Aquafaba (vegan egg white, egg white substitute)

Aquafaba is a name for the cooking liquid of pulses, primarily chickpeas. Due to its properties, the liquid is used as an egg white substitute for making beaten egg whites. Thanks to its possible uses, aquafaba is particularly important in vegan cuisine and for people with an allergy to egg white.

Use in the kitchen:

What does aquafaba mean? Aquafaba, the thick cooking water of legumes such as chickpeas or (white) beans, ¹ is suitable for making vegan meringues, macaroons, vegan ice cream and mayonnaise.

Like egg whites, aquafaba has the ability to form a stable foam after whipping. Unlike egg whites, however, it stays solid for hours - without collapsing. For this reason, the most common use of aquafaba is as a replacement for egg whites.

Examples of successful sweet dishes and desserts or pastries with aquafaba as a protein substitute are: nougat (also known as nougat), chocolate mousse, cookies or marshmallows. ² Aquafaba can also be used to make vegan butter or as an egg substitute in cakes. Unwhipped aquafaba is also suitable as a binding agent for egg-free doughs.

How much aquafaba for one egg? It is very difficult to give an exact amount of aquafaba for one egg, as it depends on the cooking time of the pulses, the dissolved substances, and also the size of the spoon. For cooked preserves in exchange for egg whites, you will often find the recommendation of two tablespoons of aquafaba instead of a medium egg white - or 3 tablespoons instead of a whole medium-sized egg. Sometimes you will find the recommendation of 3 teaspoons for an egg as a substitute, which is a bit low for beating, for example; or 120 ml of aquafaba should replace the egg white of around 4-5 eggs. To be sure, you will probably have to try out for yourself how much aquafaba is needed for an egg in different dishes.

On its own, the whipped water from the legume has a slight taste of its own, but this evaporates after baking. Whipped aquafaba is a little more sensitive to heat than conventional egg whites; it liquefies at too high a temperature, which is why temperatures of around 100 °C are recommended.

Differences to egg white:

Can you freeze aquafaba? In contrast to egg white, once obtained, aquafaba can be easily frozen, thawed, heated and cooled without losing its ability to foam. Aquafaba has about a tenth of the protein content of animal protein for a certain weight. ³ This may make it more suitable for people with impaired protein metabolism, such as phenylketonuria (PKU). On the other hand, it is not a good protein substitute in preparations that rely largely on the structural properties of proteins. ² An example of this would be angel cake (also known as angel food cake).

Here we have a recipe for Vegan Meringues and a small selection of our recipes with chickpeas that provide you with aquafaba: Quinoa Bowl with Chickpeas and Corn, Hummus, Baked Green Falafels according to Terry Hope Romero.

Recipe for vegan mayonnaise:

Ingredients: 60 ml aquafaba, 190 mlsunflower oil (or rapeseed oil), 1/4 tsp ground yellow mustard seeds, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, 1 tbsp maple syrup.

Preparation: Put the aquafaba, mustard seeds, salt, apple cider vinegar and syrup in a tall container and beat with an electric hand mixer for about 1 minute. Add the sunflower oil (or the healthier rapeseed oil) in small amounts and continue mixing for about 4 minutes. Depending on the consistency, you can add a little more oil or mix for longer. Fill the vegan mayonnaise into a glass jar and place it in the fridge for a few hours. It can then be used as usual and stored in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Shopping - where to buy?

At supermarket chains such as Coop, Migros, Denner, Volg, Spar, Aldi, Lidl, Rewe, Edeka, Hofer etc. you can rarely buy pure aquafaba ready-made. Selected supermarkets offer vegan egg substitutes, which are usually made from sweet lupins mixed with corn flour, linseed flour, sunflower seed flour etc. However, you can find aquafaba in canned pulses (beans, chickpeas) in every supermarket.

In health food stores, drugstores or organic supermarkets (e.g. Denn's Biomarkt) you can now also find canned aquafaba or instant powder, i.e. dried components of the cooking water, from which the liquid aquafaba can be reconstituted by adding water. The easiest way is to buy ready-made products that contain aquafaba, although we recommend preparing it yourself.

Homemade:

The best types of aquafaba seem to come from the cooking liquid of chickpeas and white beans. Other pulses such as peas, soybeans, lentils, kidney beans and black beans can also be used to some extent. However, these foods have a slightly different composition to chickpeas and white beans, so you may have to try different concentrations until you get a satisfactory product. However, even with a good cooking liquid, you may not be able to make meringues right the first time. In this case, you will need to continue reducing the cooking liquid until the correct concentration is reached.

• Traditional variant: You can cook 1 ½ cups of dried chickpeas in a pressure cooker for 15-20 minutes after soaking for at least 8 hours (throw away the soaking water afterwards), covered with water. After cooking, the liquid should thicken slightly. Drain the chickpeas and collect the liquid, the aquafaba. You can also use other pulses, such as white beans. It is not quite as easy to foam up the aquafaba made in this way. You may have to boil the resulting cooking liquid again to thicken it further and sometimes mix it for longer than 10 minutes to achieve the desired result.
• Quick version: The easiest way is to use the liquid from canned chickpeas. For the quick version we recommend only using organic canned goods to buy. The chickpeas are often processed more gently, but above all they contain fewer or no additives. We particularly recommend using glass jars instead of cans, which are generally the most common in organic shops. A jar of chickpeas contains between 120 and 150 ml of chickpea water.

