A coco naughty panna cotta that vegans, too, can enjoy! As long as nobody bugs me about why I eat so many eggs, I have absolutely no problem with vegan folks. I do find myself in an awkward situation, though, with some of my vegan friends when we want to dine out together. Or when they invite us over for lunch.
Vegan food tends to be so carby
With tons of legumes everywhere to replace this and that and to mimic this and that. Yeah, I know, we are doing a similar thing; replacing flour for almonds, erythritol for sugar, even kale for potatoes, and what not. In the end, I tell people I eat green veggies and eggs. And fish and meat, but I like to talk about that with omnivorous individuals. Anyways, when it comes to being keto or living any kind of low-carb lifestyle, I see no reason why omnivorous and vegan people should not enjoy a dessert together in peace, without having to even talk about the way anyone chooses to eat.
Too good to be true?
I couldn't believe my eyes and ears watching my significant other trying out this panna cotta. He generally refuses to ever have a panna cotta for dessert no matter what top-notch restaurant he might have just had dinner at. He says panna cotta is boring, tasteless, and globally overrated. Revolutionary, from now on he's got a panna cotta that is one of his favorite desserts out there. Believe me, he couldn't stop complimenting, and wanting more. And he is far from being vegan.
Coco-naughty keto panna cotta
"Coco-naughty" is a play on words that might sound kind of primitive replacing the phrase coco-nutty, but let me explain. As much as I wish this dessert could be enjoyed by anyone in the world, there might still be people to whom the consumption would be too naughty. Because it contains almonds and some are naturally allergic to those. If you are one of those unlucky individuals, find another type of nuts if you can, and use those.
To go on, it also seems like one must like coconuts if they want to even look at this version of panna cotta. That is not exactly true if you are not vegan. Just whip some heavy whipping cream and use it instead of coconut cream. As simple as that. In the end, this dessert can remain vegan and dairy-free, can be tweaked into an even more allergen-free version or into a non-vegan but still a keto-friendly treat.
Keep in mind that the macronutrients below are calculated based on the coconut cream and almond milk I used in the recipe, so they might come out differently for you if you use different brands than me. By the way, using heavy cream might lower the carb count. That is if you are not vegan. Oh, and you can always use powdered gelatine instead of agar-agar. Again, be informed that gelatine is not vegan, as it is made of animal byproduct!
Are you a vegan, living a low-carb lifestyle? Please, do share how you tweak your dishes and what low-carb desserts you like or would like to have.
A coco naughty panna cotta even vegans can enjoy
Ingredients
- 9 oz coconut cream
- 3 tablespoon coconut water
- 1 ½ teaspoon agar agar - or powdered gelatine (not vegan!)
- 5 oz almonds - blanched
- 3.5 oz erythritol - powdered
- 1 cup almond milk - unsweetened
- ½ cup coconut milk - unsweetened, full-fat
- ½ teaspoon orange oil - or ½ tbsp. fresh orange peel
Instructions
- Place the coconut cream in the fridge. Alternatively, whip heavy cream until it becomes dense (not too thick) and put it in the refrigerator. Inside an S-blade food processor process the almonds until almost buttery.
- In a medium pot, whisk together almond milk, coconut milk, erythritol, and ground almonds. Bring to boil slowly and whisk until erythritol dissolves. Set aside.
- Dissolve agar-agar in coconut water. Slowly heat up (in a microwave if you wish) until it dissolves completely.
- Add the agar-agar to the hot almond-coconut mixture, and whisk.
- Pour into another bowl where the mixture will cool quicker. Add orange oil or zest. Mix thoroughly. Leave to cool completely. Whisk occasionally until it becomes dense. To make this step faster, place this bowl in a larger bowl of ice and whisk slowly until cool and thickened.
- Slowly and carefully fold in the cream.
- Distribute into 6 small dishes. Choose either glasses or lightly greased pudding dishes.
- Let cool and thicken in a fridge for a couple of hours. Serve with some roasted almonds and/or sugar-free orange marmalade.
Nutrition
Anna says
I can't rate this recipe because I havent made it yet, but I just wanted to say this is my first time on this web page, and I was pleasantly surprised to find myself very intrigued by some of these recipes. Keto cooking/baking has been a hobby of mine for about 5 years, and due to the (often necessary) repetition that you see in a lot of keto desserts, nowadays, it's not often that I come across a keto recipe that piques my curiosity. This one has DEFINITELY piqued my curiosity! It looks amazing! I already ordered the orange oil on Amazon, once I make this dish I'll comment again with my feedback.
Tisa says
Thank you, Anna. Reading your comment felt great, we're doing the best we can these days and will hopefully come up with more unique recipes soon.
Ruthy says
I want to try this recipe, wondering if I can use corn starch instead off agar agar?
Tisa says
Theoretically, yes. Problem is, I haven't tried it, so I cannot tell you how to tweak the recipe for the corn starch use. But there are recipes out there for corn starch pannacotta. You might want to Google around and find a way to use it in this recipe? Just to be clear: corn starch is not keto and I'm afraid it will bring net carb count up quite a bit.
Jessica says
This was very good! Almost cant stop eating it! A couple of things: it definitely has ground almond texture, not sure what you mean by grinding until buttery? Was more almond flour-ish. Also, i used powdered erythritol as it dissolves quickly, but was unsure after you said to heat to boiling, until it was dissolved...Did you use granular? I used Trader Joe’s coconut cream and coconut milk, both in cans. And unsweetened almond ‘beverage’, and i think that i what Silken is? The final result is delish, but the consistency is thinner than i had imagined, and by photo related to recipe. I was thinking more ‘flan-like’. Definitely pudding-like! I’m looking forward to more Keto-Vegan recipes!! THANK YOU!
Tisa says
Hi, Jessica!
You are very welcome, and that you for giving the recipe a try!
As for processing almonds, there's a moment in the process when they start becoming oily (that's what I mean by "almost buttery") and if you process any further, you might get some nice home-made almond butter. In this recipe, we don't want to have any crunchy bits but no butter, either.
Yeah, you want to see the erythritol dissolve enough (granular will crystalize later when cooled, though), but you are right, it is easier to just use powdered erythritol. I've updated the instructions.
I'm sorry for the thinner consistency, I would guess the liquids used should be fattier (as in full-fat coconut milk), or the amounts of non-fatty liquids slightly reduced. On the other hand, more agar can be used. It is hard to tell exactly since most of use different brands with varying properties.
Lacey says
Just a friendly suggestion: It may be beneficial to note somewhere on this post that using powdered gelatin would make this not vegan, unless you used a vegan friendly gelatin. I know you also did recommend agar-agar, which is vegan friendly, but not everyone may know the difference. Just in case a non-vegan were to make this for a vegan friend and had no clue that gelatin is made from animal byproduct.
My Sweet Keto says
That's a good point, Lacey! I will do as recommended.
Robyn says
Ha! I love eggs too! Lots of eggs! Every day!!!
Love your recipes and will certainly try this vegan panna cotta!
My Sweet Keto says
Awesome!