Have you heard of Aquafaba? I was searching for a particular vegan recipe involving Chickpeas and I came across this ingenious idea.
Aquafaba is the result of cooking chickpeas in boiled water. The liquid becomes particularly viscous and cleverly enough it has the ability to, in a way, take on some of the properties that egg can be used for, particularly in baking cakes. Its thickness and consistency resembles egg-white. It means Vegans can enjoy things such as Meringues and marshmallow as well as those with an egg allergy. Alas, it isn't particularly nutritional but certainly useful! If you buy a tin of chickpeas, don't throw away the liquid they come in as this is aquafaba and can be used in recipes. If you boil dried chickpeas, save the water you boiled them in- it will become dense and form aquafaba. As can guess, the name comes from the Latin words Aqua (meaning water) and faba (beans) and was discovered . It can keep in the fridge for a week and can also be frozen.
As I was searching, I found these great simple recipes you can make with it.
https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/crunchy-roasted-chickpeas/
https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/easy-vegan-marshmallow-fluff/
https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/vegan-meringue-cookies/
https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/vegan-confetti-cake/
I also found this great article on the Vegan Society website which shows 20 amazing things you can make with Aquafaba including Chocolate Mousse! This sounds and looks good!
https://www.vegansociety.com/whats-new/blog/20-amazing-things-you-can-do-aquafaba
The thing that appeals to me about this is that you are avoiding waste- you are using something that would usually be thrown away or discarded and it is something which makes so many things available for those who can't eat egg or dairy, even Mozarella!!
What do you think? Will you be giving this a go the next time you open a can of chickpeas or boil some dried ones? I am very intrigued to try it!
I had never heard of Aquafaba. I always rinse out that liquid out of the canned chickpeas and beans. I would like you to report to us how your recipes turned out. I mostly use chickpeas in hummus.I haven't made any for a while so maybe I should whip up a batch. I love hummus.
ReplyDeleteHugs, Julia
I have heard that you can use the liquid from tins of chickpeas as an egg replacement but I haven't tried it. I don't bake often enough and I can't remember the last time I had to veganise a cake. One of my new colleagues is vegan but I don't bake for work any more since I would have to take the cake on a train for 2 hours!
ReplyDeleteYes, several of my vegan friends use chickpea water to make meringues very successfully.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of Aquafaba, so this has been educational. Who would have thought such a simple thing as chickpea liquid could be so revolutional! xxx
ReplyDeleteIt is very funny that I'm reading about chickpeas here right now, as this afternoon I spent at least an hour browsing recipes using the bean - not the aquafaba, though I am interested in that, but the flour: besan, chickpea flour, gram, all the names.
ReplyDeleteI have some in the fridge that I wanted to find a non-sweet recipe for, and I found a LOT, including savory pancakes that I might try first. In India they make a lot of sweets using the flour, and they are delicious! But I could do without more sweets...
Interesting! I love chickpeas and could use this as an ingredient in several dishes. Thanks for being so helpful!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about aquafaba, this is really interesting!
ReplyDeleteHow interesting. Since I started to make my own hummus I have chickpea water available at least once a week!
ReplyDeletexx