Not all foods have their own URLs, but aquafaba ("AF"), the viscous canned chickpea liquid you usually dump down the drain, does. Aquafaba.com was registered in 2015 by a savvy software engineer in central Indiana, Goose Wohlt, after he, along with a 45,000-person Facebook group (Vegan Meringues - Hits and Misses), settled on a name. Other contenders were "bloop" and "l'egg," but the winner came from a Googling spree: "Latin for bean" plus "latin for water," combined—fabaaqua—and reversed—aquafaba.
The obsession with the ingredient began after Wohlt and his wife discovered French cook Joël Roessel's tutorial on how to make vegan meringues. Turns out, the thick, gelatinous byproduct of soaking legumes is a perfect vegan egg substitute. Now haute restaurants, bars, and news and media outlets all over the country, from Los Angeles to New York, are catching on. Here's everything you need to know.
Aquafaba is the thick liquid that results from soaking or cooking legumes, such as chickpeas, in water for an extended period of time. It's the translucent viscous goop you probably rinse down the drain when you open a can of chickpeas. And, in vegan cooking circles, it's become the silver bullet to making airy meringues and expert whiskey sours without any eggs.
Jason Eisner, the lead bartender of Gracias Madre and Café Gratitude, operates a vegan bar program and has found replacers to be excessively smelly, foul-tasting, or difficult to work with. He has spent over 100 hours learning about aquafaba, and it's the only substitute he'll use now. "If you fill two glasses, one with egg whites and the other with aquafaba, you wouldn't even know the difference," he said. "The only telltale sign is the smell: Egg whites smell like wet dog and chickpeas have no smell whatsoever."
The word "aquafaba" was, no joke, invented just a little over a year ago, but it's blowing up among the growing population of vegans. Restaurants such as Nix in New York as well as Blue Hill at Stone Barns have incorporated it into their cooking, as a way to make foams and cocktails from plant-based materials. This is the year aquafaba is poised to hit it big, according to the New York Times, New York Magazine, Eater, and Serious Eats, which all wrote about the wonders of the liquid recently.
Sub in for eggs and egg whites wherever needed—pancakes, waffles, mayonnaise, meringues, you name it. Wohlt says the rule of thumb is: 1 Tbsp. for one yolk, 2 Tbsp. for one white, and 3 Tbsp. for one whole egg. That said, the consistency of your aquafaba makes a difference. Wohlt suggests reducing watery aquafaba about 25 percent on the stove to thicken it up. If it's already thick (as it sometimes is from canned chickpeas), you don't have to reduce. With some trial and error, you'll get a feel for it.
At Gracias Madre and Café Gratitude, emulsified aquafaba takes the place of egg whites to build the foam in drinks like sours and cappuccinos (plus, a vegan egg cream coming soon!). For a drink like a whiskey sour, Eisner will shake the liquor with ice, strain into a large beverage pitcher, add an ounce of aquafaba, then take a hand emulsifier to it. Next, Eisner aerates the mixture for about seven seconds, and pours it all back into the shaker (no ice, because the aquafaba will cling to it). The aquafaba takes on whatever flavor added to it. The Hotline Sling at Gratitude Newport Beach (pictured above), a combination of gin, sloe berry, and lemon is mixed with an aquafaba salt foam and grated dark chocolate that Eisner swears tastes like salted caramel.
Bespectacled condiment brand Sir Kensington's just launched Fabanaise, a vegan mayonnaise substitute made with aquafaba. The hope is that it'll be a creamy, savory sandwich spread (it's also laced with kombu seaweedl) or maybe a dipping sauce for crudités and roasted vegetables.
Wohlt spent the last year raising money from dedicated members of the Facebook group to test the phytochemical make-up and nutritional information of aquafaba. His analysis found that aquafaba is about 1 percent protein, compared to an egg white, which is about 10 percent protein. Otherwise, the liquid is a simple combination of protein, starches, and vegetable gum, similar to the composition of a chickpea.
"To my mind, there’s no reason to substitute it in things that would have egg whites unless you're vegan," said dietician Christy Harrison. While chickpeas are filling and can be a great source of vegetarian protein when combined with grains, she noted, aquafaba doesn’t have quite the same properties as the legume (it has less fiber). In general, there just isn't much to it. "Nutritionally, they’ve just started studying [aquafaba]," she said, "Even starch-wise, there’s not much in the serving size that you’d actually eat. Trace amounts of protein." And in cocktails, she added, you don't risk foodborne illness that comes from raw egg whites.
Meanwhile, there's plenty of room for chefs, bartenders, and home cooks to experiment. Jason Eisen suspects he's spent "100 hours" playing with aquafaba, and now he's dreaming up a meringue and spirits pairing for the end of summer. "When I get obsessed with something, for better or worse, I spend a ridiculous amount of time on that thing," he said, "A few years ago, it was vegan organic pop rocks."
Only time will tell.