Aquafaba
An introduction to using bean broth as a vegan egg replacement! This will not answer all of your questions - in fact, it may bring up MORE questions. This video serves to open your mind to the idea & share helpful resources to support your journey.
Aquafaba is bean broth and it’s becoming popular as a vegan substitute for eggs and egg whites.
The easiest way to get aquafaba is to use the liquid in canned beans. If you’ve ever noticed, it’s really thick. But for those of us wanting to avoid canned food, you can make aquafaba from cooking dried beans.
Quick note, aquafaba can be made from any bean, but you’ll most likely see it from chickpeas. But if you make it from white beans or red beans - it doesn’t matter. It works all the same. And that’s one of the beautiful things about aquafaba!
So, first, let’s talk about the tricky part. Because the success of using aquafaba in a recipe hinges on its viscosity, or its thickness, there’s no way to know if you’ve made it right until you start using it.
To help lessen this possibility, I recommend doing some research before you use it in a recipe. There’s a Facebook group called Aquafaba Everything that isn’t just for vegans and if you want a specific vegan group, try Vegan Meringue Hits and Misses. You’ll find a massive community of people asking questions, posting tutorials, offering troubleshooting tips.
I’d love for this video to be a one-stop-shop of what to do and not do, but I don’t have enough aquafaba for all the experiments. I will, however, collect recipes & notes as I use it more & post it all here.
Aquafaba.com is also a wonderful resource for new users.
Cooking Dried Beans: (source: Aquafaba Everything FB group)
- Measure and rinse 4 cups of organic dried chickpeas.
- Cover with cool water and let soak overnight *(Soaking is not totally necessary, but some people like to soak and discard the soaking water before cooking.)
- In the morning, drain and rinse beans, cover with fresh water, cover and cook. I use a slow cooker, but you can use a pot on the stove, a pressure cooker or Instant pot. I slow cook mine overnight (6-8 hours on low).
- Let the beans cool, drain liquid into a container. THIS is aquafaba, liquid gold! Do not discard.
- Place the cooked beans back in the slow cooker (or another pot with a lid) and cover with fresh water about 2 inches over top of the beans. Place beans in the fridge and let soak for 24 hours. Drain this liquid and use as aquafaba. It will not be as dark as the first drained liquid, but it will still work well.
- Use the aquafaba. Refrigerate or freeze the leftover aquafaba. Chilled aquafaba will thicken up and even coagulate. This is GOOD!
Instant Pot Aquafaba (also from Aquafaba FB group)
- Rinse 4 cups of organic garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and soak overnight.
- Drain the soaking water and rinse beans.
- Place the soaked beans in the Instant Pot inner pot.
- Add 12 cups of fresh water.
- Do not add anything else, no salt, no oil, no baking soda – nothing!
- Place water in the inner pot of the Instant Pot. Turn the Instant Pot to Saute. Add in the soaked and drained garbanzo beans. Close the pressure lid and make sure it is seated evenly, lock and turn pressure knob to Sealing. Turn the Instant Pot off.
- Choose Manual and reduce time to 25 minutes.
- When the Instant Pot beeps, the cycle is done, just ignore it. Yes, just walk away. Come back in an hour, remove the lid and drain the lovely, liquid gold known as aquafaba into a large container or pot and chill.
- I like to make a more thick, viscous aquafaba, by not draining the aquafaba off until it is cooled. After cooking and the IP releases pressure on its own, I remove the lid and let the contents come to room temperature without draining. I then place the whole pot (or dump into another pot if necessary) covered, into the fridge to sit overnight. Yep, the cooked garbanzos and the aquafaba. The next day, I drain off the cooked beans and use and what is left is very thick, fabulous aquafaba!
3 tablespoons equals 1 full egg replacement and 2 tablespoons equals one egg white replacement. So freeze it in small amounts so you can defrost only what you need.
