stand-up blender and puree them that way.)
• Stir the yogurt into the strawberry puree.
• In a separate bowl, whip the cream and sugar together until soft-medium peaks form. Fold into the strawberry mixture.
• Dice the remaining strawberries and stir them into the mousse.
• Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and serve chilled, preferably on a warm spring or summer evening.

Enjoy!