Today non-recipe recipe, I talk about aquafaba, better known as aquafaba, an egg substitute.

Let’s start by explaining what it is, and without beating around the bush, I’ll tell you it’s simply the storage water or cooking water of legumes, preferably chickpeas or cannellini beans.

This liquid has a “magical” property, indeed it can whip just like egg whites but is less stable so it must be used immediately in your recipes.

But let’s start from the beginning, in 2014 a vegan cooking enthusiast, Joel Roessel, was looking for something to replace eggs in his recipes and realized that the cooking water of legumes could become a foam. Over time, others studied it and discovered that, when whipped, it could be used to make meringues, ganache, mayonnaise, and other delicious preparations. It was in 2015 that Goose Wohlt, an American electronic engineer, named it aquafaba by combining the Latin words aqua and faba (water and bean).

Aquafaba is often considered a food waste and therefore, in most cases, thrown away. Its unique mixture of starches, proteins, and other soluble plant solids gives it emulsifying, foaming, binding, and thickening properties.

Aquafaba as it is does not have a particular taste and thus mainly serves to improve the texture of various preparations, making doughs and preparations softer and fluffier. Using it you won’t taste the legumes at all.

I recommend using the storage water of chickpeas in glass jars because it is clearer and more transparent, it is also possible to use the cooking water of chickpeas or dried beans cooked by us, but you don’t always get the desired result because, when preparing it ourselves, we don’t always manage to achieve the right percentage and presence of necessary proteins and starches.

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