Whip up this impossibly light and fluffy lemon mousse recipe at home in minutes, with just four ingredients!
Easy lemon mousse recipe
If you are looking for a light dessert to serve at a dinner party or spring or summer picnic, this healthy lemon recipe perfectly fits the bill.
Guests will think you spent hours in the kitchen, but the recipe surprisingly comes together in just about five minutes. It is pretty much foolproof!
Readers also love this Banana Ice Cream
Lemon mousse ingredients
You only need three or four ingredients to make lemon mousse without gelatin: the zest and juice of one fresh lemon, cream cheese or coconut cream, plain yogurt or additional coconut cream, and sweetener of choice.
It may seem like a small amount, but do not omit the lemon zest. This is what gives the mousse its classic lemon flavor, so be sure to include it.
The healthy lemon mousse is made with no lemon curd and no heavy cream. It can also be keto friendly and sugar free if you use erythritol, liquid or powdered stevia, or your favorite low carb or low calorie sweetener of choice.
Look for full fat coconut cream or cream cheese. For vegan lemon mousse, simply use your favorite nondairy yogurt and vegan cream cheese or the coconut option.
The recipe can also be gluten free, no bake, and paleo, with no oven or stove required.
Still craving lemon? Try these Keto Lemon Bars
How to make a lemon dessert without eggs
Begin by reading through the recipe and gathering all of the ingredients.
If you are going with the cream cheese mousse version, bring the cream cheese to room temperature. Mix everything until smooth.
Using a food processor, hand beaters, or a blender will yield the fluffiest results, because they allow you to whip air into the mousse. However, if you only have a fork, it still technically works. The texture will not be the same, but it still tastes good!
As there are no eggs in the mousse with lemons, it does not need to be baked or heated on the stove. Simply transfer the filling to glasses or bowls of choice, and enjoy. See below for serving suggestions.
Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight covered container for three to four days.
This week’s trending recipe: Healthy Blueberry Muffins
How to serve lemon mousse
Serve it in parfait glasses, layered with graham cracker crumbs
Or in bowls with blueberries and Coconut Whipped Cream
Try it with fresh mint and thinly sliced lemon on top
Or as a whipped frosting for vanilla cake or lemon cupcakes
The lemon mousse is also wonderful when paired with raspberries, blackberries, or crushed pistachios or with ladyfingers as part of a lemon berry trifle.
Or mix it into Overnight Oats for a fancy breakfast that tastes like dessert.
Lemon mousse recipe video
Watch the step by step recipe video above
The recipe was adapted from my Vegan Cheesecake and this Keto Cheesecake.
Lemon Mousse
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 8 oz cream cheese or coconut cream
- 2/3 cup yogurt or additional coconut cream
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar or erythritol
- zest of 1 lemon
- optional food coloring or pinch turmeric for color
Instructions
- If using, bring cream cheese to room temperature. Combine all lemon mousse ingredients in a blender or food processor, or with a hand mixer, until smooth. Serve in glasses or bowls. Refrigerate leftovers in a covered container for 3-4 days. View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Easy Mousse Recipes
Delicious and super easy to make!
Thank you so much for making it 🙂
Hi, could I use this to sandwich my lemon drizzle cake x
Hi, we have never made a lemon drizzle cake so aren’t really sure what it entails. But if your recipe calls for a generic lemon mousse, this one should work just fine. Be sure to report back if you try!
Hi, sorry what I meant was would the mousse hold up to use instead of buttercream to sandwich my cake, thanks x
I do not think it would hold up. It’s firm, but when left out for any length of time, it breaks down.
I’ve used a mousse to sandwich cake layers so I can give some insight. Katie’s recipe uses cream cheese, which is often used to stabilize things like icing and dip. When I make mousses, I’ve always added a teaspoon of plain gelatin (bloomed in water, melted, and cooled to room temperature) to the mousse, and it holds up well (even though this recipe doesn’t use gelatin). I also heard that instant pudding mix stabilizes whipped cream well, so if you make Katie’s mousse with coconut cream instead of cream cheese, you could add instant pudding mix as a stabilizer (I suggest sugar free lemon pudding mix as this is a lemon mousse).
The full can of coconut or just the firm part?
Hi Trina, coconut cream is a different product from coconut milk, so almost all of the can should be firm. If there’s a little water at the bottom, it’s fine to include that or discard it, but it shouldn’t be much if the can says “coconut cream” not milk. Hope that helps!
is the “powered sugar” – icing sugar or caster sugar?
Powdered sugar is icing sugar
Will this work with low-fat cream cheese?
Hi, we have never tried it. If you experiment, be sure to report back!
If you use yogurt, what kind of yogurt? Would Greek yogurt work or is it too thick?
It works!
I just finished making the lemon mousse and it was ready, set, go delicious! My only problem was that I could not stop eating it and my husband saw me making it; is a very small serving left for him. It was smooth and oh so lemony- yeah! I used Total greek yogurt.
Thank you so much for making it!
We loved this lemon mousse!
this was SO easy, and SO incredibly good!
I added a smidge of natural yellow food coloring,
a can of coconut cream, and coconut whip,
served with gluten free vanillan wafers.
The company all thought it was so good!
Very good, as usual Katie. Thank you!
Is this recipe thick enough to pour into a graham cracker crust and serve chilled as a pie?
I made this for my mother’s day tea and it was a hit. All left my husband ate all the remaining. I’m making them for our office unplug dY tomorrow.
Is it ok to use coconut sugar or granulated sugar if it’s going in the blender anyway?
I also have soft light brown sugar – would that be better? I wouldn’t want to ruin the colour!
Oh you absolutely can. Pulse the sugar alone before adding other ingredients, and it will turn powdery 🙂
Is anyone else able to print these recipes? What’s the secret? I get to the “print” screen but nothing ever prints. I’m left with having to take multiple screenshots of the recipes. Very frustrating.
Hi, I want to make the lemon moose for my grandson. When u say to use coconut cream do you mean in the can. Can I use non dairy yogurt.
Thanks,
Debra aufiero
Hi, yes in the can. We do not recommend yogurt because it will not be as rich and decadent or mousse-like. But you can definitely do the cream cheese version if you want coconut free 🙂
Hi Katie, I’m a fan of your recipes. I was just wondering if you would include weights in grams for your international fan base. It’s just more precise than cups and ounces. Thanks.
Hi Geraldine! Katie is starting to do just this 🙂
For future recipes, she will try to add a section called “Converting the recipe to gram measurements” such as the one in this recipe: https://lett-trim.today/chocolate-zucchini-bread-recipe/%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> Katie prefers using a food scale, so we definitely appreciate how helpful it is to include gram measurements for her readers.
Thanks for asking this, Geraldine. Great to hear the gram conversion is going to happen. I have spent countless hours trying to convert cup measurements to grams; and have often abandoned recipe sites because of the difficulty. Can’t wait! Meanwhile I am keen to try the lemon recipe, so I will convert it to grams, for what I hope will be the last time:).
This is not the texture of a mousse More like lemon posset I used more lemon rind and juice to bring out the lemon flavour