Aquafaba

http://aquafaba.com/index.html

by david-given • 6 years ago

586 295 6 years ago

aquafaba.com

hahla• 6 years ago

Serious question.. Why is this on the front page?

mpalmer• 6 years ago

Because HN users are upvoting it.

geek_at• 6 years ago

or the mods

punkspider• 6 years ago

Was thinking the exact same thing.

Update: After paying more attention to what it's all about I now find it very interesting.

ehsankia• 6 years ago

I definitely never knew about this, and I too find it pretty fascinating. I don't think it's too uncommon to see Wiki links to random fun TIL stuff on HN.

whoisburbansky2• 6 years ago

Subtext here being wondering why all the upvoters aren’t commenting (yet).

giglamesh• 6 years ago

We are doing a bit of "research" first.

ianai9• 6 years ago

Well for one it feels and browses a lot like old-internet and the premise is old-internet, too. Ie deep info on some random thing someone's blown up.

SkyMarshal• 6 years ago

Because it's disrupting egg whites?

emptybits• 6 years ago

It ticks these boxes for me: food and nutrition hacking, science, intellectual curiosity, community-funded research project, etc.

pizza• 6 years ago

It's accessible, novel, well laid out, and something we can try for ourselves quite easily. It's nice

ianai9• 6 years ago

Exactly, I could see it being used as a good UI/UX example for someone pitching sites to someone.

unwind• 6 years ago

Not the poster, but I did post the same topic (but "only" at Wikipedia) four months ago [1]. That submission totally tanked, though.

I felt it was interesting enough to post then not only because it's rather unexpected, and useful if you want to avoid eggs in your food, but also because it's new.

I had just realized that day that the entire concept of using aquafaba as egg white replacement has not been around for very long. I mean the Wiki page says that the first recipe for meringues using aquafaba was published in 2015.

I think it's really cool that such things are being discovered still. I mean the recipe for egg-based meringues is probably a few hundred years old [2] although sources are obscure. To have a vegan replacement using basically two ingredients appear six years ago is just cool! :)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24210986

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meringue

ianai9• 6 years ago

And the thought process of discovering something new is the very moment that set me down the vegetarian and plant based path. I had a chile cheeseburger for the first time in over a year and realized it was actually bland compared to what I could do with plants.

Rooster615• 6 years ago

There are few truer hacks than recipe substitutions. You have to know the mechanics of what you are doing and how things react with each other to do it right.

Cooking in general is a tinkerers dream in that regard.

whymauri3• 6 years ago

Here's one fun use: replacing egg whites in shaken cocktails. Particularly useful for vegan friends (or anyone who feels squeamish about raw egg as an ingredient).

As long as you have good shaking technique, the foam and mouthfeel get pretty close to egg-based methods.

ianai9• 6 years ago

Got a preference for which to use? Seems like chickpea aquafaba might taste best.

whymauri3• 6 years ago

Chickpea is the most common in the community. I'd caution to be careful with the salinity of the chickpeas, which can vary between vendors.

dcolkitt• 6 years ago

or anyone who feels squeamish about raw egg as an ingredient

I still use chickpea juice in cocktails to mix it up. But the chance of a salmonella poisoning from eggs in the modern US supply chain is astronomically low. You're at much higher risk from most produce.

If you're really risk-averse, you can always sous vide your eggs at 132 F for 60 minutes. This will pasteurize the surface (where any bacteria live), yet preserve the raw egg texture. (Egg whites and yols typically don't change form until around 140 F)

kevinmchugh4• 6 years ago

I've seen the data being 1:10,000 to 1:20,000 eggs in the US or Europe have salmonella present. The whites are theoretically the safest part.

Immunocompromised individuals may still find these risks unacceptable, and then aquafaba or pasteurization is a great option.

llbeansandrice• 6 years ago

In my experience it's not people that are worried about getting sick. It's that they just don't like eggs that much and raw eggs are even worse. So the idea of plopping an egg white into a delicious whiskey sour makes them want to gag.

I have one convert so far, but he didn't see me make the drinks, just the final result.

I'll have to try chickpea juice though since it seems logistically easier than dealing with an egg for a drink.

floren2• 6 years ago

or anyone who feels squeamish about raw egg as an ingredient

I'm weird but I feel more squeamish about using the juice from a can of beans than I do using raw egg! Not because I think there's anything dangerous in there, just because it's unpleasant to me on some odd level :)

soperj3• 6 years ago

You could do it from just soaking dried beans as well I believe.

whimsicalism• 6 years ago

Agreed - it works well in cocktails.

gooberwonder• 6 years ago

My husband uses it in a bourbon sour, and it's delicious and easy to make!

mikeg84• 6 years ago

Make sure no one has a peanut allergy! Aquafaba can cause allergic reactions. My brother experienced this first-hand.

ggm2• 6 years ago

Interesting, scary. My partner has peanut anaphylaxis, epipen, never once reacted to aquafaba which I used in hummous to loosen the mixture if there is enough lemon-juice sourness and it's too thick. We eat a LOT of chickpea. She's never had anything approaching throat constriction or mouth swelling.

Are you sure there wasn't a contamination issue?

jfengel2• 6 years ago

Hey, that's a good idea.

I've been doing a lot of cocktails lately (gee, wonder why). And I do enjoy a flip. I don't make them simply because I don't want to deal with leftover egg yolks. But I tend to throw away aquafaba. Next time I have it, I'll try a flip made with it.

Maybe tonight. Thanks.

hug• 6 years ago

And I do enjoy a flip. I don't make them simply because I don't want to deal with leftover egg yolks

Flips are explicitly whole egg cocktails. If you're not using the yolk, you're not making a flip.

If you try to use aquafaba to replace the egg in a flip recipe, you'll end up with a different drink because you won't have the flavour of the yolk.

jasallen• 6 years ago

It's actually a far superior mouthfeel! The eggwhite foam can have a texture that's hard to describe...dry? coarse? But the aquafaba is smooth (and no, no chickpea taste even though I was pretty worried about that the first time I tried).

RussianCow4• 6 years ago

In my experience, egg white foams are thicker and more stable than those made with aquafaba, and the egg white has a softening effect on booze. Whether this is desirable depends on the cocktail, the booze, and your personal preference. For instance, I don't think a whiskey sour tastes quite the same with aquafaba (it's a bit harsher and the flavors don't quite marry as well), but I don't notice a difference in a sour made with a clear spirit like pisco. On the other hand, I actually prefer aquafaba in a Ramos Gin Fizz; I find the egg white foam to be too thick, to the point where it just floats on top of the drink and you can't really sip through it.

Pro tip: Instead of doing a dry shake with the egg white, as is traditionally done, try blending it into the cocktail before adding ice. (I use an immersion blender for quicker setup and easier cleanup.) I've found the texture of the foam to be smoother if you do this.

vincentmarle• 6 years ago

People put egg whites in cocktails? That's a new one for me.

RussianCow4• 6 years ago

Traditional whiskey sours (or any other "sour"), among other classic cocktails, are made using an egg white. When shaken well, it creates a foamy layer on top of the drink that is quite stable and offers a pleasant texture (IMO), somewhat similar to the foam you get on top of a freshly poured beer. On top of that, there is some sort of chemical reaction that happens with the egg and alcohol, especially oak-aged spirits—apparently the egg white "softens" the booze, which is nice for higher-proof whiskeys and such.[0]

You can take this even further, too: I make a variation of the Mai Tai that's topped with a foam made by blending egg white with passion fruit puree. The foam is the first thing you taste, so you immediately get hit with the sharp, sweet-tart flavor of the passion fruit, before the rest of the (more subtle) flavors kick in. It's delicious.

(I've done it with aquafaba and it works almost as well, although I've only used canned, which generally contains salt. I don't mind it, but it doesn't work in every cocktail.)

[0]: If you're interested in this stuff, I highly recommend the book Liquid Intelligence by Dave Arnold.

colanderman3• 6 years ago

My wife has made meringues with this. They whip up beautifully and come out deliciously light and crispy.

tunnuz• 6 years ago

Vegan partner loves it for meringues.

ar-nelson9• 6 years ago

I've used aquafaba in cooking a lot, mostly to avoid using so many eggs in baking. And while I've had great results for a few specific recipes, I've also found that it's not a universal egg replacement, and it's hard to tell which recipes it will and won't work in.

I bake a lot of gluten-free and grain-free breads and biscuits, and aquafaba is a great egg replacement in these. Sometimes it even produces a better texture. But in other recipes, like cookies, it doesn't work at all; the dough loses its shape completely and deflates into a puddle.

I've also read about using aquafaba to make meringue or mousse, but I haven't had good luck with that so far. The chickpea taste is strong, and does not go with sugar at all.

I haven't tried using any beans other than chickpeas. Maybe it would work better with different beans.

