Aquafaba is a vegan egg replacer that’s changing the world of vegan cooking. Not only does aquafaba replace egg in recipes like a dream, it’s basically free. Here’s a guide to getting started with this magical vegan egg replacer!
Aquafaba as a Vegan Egg Replacer
Vegan meringue is just one of the awesome uses for aquafaba – the juice that you’d normally drain and toss from cooked beans. This discovery is kind of revolutionizing vegan cooking, and it’s beautiful.
Aquafaba seems to be the name the vegan community has landed on for bean juice. It certainly has a better ring to it than bean juice, doesn’t it?
The liquid from certain canned beans has the right balance of proteins to do a lot of the things that eggs do in a recipe.
Folks have been using it to make all kinds of vegan meringue recipes: pies, cookies, cakes. But there are some other cool ways to use this stuff, too.
I have shared a couple of my own recipes using aquafaba, and there are so many ways to use this stuff. It’s a brand new discovery, so folks are still testing, experimenting, and creating amazing vegan recipes with this all natural, inexpensive egg replacer.
Using Bean Liquid as an Egg Replacer
You can use the liquid from canned or home cooked beans to make aquafaba. I’ve been seeing the best results from chickpeas and white beans, but folks have also used red bean, black bean, and pinto bean liquid to replace eggs.
If you’re using the liquid from homemade beans, you’ll want to simmer it on the stove until it thickens to an almost eggwhite-like consistency. With canned beans, you can use it as-is.
The quick and dirty for making aquafaba egg replacer: For things like cookies, cakes, and breads, three tablespoons of chickpea or white bean juice is all you need to replace an egg. If your recipe calls for a large egg, use four tablespoons.
I used aquafaba as an egg replacer in my waffle iron brownies recipe. You guys, it worked like a charm! For this use, you don’t even need to beat the liquid. Just add it straight.
Making Vegan Meringue with Aquafaba
For a vegan meringue recipe, your ratio of bean liquid to sugar should be around one part liquid to 1 1/3 parts sugar. You can get away with 1 1/4 parts sugar, though.
Start low – you can always add more sugar if you’re not getting the stiff peaks you want! I see recipes that say to add the sugar after you have soft peaks, but I had success adding most of the sugar right from the get, then adding more as needed.
I know – this is a lot of sugar. Meringues are mostly sugar, and so far no one’s found a way around that. Whether you use egg or aquafaba, sugar plus the protein is what gives you stiff, shiny peaks.
Folks are still testing things like quiche, strata, and other recipes where eggs play a bigger role. I haven’t played with aquafaba quiche yet, but it looks like some people are having success there using aquafaba, chickpea flour, and black salt. I’ll definitely post if I come up with my own aquafaba vegan quiche!
How to Freeze Aquafaba
You can freeze aquafaba. It will keep for a few days in the fridge, but to store it for longer, you can keep it in the freezer. To freeze:
- Pour into ice cube trays.
- Pop out the frozen cubes and transfer to an airtight container to freeze long term.
Your aquafaba cubes will keep for about six months in the freezer. Defrost overnight in the fridge or in the microwave. Since one standard ice cube tray section holds two tablespoons of liquid, you can use two aquafaba ice cubes for one large egg.
OK, so those are the basics, but with something so new, it’s nice to have recipes to jump off of. Below are vegan meringue recipes and then some examples of other ways you can use aquafaba.
Vegan Meringue Recipes
Using aquafaba to make vegan meringue was how this all started, so I wanted to share a few vegan meringue recipes that folks have been making first.
- My white bean vegan meringue recipe made perfect, beautiful cookies.
- The Gentle Chef made a beautiful lemon meringue pie that works with white bean or garbanzo bean juice.
- Goose Wohlt – the fellow who started this vegan meringue revolution – created a lovely coconut key lime pie for Pi Day.
- Like a Vegan used chickpea liquid to make a vegan pavlova.
- Wallflower Girl used chickpea aquafaba to make royal icing without eggs.
- And, of course, I couldn’t leave out the macarons! Check out these peaches and cream macarons from Floral Frosting!
Beyond Meringue: Recipes Using Aquafaba as Egg Replacer
I am floored by some of these uses, y’all. Seriously.
- Somer at Vedged Out wanted to see how aquafaba worked as a straight up egg replacer, no whipping. And she made the best chocolate chip cookies EVER. This is the recipe that proved that straight, unwhipped bean liquid could replace eggs in baking.
- Why buy expensive vegan marshmallow fluff at the store, when you can use Seitan is My Motor’s five ingredient recipe?