Glass jars are more environmentally friendly and do not contain aluminum or BPA (bisphenol A). The hormone-active BPA is found in the epoxy resin inner layer of cans, among other things, and can affect reproduction in animals, particularly the organs required for reproduction. In addition, long-term exposure is often associated with cardiovascular disease or obesity, although there is currently no proven causality. A study conducted in 2011 showed that high levels of BPA can quickly develop through the consumption of canned food. The English-language study can be found at this address: ncbi nlm nih gov/pmc/articles /PMC3367259/. ⁴

Tips for making:

• Do not use a "blender" (stand mixer) as its blades will destroy the foam that is created (use the "butterfly" attachment for food processors such as Thermomix). A hand blender with a whisk attachment or a simple hand mixer is best.
• The viscosity of the aquafaba can usually be improved if the cooking water, including the pulses, is kept in the fridge overnight. During this time, more soluble components from the chickpeas/beans can pass into the surrounding liquid, which also reduces the frothing or whipping time.
• To get fluffy but stable peaks from aquafaba or the aquafaba foam obtained from it, you need 6-8 minutes, sometimes up to 15 minutes. After all, you can't "overbeat" it like you can with egg whites. If you want to increase the stability of the foam peaks, you can add cream stiffener, cream of tartar ( cream of tartar baking powder or regular baking powder is also suitable), a pinch of salt or a splash of lemon juice.
• Similar to egg whites, a clean bowl helps the preparation process of aquafaba foam. Experience has also shown that the process can be greatly accelerated if the bowl is placed in the freezer 10 minutes before preparation.
• Objects that come into contact with the aquafaba must be free of grease.
• You need a large bowl for whipping: approx. 150 ml of aquafaba makes approx. 800 ml of vegan egg whites.
• Meringues and meringues with aquafaba are "dried" at less than 100 °C.

Special: Zsu Dever, the author of a cookbook with vegan recipes using aquafaba, recommends adding kombu (an edible seaweed also known as Japanese kelp) to your own aquafaba preparation. To do this, cook two 2.5 x 2.5 cm pieces of kombu together with 400 g of chickpeas in 2 l of cooking water on the lowest setting on the stove for about 4 hours and then remove. Kombu not only releases minerals that make the legumes softer, but also increases the consistency of the aquafaba. This gives you around 600-700 ml of aquafaba and 6 cups of cooked chickpeas at the end of the cooking process.

Storage:

You can store the still liquid aquafaba in an airtight container, such as a well-sealable jar, in the refrigerator for 4-6 days. Alternatively, aquafaba can be frozen and can then be used for several weeks. By smelling the stored aquafaba before use, you can ensure that the quality is still good. As long as it does not smell slightly spoiled, it is suitable for use.

Ingredients - nutritional value - calories:

It is assumed that aquafaba consists of around 95% liquids and 5% a composition of primary carbons and proteins. Even if aquafaba contains fewer calories than egg whites, for example, the use of sugar - a common phenomenon in connection with preparations that contain aquafaba - leads to a significant increase in the calorie content. A general definition of the ingredients is difficult because the processing, as mentioned above, influences the composition. Therefore, different information can be found depending on the manufacturer. It also plays a role what the aquafaba was made from, e.g. soybeans or other pulses.

Aquafaba consists of carbohydrates, proteins and other plant substances that have passed into the cooking liquid during the cooking process. This is how aquafaba acquires its foaming, emulsifying, binding and gelling properties. ⁵ The higher the temperature, the higher the pressure and the longer the cooking time, the more plant substances pass into the cooking liquid. ²

Depending on the source, 100 grams of raw chickpeas contain between 2.5 and 4.5 mg of saponins. Since saponins are heat-stable substances, a loss of about 7-17% can be expected during a cooking process such as that required to produce aquafaba. ⁸

Health aspects - effects:

Is aquafaba unhealthy? Quite the opposite, because aquafaba does not pose the risk of salmonella, as is the case with raw eggs. Even unheated products such as aquafaba mayonnaise can be consumed without any problems after a few hours without refrigeration.

In addition, aquafaba is free from potential allergens such as gluten, wheat, soy (if not from soybeans), yeast, mustard or peanut.

Dangers - Intolerances - Side effects:

Since aquafaba is a component of legumes dissolved in water, some people may experience allergic reactions. In this case, however, intolerance and symptoms of illness can often be avoided by replacing the legumes used as a source. For example, if you are allergic to chickpeas, you can use white beans as a source of aquafaba instead of chickpeas.

For the same reason, aquafaba can also have slightly flatulent properties. People with very sensitive digestion may want to try this ingredient in small amounts first.

General information:

The discovery of aquafaba began in 2015 with the search for a way to create a good vegan meringue. Inspired by the story of two French chefs who made a mousse from chickpea water, the US-born software engineer Goose Wohlt came across "aquafaba". The discovery of using chickpea water as a protein substitute heralded the beginning of the aquafaba community and many experimental aquafaba recipe creations. ⁶

Alternative names:

Aquafaba is also known as chickpea water or the common name "chickpea snow" (for whipped aquafaba). Since the name is made up of the Latin words for water, aqua, and bean, faba, the English name is also aquafaba. In German, the term is used primarily as a neuter form (das Aquafaba) and not in the feminine form. The plural is sometimes derived from the beans (fabae, feminine), hence Aquafabae. However, here we are talking about a liquid, which makes the use of the plural rather insignificant.

Literature - Sources: