Aquafaba: a revolutionary ingredient in the vegan world

As vegan, one of the first thing it came to my mind was “what could I use as egg substitute?”. There are several solutions suggested on the web and on the market, but today I want to focus on a recent and great – at least, for all the vegans – discovery.

Few days ago I came across to Aquafaba-based recipes and I have been amazed! I know, you are wondering what aquafaba is? Well, it is an ingredient you would ever think to, but you might already have it in your kitchen. Aquafaba is simply the chickpeas brine, the liquid in the chickpeas can you usually drain away. The chickpeas brine turns out to be an incredible ingredient, because after 10-20 mins it whips up as the egg white does!

All starts around December 2014, Jöel Roessel tried to make a vegan meringue by whipping up the chickpeas brine. The result was stunning and he shared anonymously his experiment on his blog revolutionvegetal.
In March 2015, the vegan cook named Goose Wohlt got inspiration from Jöel’s and shared his discovery on the popular facebook group, Vegan Meringues – Hits and missed!. Also, Goose coined the new word “aquafaba” from the latin “aqua” (water) and “faba” bean.

That’s a wonderful news for the vegan community, as everyone I am so exited! So, I decided to give it a try. Two days ago I made my first attemp, the result wasn’t great – the foam turned out to be not that fluffly and after cooking the surface of the meringues was sticky. That means I haven’t whipped up enough. Unlike egg white, aquafaba is harder to manage partly due to the quality of chickpeas.
However, the picture you see it’s obviously my second attemp, it is far better! And let me just say that making meringues during summer it is not probably the best idea, as the cooking time is so long. But if you are brave as much as I, go ahead! 😀

INGREDIENT
100gr Aquafaba (the liquid in the chickpeas can)*
100gr icing sugar
half vanilla bean
few drops of lemon juice

Preheat fan oven to 167-176 F (75-80 °C).
Pour the liquid in a big bowl then cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and with the tip of a knife scrape the seeds, add them in the liquid. Then, add few drops of lemon juice and start beating. Withouth stopping add half of the icing sugar. Keep on beating. Pour the half sugar left and continue to beat. Be patient! It needs from 12 to 15 min to get a fluffy, firm foam. Now, be creative! Shape the meringues on a baking tray covered with parchment paper. The form of the merigues is up to you. Cook for 2 hours.

*Note: I’ve noticed that if you leave Aquafaba in the fridge overnight, it gets more fluffly and firm after beating.

References
http://aquafaba.com/community.html
http://www.revolutionvegetale.com