- This marshmallow party is pretty awesome, and Seitan Beats Your Meat (best blog name ever?) blew my mind with her homemade Lucky Charms.
- Kohlrabi & Quince used a mix of chickpea and pinto bean liquid to re-create her favorite Easter cookie recipe from her childhood.
- This was the first savory recipe I’ve run across using aquafaba: Peanut Butter & Vegan’s vegan mayo!
- Somer is also working on a vegan strata recipe using chickpea liquid in place of the egg. She hasn’t posted that one on her blog yet, but I’m looking forward to it!
Have you done any experimenting with bean liquid in place of eggs? I’m so impressed with how people are working aquafaba magic!
Renee
Thank you very much! I was looking for a vegan air fryer (just bought a Cozyna) recipe for donut holes, and had no idea at all about this aquafaba business (new vegan, 3 months). This opens up a whole bunch of new doors for me. I’d been using soaked ground flax seeds for my eggs, and throwing out the bean water. Now I have a use for it, and a use for my ice cube trays that I haven’t used in years. Awesomeness!
Becky Striepe
Oh I am so glad I could help!
Gurubandhu
Can you make the “meringue” with anything other than egg beaters? Like a good blender, immersion blender or something else? How long do you need to blend if the consistency is like egg whites before blending? Thanks.
Becky Striepe
No, this recipe definitely needs an electric mixer. A stand mixer will work also.
Conni
Just tried aquafaba to replace beaten egg whites in a Maine melt-in-your-mouth Blueberry Cake, a traditional recipe from a local Historical Society. It was always fantastic with egg whites, but once we became vegan, the egg substitutes never worked to achieve the melt-in-your-mouth texture. I was amazed at how well the aquafaba achieves the texture of beaten egg whites! I used Vegg to replace the yolks. It wasn’t “perfect” – but pretty close for a first try! I used 4 T of aquafaba per egg white because I wanted a moist cake, abut next time I will use 3 T.
Becky Striepe
I’m so glad to hear it!! You might use AF for all of the egg, unless the yolk is part of the cake’s flavor.
Samantha
Hello
I am a vegan so all my recipes are eggless but I find the texture to be a bit dense. Can I add in the Aquafaba to my eggless recipes to make them more light and fluffy even though the recipes does not ask for eggs?
Becky Striepe
It really depends on the recipe. In general, you’d definitely need to tinker. The AF is going to add moisture as well as lift, so you may need more dry ingredient to compensate.
Atia
Maybe I’ve missed something, but can one make one’s own aquafab or must it come from purchased canned chickpeas?
I hate using canned beans, they never taste as good as freshly cooked ones.
Becky Striepe
You can make it. Save the liquid after cooking, then boil it down until it reduces by half. You want it thick – the consistency of an egg white, basically.
Annalisa
I’m glad to know you can make your own. does the salt amount matter, or is it the bean juice itself that is important?
Becky Striepe
I’ve used both salted and unsalted with no problems!
Naomi
I saw a recipe using a pressure cooker on Amazon TV but the chef had such a strong accent I couldn’t understand him . I did get oook and reduce until thickened to egg white consistency.
Aimee / Wallflower Girl's Kitchen
LOVE aquafaba! It’s made my life so much better. And I just noticed you included my royal icing – thanks 🙂
Becky Striepe
Same here! It’s super handy. 🙂 And you’re welcome – I love your site!
Laurie
Hi, I am so glad I found this site!
Can you tell me if you can use the Aquafaba in a cake, bread or pie recipe that you are using canned beans also, instead of flour?
Becky Striepe
That’s a good question! I’ve only used it in pretty standard baked goods, but I can speak to that. It works great as a binder in cookies and cakes, except angel food cake. I also used it in vegan ‘crab’ cakes and for breading tofu, and it worked out like gangbusters. I hope this helps!
Terra Santos
Another clarification question please. 😉 I’ve seen this used for egg white replacement but are you saying it works for full egg replacement as well? And are the measurements any different? Thanks!
Becky Striepe
It does work well for binding in baking. 3 tablespoons per egg has worked well for me. Sometimes I do 4 tablespoons if it calls for large eggs.
Terra Santos
Awesome. Thank you so much for the super quick response! And you only mix it “till it peaks” for recipes where it calls the same with the egg whites? Otherwise, just dump it in?
