Summer Vegan Desserts: Easy Recipes

It’s nice to enjoy a blackberry and apple crumble in colder months. But in summer, you may wish for something lighter like this Strawberry Mousse (Full of Plants) with just 6 ingredients, sweetened with maple syrup. It’s light and airy due to aquafaba (vegan meringue, made from whisking up chickpea brine water!!!)

Keep these desserts away from young children and pets, due to nuts, bread etc. Read more on food safety for people and pets. It’s best to just bin citrus and rhubarb scraps (along with tomatoes and alliums – onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) as acids may harm compost creatures. 

This vegan strawberry cake (Rainbow Nourishments) also has just 6 ingredients! Including almond flour and potato starch (a little more tricky to find) and choose organic strawberries for best taste and health. It then just needs some baking powder, sugar and a little beetroot powder for colour (find in Grape Tree shops).

If you don’t use the beetroot powder, the cake will taste the same. But strawberries are not ‘pink enough’, so your cake will be brown! Serve with plant-based yoghurt or ice-cream.

Related to roses, strawberries are the only fruits with their seeds on the outside (some people can’t eat them, as the seeds get stuck in their teeth!) Always choose organic, as these fruits are one of the so-called ‘dirty dozen’ that are often covered in pesticides (organic strawberries smell and taste better too).

Vegan Eton Mess with Berries

This dessert was indeed invented at Eton College. This Eton Mess (A Veggie Feast) looks slightly different as the South African blogger has used local sour plums, but of course you can use fresh organic strawberries. The vegan meringue is made by mixing sugar with leftover brine water from canned chickpeas.

Peach Melba (1970s nostalgia)

This combination of peaches and raspberries is a 1970’s favourite. Try this vegan peach melba (Plant-Based on a Budget) which cooks the peaches, then drizzles with homemade raspberry syrup, and tops with mint leaves and vegan vanilla ice-cream. Or whizz up a simple peach melba smoothie.

Summer Pudding (uses up stale white bread)

Summer pudding (Doves Farm) is one of the world’s easiest puddings (and also zero waste, as it uses leftover bread). You just cook the fruits with sugar and water, pour into a basin lined with crustless bread, weigh it down and chill overnight in the fridge. Serve with vegan ice cream.

This recipe usually uses strawberries and blackcurrants. But you can vary it, say with sliced peaches or nectarines.

Knickerbocker Glory (seaside nostalgia)

To make this popular seaside dessert, just spoon cooked organic frozen cherries (in paper packs) and fresh raspberries into ice-cream sundae glasses, then top with vegan jelly and dairy-free ice-cream. Add more berries and ice-cream, and top with vegan whipped cream and more fruits.

Bakewell Tart Vegan Ice Cream (from Derbyshire)

Bakewell tart is a baked treat from a town in Derbyshire’s Peak District. This Bakewell Tart ice-cream  (Wallflower Kitchen) is not just healthier than pastry, but also vegan. Made with coconut milk.

A Smashing Vegan Sherry Trifle Recipe

This vegan sherry trifle (The Veg Space) is a real treat, you can omit the booze for children. Just soak a vegan sponge in sherry, then top with berries, vegan custard and cream, then top with toasted almonds (for adults).

Vegan Jelly and Ice Cream

Conventional jelly is made from animal bones (gelatine). Instead, try Wibble vegan jelly mixes, in fruit flavours of strawberry, raspberry and forest fruits. They are much easier to make than conventional jelly too.

This company even sells reusable moulds. And have just launched their own vege-gel that you can use to replace gelatine, for all your dessert and other recipes. Exciting times ahead!

Italian Strawberry Panna Cotta 

This vegan panna cotta recipe (Full of Plants) replaces gelatine (the English translation is ‘cooked cream’) with a plant-based thickening agent, then adds fresh strawberries, to turn this Italian dessert into a refreshing summer treat.

You can use more tart raspberries if preferred (and turn this into an autumn dessert by using blackberries!)