Pumpkin Mousse
on Sep 13, 2019, Updated Nov 17, 2025
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This healthy vegan pumpkin mousse is easy to make with just 4 simple ingredients and can be made sugar-free and low-carb if preferred.
This easy pumpkin mousse recipe is the perfect, light dessert to finish off Thanksgiving dinner but it’s lovely anytime for a sweet, pumpkin treat.
The recipe is vegan, gluten-free, oil-free, refined sugar-free and can be made sugar-free and low-carb if you use a sugar-free sweetener such as monk fruit or stevia.
Ingredient Notes
Here’s what you’ll need to make pumpkin mousse:
- Coconut cream. You can make coconut cream by placing a can of good quality, full-fat coconut milk in the fridge overnight. In the morning, the fatty cream will have separated from the water, allowing you to scoop it out.
- Pumpkin. I used canned pumpkin puree. You can do the same or use homemade pumpkin puree if you like. I like Farmer’s Market Pumpkin the best!
- Pumpkin pie spice. Pumpkin pie spice adds that tasty pumpkin pie flavour but if you can’t find any, no worries, I provided an option to use cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in the recipe.
- Sweetener. I used maple syrup but agave would also work. You can also use stevia or monk fruit sweetener for low-carb pumpkin mousse.
To make the simple pecan crumble topping, add 1/4 cup pecans, dates or almonds and 3-4 soft, pitted dates to a food processor or blender and pulse a few times until it resembles a crumbly dough. Sprinkle over your pumpkin mousse and enjoy!
How to Make Pumpkin Mousse
Step 1: First you’ll want to make the coconut cream. To do so, place a can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight. When you’re ready to make the recipe, open the can and scoop the cream off the top, leaving the water behind. You should get about 1/2 cup of coconut cream.
Step 2: Next, mix the coconut cream with the pumpkin, maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice. You can use a blender or food processor, or just mix it in a bowl.
Step 3: Once you’ve mixed the mousse, divide it into 2 jars, small bowls or other serving containers and place in the fridge for a couple hours to firm up. That’s it! It’s now ready to enjoy.
How to Serve
You can serve the mousse as is, straight from the fridge. It’s just delicious on it’s own. If you want to add some toppings, I’d suggest:
- pecan crumble
- whipped cream
- vanilla yogurt
- pumpkin granola
- crumbled graham crackers
- crumbled raw gingerbread bites or no-bake pecan pie bites
I love it plain but for a treat, I like to serve it with the pecan crumble and some vanilla coconut yogurt. It’s also delicious as a dip for fruit, spread on cookies, as a topping for pancakes or waffles or layered into parfaits with granola and yogurt.
If you try this Pumpkin Mousse or any other recipe on Running on Real Food, don’t forget to leave a comment and a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the comment section below. It helps others who are thinking of making the recipe, and I love to hear from you. And don’t forget to tag me on Instagram @runningonrealfood so I can see your creation! Thanks for trying my recipes! – Deryn
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Pumpkin Mousse
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut cream
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1.5 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- To make the coconut cream, place a can of full-fat coconut milk in the fridge overnight.
- When you’re ready to make the recipe, open the can of coconut milk and scoop the thickened coconut cream off the top and into a mixing bowl (or blender if using), leaving the watery part behind. 1 can of full-fat coconut milk should produce 1/2 cup of coconut cream.
- Add the pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and maple syrup and mix until completely smooth.
- Divide into two jars, dishes or other serving container. Place in the fridge for a few hours to firm.
- Serve on its own or top with coconut whipped cream or dairy-free vanilla yogurt and if desired, crumbled dates and pecans.
I think I was expecting a more airy outcome the way I see chocolate mousse. Do you have any suggestions on how to make it more fluffy? The flavor was okay, somehow the pumpkin mix tasted more like baby food pudding. Would love to troubleshoot this though and very open to suggestions!
It’s a thick and heavy mousse due to the coconut cream. I’m not sure how you could make it airy aside from maybe whipping it quite a bit before chilling. You can add more sweetener if you find it to taste too much like pumpkin but I’d do powdered sugar otherwise it will be too much liquid.
What can you substitute for the coconut cream? I am allergic to coconut.
Hi Pan, unfortunately it’s a key part of this recipe so I can’t recommend a substitution. There may be some other pumpkin mousse recipes online made without coconut. Thanks!
Can you freeze this?
Can you use it between cake layers as a filling?
It sounds yummy!
Hmm, it could safely be frozen but I don’t know that the texture would be the same after thawing it out. I think it work well between layers of cake though!