Vegan Chocolate - It Exists!

At first glance, vegan chocolate might seem like an impossible fantasy. Can you steer clear of all animal products while still enjoying the luscious flavour of chocolate? Whether you want the vegan chocolate for yourself or a friend, or whether you're strictly vegan or just trying to avoid dairy products, you'd love to get your hands and tastebuds onto vegan chocolate. Is vegan chocolate possible? Or do vegans forever have to put up with ersatz carob substitutes while others enjoy the delights of true chocolate?

It's easier than you think to make and find vegan chocolate. You have to remember that although we're used to seeing and tasting chocolate that has had milk or dairy products added to it, chocolate does not come from a cow (or even a goat). Chocolate is made from substances derived from the seed of the Theobroma cacao tree, known as the cocoa bean. The primary ingredients that go into chocolate - cocoa solids and cocoa butter - both come from a plant source, which is good news for vegans. Most vegan chocolate is dark chocolate: the type of chocolate with 70% plus cocoa solids. This is because vegan chocolate is usually dark chocolate, and it's only the light coloured (milk chocolate and white chocolate) varieties that have to contain milk. In fact, according to the label on a bar of 72% cocoa chocolate, the ingredients that went into making is were cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar, soya lecithin and vanilla flavour. All of these ingredients are on the vegan list - they're all from plants - this is vegan chocolate, all right. Most dark (70% plus cocoa solids) chocolate is likely to be vegan chocolate, but read the label if you want to make certain.

The health community has become quite excited about vegan chocolate (a.k.a. dark chocolate) because it is rich in antioxidants, and also contains a large number of trace elements, some of which are hard to find in other dietary sources, especially selenium. Nobody should go overboard and binge on any sort of chocolate, vegan chocolate or not, but eating around 50 g of dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids or more) has a number of health benefits: lowering stress, boosting the immune system and supplying the body with good nutrients. Anecdotal evidence also hints that eating small amounts of dark chocolate can help you lose weight, as dark chocolate has a high "satiety index", meaning that eating a little of it makes you feel full and satisfied, so you don't go and eat large quantities of other food.

It's also possible to find fair trade vegan chocolate and organic vegan chocolate.

If you want to enjoy the taste of chocolate in other vegan dishes and desserts, this is also possible with ordinary cocoa powder. A very easy recipe for vegan chocolate cake that is so simple that children can cook it is given below:

1 ½ cups flour.

1 cup sugar.

1 t baking soda.

¼ t salt.

3 T cocoa powder.

6 T vegetable oil (not olive oil - the flavour is too strong).

1 T vinegar.

1 t vanilla.

1 cup water.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Make three holes in the dry mixture. Put the vanilla into one, the vinegar into another and the oil into the third. Pour in the water over the entire mixture and stir well to make a smooth batter. Place into a greased cake tin and bake at 170°C for 30-40 minutes. For variation, cinnamon and/or sultanas can be added to the dry ingredients.

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