Becky Striepe
Exactly! Now I’m super curious about what you’re making. I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Terra Santos
hahaha… Well, it’s not for one particular recipe. We are a family of 7 with multiple food allergies/intolerances. Recently, 3 of us were told to avoid egg white after food sensitivity testing. Considering we already have to a multitude of other foods to avoid, I was trying to figure out how in the world I could still make things without eggs. So this is a recent world of learning for me. I’ve tried the flax/chia mix and it didn’t work super well with the pancakes I made at all. I tried baking soda/vinegar and that wasn’t tasty. I’ve been told some substitutes work better in some things than others so I’m still experimenting. 😉 So I really appreciate the help! Now I have to figure out what to serve for breakfast on the 3-4 days per week we were having eggs!
Becky Striepe
Yeah, it’s definitely true that different subs work in different places. For breakfast, maybe tofu scrambles or overnight oats? My husband also really likes grit bowls in the morning with sliced avocado on top. Let me know if I can help further!
Terra Santos
Unfortunately we can’t do soy. The kids can have oats but I can’t. Boo. Gotta get creative. Thanks for the offer to help!
Becky Striepe
Wow, you have a lot of moving pieces! You might check out Fork and Beans. She is great at allergy-friendly cooking. I think she has a baking guide that’s free, too.
Terra Santos
Yeah… It’s nuts. I’ll check that out. Thanks again!
Terra Santos
Alas!!! I tried a muffin recipe and a pumpkin roll recipe with this method last night and neither worked! I was so sad! What might I have done wrong? They tasted fine but they did not rise at all. I have pictures of both. Thoughts?
Becky Striepe
Hmm interesting! I’m surprised about the muffins especially. And stumped!
Terra Santos
Neither recipe called for the eggs to be beaten… however, do you think maybe I should’ve with the aquafaba? I used it straight up as you mentioned with your waffles.
Becky Striepe
It’s worth a shot! Maybe just do a batch of one thing to see what works? Do you have the recipe handy? I can take a look!
Terra Santos
I do have both recipes by snapshot if you can tell me where to send or email them. Thanks for asking!
Becky Striepe
Sure! You can send to Becky at glueandglitter dot com 🙂
Terra Santos
Done. Thank you!
Diane
The chick peas that I have are in salted water. Is this ok or is it other types of tins?
Becky Striepe
Salted is fine. You might back off on the other salt in your recipe, but I have used salted even to make meringue cookies with no problems. If you’re watching your salt, you can definitely find unsalted canned chickpeas, though!
Sue
After draining the beans the first time, can you add more water, cook for a time and make more usable juice with a second draining?
Becky Striepe
I haven’t tried that, so I can’t say. If you give it a shot, I would love to hear how it went!
Dvorah
I would like to use the water from the home made cooking beans. What will be the garbanzo bean – water ratio ? And also what about using chickpea flour water ? Any suggestions Thank you for sharing your awesome recipes ! ????????
Becky Striepe
Hmm I haven’t used the water from homecooked beans, but you can for sure. Not sure of the ratio. I’d cook them the way you would normally, but you can also search the Facebook group I mention in the post. Folks there have done this for sure!
Tee Bone
I’ve used the homemade bean water with great success…just cook beans as you normally would & drain into a jar for numerous uses. I usually just cover brand by 1/2 to 1 inch depending on how many good of beans in trying to cook & salt as I normally would. Just made mayo today & it rocks!
Becky Striepe
Thank you so much for this comment! Very helpful info here!
Denise
I drained off the liquid from a can of pinto beans a couple of days ago. Do you know if that will work too? Or fits it have to be white or garbanzo beans? Thanks in advance for your response! 🙂
Becky Striepe
I haven’t personally used pinto, but I hear that it works. I would measure the liquid and start with 1 part sugar to 1 part liquid, then add sugar by the tablespoon as needed. Different beans yield different amounts of liquid.
Pauline
Thank you for sharing your vegan recipes & tips!
Teprine
This may be a ridiculous question, but when you say chick pea juice, what do you mean? The water in the can or the liquid that the chickpeas have been soaking in? Just not entirely clear for me.
Tep
Becky Striepe
Not ridiculous at all. It’s the water left after cooking. I usually collect it by just sticking a bowl under the colander when I drain my beans from the can or after cooking.
Micaela @MindfulMomma
Always fun to learn of a new plant-based way to cook great food!
Becky Striepe
Thank you, Micaela!
Betsy (Eco-novice)
Awesome! I’ll have to share this with my GF Vegan bean-loving sister!
Becky Striepe
Hurrah! Enjoy it!
Hannah
Nice roundup! Someday someone will figure out angel food cake. I so wanted to be the genius that made it happen, but….nope!
Becky Striepe
I am eagerly awaiting that day too, Hannah! You could still be the one to crack it!
Aqua Faba
What an #aquafabalous post!
Becky Striepe
Aw thank you, Goose!