What is Aquafaba?
Aquafaba is the commonly used name for the liquid remains of cooked beans (in our case Chickpeas), it is a vegan egg-alternative discovered by Goose Wohlt. One of the unique properties of the bean water is the ability to be whipped into foam. At mediamatic ETEN we use it particularly in the mayonnaise, whipped cream, apple cake, ice cream and various sweets like meringues and pavlova. Scroll down for our preferred and extensively tested recipe.
Make your own Aquafaba
Ingredients
- Dried Chickpeas. Keep in mind, we definitely want to avoid canned chickpeas!
- Water
Materials
- Large weckpot
- Measuring cup
- Cooking pot
- Sieve
- Jar/bowl
- Plastic foil
Directions
Day 1
Soak 250 grams of chickpeas with circa 600 ml water for at least 6-8 hours (max. 48h). They double their weight and absorb 1/1. The same ratio can be used for another amount of AF.
Day 2
Drain the soaked water to reduce the chickpeas flavor in your Aquafaba and replace this with 1 l fresh water. You can also keep the soaked water for a stronger AF, but you need to add the double amount of soaking water in advance.
Put the chickpeas with the water in a pot. Cover the pot with a lid and cook them approximately 100 minutes. (we don’t use salt or baking soda to help them cook) Don’t mind about the foam which appears on top of the water while cooking. It goes away after a while.
After cooking the chickpeas, let them cool down without draining the liquid, in a clean jar or bowl for an hour or two (depends on the amount you cooked).
When it has cooled down cover it with plastic foil and put in the refrigerator overnight. I noticed that longer than 1 night can affect the AF’s texture. I don’t advise you to do this.
Day 3
Strain the Aquafaba the next morning. You should end up with at least 250 ml Aquafaba. The liquid should feel gelatinous and looks like raw egg white. If you are unsure about the texture, you can concentrate the liquid by cooking it again. It will last for a week in the refrigerator or longer in the freezer, if you are not in a rush to use your homemade AF. You can use the soft chickpeas for making delicious vegan hummus!
Next step
Now you have a starting point to make delicious sweets. While experimenting we focused on making meringues and pavlova’s with the foam. Below is a simple recipe to turn your
AF into:
Use your Aquafaba for Meringues
Ingredients
- 250 ml Aquafaba
- 400 gram sugar (all kinds of sugar, but granular is safe)
Whip the liquid in a mixer until the foam becomes stiff and peaks form. You can’t over-whip, but you will need strong whisk attachment and high speed. Add the sugar very slowly after you have your peaks. There are other optional ingredients which can help stiffen the peak, like cream de tartar of lemon. Keep whipping the foam till the grittiness of the sugar is gone. Separate foam into shapes. Bake it for minimum 2 hours at 100 degrees. They get brown and bitterly by higher temperatures so be safe. Let the meringues cool down in the oven. Important: store the meringues in an airtight container or they will get sticky.
Food & Mediamatic
Is it possible to decrease our footprint by re-using our waste flows? And what can micro-organisms do for the taste, durability and digestibility of our products? These are some of the questions we try to investigate here at our Biotoop.
Our chefs at Mediamatic ETEN and Myco Brewery team are constantly experimenting with new ingredients in order to contribute to a circular economy. And we invite you to come along! Join us for dinner, check our calendar for the upcoming: Zuursalons, Fermentation Workshops, Futurist Dinners. Or if you want to read more about our food fascination read up on our previous projects like Over datum eetclub and Fermentology.