Looking for a light, super-easy, no-bake dessert that uses colorful summer fruits and can be easily made ahead of time? I concocted this recipe a couple of months ago and was surprised at how good it was. Even my son (who is emphatically not a tofu fan) liked it! Since organic mangoes and blueberries were both on sale this week, I took it as a sign that I needed to make it again.
I modeled this dessert after the banana puddin’ that most Southerners dearly love – but which is far too sweet (and too time-consuming) for me to make very often. I’ve also committed the heresy of using either Reduced Fat Nabisco Nilla Wafers or WhoNu? Vanilla Wafers instead of the full fat Nabisco Nilla Wafers that my husband and son adore.
One more tip. If you can’t bear the idea of using silken tofu in a dessert, just substitute an equal amount of fresh ricotta cheese. It won’t be non-dairy, but it will still taste great!
And one more tip, I’m always amazed to find that some people don’t know how to cut a mango, so here are the steps (in excruciating detail!)
- 1 16-ounce package silken tofu
- 3 ripe mangoes
- ½ lime, juiced
- 3-4 Tablespoons honey (the amount depends on the sweetness of your mangoes)
- 1 pint blueberries, washed, picked through, and dried with a paper towel
- ½ package of Nilla Wafers (Reduced Fat) or WhoNu? Vanilla Wafer Cookies
- Line a colander with a layer of 5-6 paper towels. Take the silken tofu out of the package, cut the block in half, and lay it on the paper towels. Let it sit for about 20-30 minutes. This will remove some of the water in the tofu and give you time to cut up your mangoes.
- While the tofu is draining, cut up your mangos.
- You should have a total of about 3 cups. Squeeze the juice of ½ lime over the mango pieces.
- All that cutting took some time! By now, some of the moisture will be drained from the silken tofu that has been resting in the colander. Put the silken tofu in the blender. (I like using the paper towels to line my colander because I can just lift up each end of the paper towels, making it easy to put the drained tofu into the blender without handling it.) Add the mango pieces and the honey. Blend until everything is thoroughly mixed. Taste and see if it needs a little more honey or lime.
- Rinse your blueberries and let them drain on a paper towel. Make sure you pick off the little stem that is on some of the berries and discard any that aren’t pretty.
- Now comes the fun part! Layer the wafers in the bottom of your bowl. Add a layer of the mango pudding (about ⅓ of what you have in the blender), and then a layer of the blueberries. Make two more layers of wafers, mango pudding, and blueberries. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (or for at least 2-3 hours.)
