- Submitted by Dahlia
(Egg-less Meringue, Vegan Meringue)
Aquafaba, which literally means Bean Water (Aqua means water and faba means beans). It is the viscous liquid that you get after cooking any type of bean. According to Wikipedia, it was discovered by a French Chef and later named by an American vegan as Aquafaba. Do check out more details here.
If you buy canned beans, it is the liquid which comes with the beans in the can. It’s the most common ingredient used by vegans as a replacement for eggs since the last couple of years. For any baking that needs eggs, you can just substitute with 3 tbsp of aquafaba for 1 egg and 2 tbsp for 1 egg white.
In this article I want to give the details about making aquafaba meringue. It takes a couple of days to make cookies using aquafaba from start to finish. You need to soak the beans, cook it, thicken the cooking liquid, cool it and then whip it. Once you have it, you can go ahead and make all the cookies that call for meringue. The final product is very impressive and really makes you feel good. Though I am not a vegan, I tried these for my friend whose son is allergic to eggs. I must admit that it was quit thrilling to make these.
Since chickpeas are the most common bean used in most Indian homes, I have used that to make the aquafaba. I’m sure it works with other beans too. Whenever you cook chickpeas, you can freeze the cooking liquid and use it as an egg substitute or for making meringue any time. So let’s get started.
Recipe for Aquafaba Meringue
Preparation time: 6 hours (including soaking time)
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes: about 5 cups of meringue
Ingredients
- Chickpeas – 1 cup
- Water – 5-6 cups (for soaking and cooking)
Method
- Wash the chickpeas and soak it in enough water overnight. Take this soaked chickpeas in a pressure cooker and cook for 3 whistles with enough water.
- Once cooked, strain out the chickpeas and keep it for later use.
- Now we need to cook the liquid alone for about 10 minutes until it reduces to about 1 cup.
- Cool this liquid in the refrigerator for few hours. The liquid becomes viscous like a jelly.
- Take this out in a bowl and start whipping using a hand held electric whisk.
- After a good 25 minutes of whipping, you will see the magic happen. You will have a thick meringue as shown in the picture.
Detailed Steps to make Aquafaba Meringue
Wash the chickpeas couple of times and soak it in enough water overnight. In the morning it would have plumped up.
Take this chickpeas in a pressure cooker and add about 3 cups of water.
Cook for 3 whistles until the beans are cooked soft. If you cook in an open pot, it might take about 45 minutes and will need some extra water.
Once cooked, drain the cooked water into a bowl. You can use the chickpeas to make other tasty recipes.
Switch on the flame and reduce the cooking liquid until it reduces to about 1 cup.
Cool this liquid in the refrigerator. The liquid becomes thickened like jelly.
Take it in a bowl and start whipping using an electric hand held whisk. This cannot be whipped manually.
After about 5 minutes, you will see it becoming foamy.
After another 10 minutes of whipping, you will find soft peaks being formed. The aquafaba foams up and expands to almost 4-5 times its original volume. So use a big vessel.
After about 20-30 minutes of whipping, you will have the perfect meringue with stiff peaks. Adding about 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar helps in forming stiff peaks easily. I din't have it on hand so did not use it.
You can sweeten this meringue with required sugar and use it for your recipes. While adding sugar, add 1 tbsp at a time while constantly whisking. If you add all at once, the peaks formed will deflate. Also add vanilla essence for flavor. I used about 1.5 cups of powdered sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract to make my meringue sweet.
Serving Aquafaba Meringue
- This egg-less meringue can be used to make any cookies or pie that call for the regular meringue. Here are some simple vegan friendly macaroons made with aquafaba meringue.
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