Vegan Meringue Using Aquafaba

Aquafaba is admittedly the most important discovery in 2015!

Aquafaba, or chickpea/Bean brine, is the liquid from cooking beans being used as an egg substitute, it could function as an emulsifier, leavening agent, and foaming agent.

It was discovered by Vegan baker Goose Wohlt in February 2015 after seeing a short film by French chef Joël Roessel, where the latter showed how chickpea brine could be used in recipes much like egg whites. Goose later coined the term aquafaba ("bean liquid") to describe the liquid.

His discovery opened up multiple possibilities for the Vegan world to create recipes that called for Egg white -- food that traditionally was considered a goodbye for good for whoever chooses to turned to Veganism, such as Meringue, Macarons, Meringue lemon Pie and mousse.

I was elated to learn about this discovery from my vegan friend Pragnya. I also started working on it as soon as I have sometimes at hand! New year holidays it is!



Ingredients：
1/2 Cup of dried chickpeas（Garbanzo Bean）
3 cups of water
3-4 tbsp Sugar (You can use more if you like your meringue to be more chewy)
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar or 1 tsp of distilled vinegar

 I used dried chickpeas instead of canned ones as I do not consume much canned foods, the result is still mesmerizing!

1. Clean and soaked 1/2 cup of chickpeas submerged in water for 5-6 hours.

2. Drain and add soaked chickpeas into a cooking pot/crock pot, add 3 cups of water and cook at high for 5-6 hours or until chickpeas become tender.

Note：You can also cook the bean over stove, bring the chickpeas to boil and turn to low and simmer for 90-100 minutes until the beans become tender.

3. Remove the cooked chickpeas (use it for other recipes) and keep the liquid it was cooked in. If the liquid is still too thin, continue to boil the liquid to achieve consistency somewhat closer to egg white.

4. Filter and cooled the liquid, refrigerate it overnight for better result.

5. Add the cooled liquid/Aquafaba, vanilla essence and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl/stand mixer, beat at medium speed with whisk attachment until sugar dissolved completely, turned the mixer up to highest speed possible and beat for 15-17 minutes, scrape the side of mixing bowl in between, stop when stiff peaks form.

6. Scoop or pipe the foam onto parchment pepper lined baking sheet(s) and bake in pre-heated oven at 200F (100 C) for 75-90 minutes. (My Breville smart oven with convection fan on takes only 45-50 minutes to bake.)

7. Let meringues cool for few minutes before serving or storing in an airtight container .

It melt in the mouth!

中文 -- 素蛋白糖霜饼（无蛋）