Last week, I posted about Operation Empty the Cupboards, mentioning some pantry items I was long on in sheer volume and short on good ideas about.

Andrew gave me an excellent idea for dealing with both the nori and the quinoa, while I successfully used up some peas in a green split pea sunflower pie of hippy countenance and extreme deliciousness.

No ideas for the cocoa powder were forthcoming here…but in my non-virtual life, it met a veritable juggernaut of irresistibility in the form of one exceedingly simple, but so delicious I swear I heard angels singing, recipe.

I’m cat-sitting for a friend of mine later this month. For reasons I can’t fathom, but which for strategic reasons I haven’t disabused her of (see below), she thinks she needs to continue to woo me to do this even though 1) I’ve already said yes; 2) I love kitties.

I was there for tea and treats on Sunday and she fed me this show-stopping and ultra-simple chocolate pudding recipe (from a book called Health by Chocolate by Victoria Laine):

Ingredients
12 oz pack soft silken tofu (vacuum-packed)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt

Instructions
Blend until smooth and creamy. Chill until ready to serve.

Oh, and double it. Just double it. We ate the entire recipe in about 5 minutes and would happily have repeated ourselves immediately upon completion.

Don’t be deceived by the simplicity of the ingredients; this stuff is incredibly delicious, and probably the best vegan chocolate pudding I’ve had.

I love pudding. I always have; it has, for me, the emotional resonances of a favourite blanket or toy from childhood, but isn’t as dirty and tastes better. It is in my top 3 comfort foods of all time, and I would eat it a lot more except that before now, all the good recipes I had for pudding, chocolate or otherwise, were just shockingly full of oil. It’s hard to be comforted by an entire batch of pudding when that means eating something like a full cup of oil.

This recipe has solved so many problems. I bet if we encourage it, it’ll figure out world peace too.