Low-Calorie Vegan Almond Panna Cotta

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Panna cotta is a dessert from Northern Italy traditionally made with cream, gelatin, sugar, and vanilla. But I decided we deserve a delicious vegan almond panna cotta with no saturated fat and zero cholesterol.

An easy-to-make, delicious dessert for under 200 calories!

Please note, this isn't an overly sweet dessert; it has a moderate level of sweetness but is still very indulgent and tasty.

• A bit about vegan almond panna cotta
• The thickening agent in this recipe is agar-agar. This is a vegan substitute for gelatin made from seaweed and is flavorless. Its European food additive code, by the way, is E406.
• You can find it in health food stores and specialty shops. Besides its great gelling properties, it is purely plant-based.
• In this recipe, I used one and a half tablespoons of agar-agar flakes. If you have powder, the conversion ratio is 1 tablespoon of flakes = 1 teaspoon of powder.
• To give it a wonderful almond flavor, I used natural almond butter with no added sugar. You can substitute this with coconut cream, peanut butter, or even tahini.
• The reason I added almond butter is to add a little fat and "body" to the dessert. Let's be honest, there's a limit to how "light" a dessert can be—we need to enjoy ourselves too!
• The base of the panna cotta is unsweetened soy milk. You can, of course, replace it with any plant-based milk you prefer. Almond milk would be a great fit for the flavor profile.
• I sweetened the almond panna cotta with silan (date syrup). There’s really no need for more sweetness. You can swap the silan for the same amount of maple syrup or any other sugar substitute you like.

Nutritional Values for Vegan Almond Panna Cotta

One serving of panna cotta (out of 4) contains:

• 160 calories
• 20g carbs
• 1g protein
• 8g fat

Vegan Almond Panna Cotta

Servings 4 servings

Calories 160 kcal

Ingredients

• 2 cups soy milk 450 ml
• 4 tbsp silan (date syrup) 60g
• 4 tbsp natural almond butter, no added sugar 40g
• 1 tbsp agar-agar flakes
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. In a small saucepan, combine the soy milk, 3 tbsp of silan, almond butter, vanilla extract, and agar-agar.

2. Bring to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes over low heat.

3. Note: Agar-agar only begins to set after being cooked and reached a boiling point.

4. Warm the remaining silan in the microwave until it reaches a liquid consistency.

5. Pour a teaspoon of the liquid silan into the bottom of a small cup or ramekin.

6. Pour the soy milk and agar-agar mixture into the cup.

7. Place in the refrigerator to set for at least one hour.

8. Before serving, gently loosen the panna cotta around the edges using a knife or spoon.

9. The edges should release easily.

10. Invert the cup onto a plate and lift.

11. Serve cold.