• 1 heaped tsp of high quality cocoa powder (avoid cadbury's, it's weird and not nice)
  • 1 heaped tsp of golden caster sugar
  • 300ml soya milk (Sainsbury's own brand chiller cabinet sweetened is what I use)
  • A tiny bit of cinnamon
Being lactose intolerant and stuff I’ve been making this soya hot chocolate for so long, that it’s only just occurred to me that people might not know how to make a yummy vegan version of THE KING OF HOT DRINKS – especially if you’re used to using the horrible hot chocolate mixes with milk powder, etc. In fact this is the only hot drink that I like (you all know that tea and coffee are horrible, right?), and having tried it with regular milk, I can confidently say that even if you’re not vegan or lactose intolerant you should ALWAYS make hot chocolate with soya milk; it’s thicker, and slightly sweeter. You’re going to want to experiment a little with sugar depending on what brand soya milk you use (Alpro Soya sweetened, for example, is much more vanilla-y and sweeter than the version I use, for example, so I’d back off on the sugar), or even try almond milk or hazelnut milk. Here’s my basic recipe though:

 

Serves: 1 large mug
Prep/cook time: 5 mins
Nutritional info: 172 kcal

MAKING:
pour about 15ml of the soya milk into the bottom of the mug you’re making the hot chocolate in, and then put the rest on a pan on the hob. Keep a very close eye on it and don’t be tempted to microwave it, soya milk tips over into crazy foaming monster stage very quickly. don’t walk away from it. You have been warned. Anyway, while bringing the soya milk to the boil, put a tiny bit of cinnamon (like a 1/12 of a tsp), the heaped cocoa, and sugar in with the 15ml of cool soya milk and mix to a loose paste. Add a little more of warm soya from the pan to loosen it if you want.
When the soya milk is bubbling, and just before it starts to foam, pour the milk into the mug about a 1/4 full, thoroughly mix the paste so you don’t have clumps of paste in the bottom, then add the rest of the just-foaming soya milk (catching the skin bit that sometimes forms, if you can)
et voila!
Variations: mix half soya cream with soya milk, and add melted spiced chocolate to the paste for SUPER luxury hot chocolate