Aquafaba Trivia | 30 facts about the vegan egg substitute

As we all know vegans don’t eat meat or any animals products. Thus, vegan found many substitutes that taste equally nice.

Let’s find out more about one of these substitutes: The so called aquafaba.

1. Aquafaba is the viscous water in which legume seeds such as chickpeas have been cooked.
2. Aquafaba has the ability to mimic functional properties of egg whites in cooking.
3. This is why aquafaba can be used as a direct replacement for them in some cases.
4. It can be used as a substistute for meringues and marshmallows.
5. It is especially suitable for use by people who avoid eggs, such as vegans.
6. Aquafaba is used as a replacement for eggs and egg white.
7. Its composition of carbohydrates, proteins, and other soluble plant solids which have migrated from the seeds to the water during cooking gives it a wide spectrum of emulsifying, foaming, binding, gelatinizing and thickening properties.
8. In general one medium egg white can be replaced with 30 millilitres (2 tablespoons) of aquafaba, or one medium whole egg with 45 ml (3 tbsp).
9. The simplest way to obtain aquafaba is to decant the liquid from canned or boxed legumes such as white beans or chickpeas.
10. It can be made by boiling, steaming, pressure cooking, or microwaving pulses in water.
11. Sweet applications for aquafaba include meringues, macarons, nougat, icing, ice cream, fudge, and marshmallows.
12. Savory applications include baked goods, dairy substitutes, mayonnaise, cheese substitutes, batters, and meat substitutes.
13. Aquafaba is also recommended as a vegan substitute for egg white in preparing cocktails with a foamy “head”, particularly sour cocktails like the whiskey sour.
14. Aquafaba contains about one tenth of the protein of egg whites by weight.
15. The difference in protein content may enable those who cannot properly metabolize proteins (such as phenylketonuria) to consume foods which are normally egg-based.
16. The lower protein content makes it unsuitable for applications which rely on egg protein for structure, such as angel food cakes.
17. The best aquafaba appears to be from chickpeas and white beans such as the Navy bean.
18. Other legumes such as peas, lentils, soy, kidney, and black beans can be used.
19. It must be mentioned that their slightly different compositions may require more tinkering with the concentration to work well
20. In December 2014, musician Joël Roessel found that water from canned beans can form foams much like protein isolates and flax mucilage do.
21. Roessel shared his experiments on a blog and published recipes for floating island of Chaville, chocolate mousse, and meringue made from chickpea liquid to demonstrate its foaming capabilities.
22. Around the same time, vegan food enthusiast Goose Wohlt discovered that the cooking liquid can replace egg white without the need for stabilizers.
23. In March 2015 he published a recipe for egg-free meringue using only chickpea liquid and sugar.
24. A few days later, a Facebook group was created to encourage development and popularize the egg substitute.
25. The word aquafaba is from the Latin aqua (water) and faba (bean).
26. Homemade aquafaba will keep in a Mason jar in the refrigerator for two to three days.
27. Aquafaba can protect and strengthen fine hair.
28. Chickpeas are healthy, and some of the nutrients transfer into the water. Protein and fiber don’t transfer over, but you can still benefit from trace amounts of: B vitamins, folate.
29. Some people claib aquafaba is bad for health because the BPA/BPS chemicals from cans, hormones from pesticides, can also contain a lot of sodium from low-quality salt used during the production.
30. Thus it is low in nutrients and has no added value to our diet.