Rooster615• 6 years ago

Huh, chocolate chip cookies are the main thing I DO make with aquafaba. I wonder what we are doing differently on that dish? They don't come out as perfect cookies for me (they definitely don't brown as much), but consistency wise is pretty much spot on.

I loosely base my recipe on the one Babish came up with on his channel.

lozaning• 6 years ago

If I had to guess, they're not refrigerating their dough. Chilling dough for 24 hours in the fridge before baking is a game changer for cookies.

bananaoomarang• 6 years ago

Not disputing this (perhaps different brand/type/recipe) but I have made aquafaba meringues before and was very impressed, didn’t taste of chickpeas at all to me, just like a meringue texture/sugar wise without the 'egginess'.

ar-nelson9• 6 years ago

Yes, I think the amount of chickpea taste varies based on how much the aquafaba is cooked down. (I always make it by boiling dry chickpeas; I don't use canned.) With some more experimentation I can probably get it to work.

npsimons• 6 years ago

For a binder or thickener, I've found ground flax seed mixed with water to work better.

VectorLock2• 6 years ago

Can you give examples of things that it gives a better texture in?

ar-nelson9• 6 years ago

I have two recipes that use aquafaba: a grain-free biscuit recipe and a grain-free flatbread recipe. A lot of gluten-free breads use eggs because they need a binder to replace the gluten, but the eggs taste, well, eggy. The aquafaba makes it lighter, and not eggy, so it seems more like actual bread.

seanhandley2• 6 years ago

Same experience when we tried it. The flavour was not good.

Kluny2• 6 years ago

Yeah, different egg substitutes apply depending on what you make. Tofu replaces egg in stir fry - flax replaces it in banana bread - aquafaba works for meringues.

joshspankit• 6 years ago

For someone who likes moist banana bread, “flax eggs” are the clear winner.

S_A_P• 6 years ago

Maybe throw in some Xanthan Gum. Ive had some good results using that...

hnick3• 6 years ago

My wife made meringues (technically macarons) with it, the result was fine in texture but maybe there was a bit of a deeper nuttier flavour than usual as you said, but it worked for me. She did use chickpea water too. It would probably go better with a rich filling like chocolate ganache.

chess_buster• 6 years ago

Aquafaba can be made into icecream, too. To prevent crystallisation, just add some vodka (or other alcohol).

k__2• 6 years ago

"Aquafaba can be used to replace egg whites"

"butter, cheeses"

What eggwhites does it replace in butter?

Rooster615• 6 years ago

None obviously, but I think the key here is that butter contains protiens and milk fats that are tough to replicate using non dairy ingredients, unless you are of course making margarine.

I'd imagine aquafaba's unique properties allow you to build "butter" around its structure to simulate the dairy ingredient we are familiar with.

It's not just a 1-1 egg substitute.

k__2• 6 years ago

I see.

Thanks for the info :)

jedimastert2• 6 years ago

I was head-writing a comment about how disappointed I was that this was a quirky software name instead of chickpea water, which is almost magical in properties.

Imagine my delight! Teach me to assume...

striking• 6 years ago

Well, now that you've talked it up like that, I'm head-writing some ideas for a library that could fit this magical food product's name.

allthetime2• 6 years ago

Let's race!

hirundo• 6 years ago

It's widely recommended in vegan circles to discard bean soaking water. Here's an example:

So after the beans have soaked for a while, the soaking water now contains these elements that you are trying to eliminate by soaking the beans in the first place. And this is why the bean water is discarded. So it is best to drain the water and rinse the beans thoroughly before cooking. -- https://www.vegancoach.com/why-discard-bean-soaking-water.ht...

Anyone know whether that's right or wrong? Does it depend on the bean? Maybe the soaking water is a problem but not the cooking water?

warent• 6 years ago

I'm not sure if this is what it's referring to, but I've never used raw beans for aquafaba. It's precooked beans that are soaking in water that make the aquafaba. By that point hopefully you've already cooked the nasties out of the bean

jedimastert2• 6 years ago

Mostly the "aquafaba" that I see referred to (admittedly in passing most of the time) is the liquid from canned chickpeas.

kevinmchugh4• 6 years ago

AFAIK the main reason for soaking beans is to save cooking time and allow for even cooking. It may absorb some of the indigestible sugars, but I'm not positive. They won't hurt you, regardless, though they might cause embarrassment.

Typically the liquid used is from canned chickpeas, which have been cooked, which ought to diminish those sugars.

If you're cooking beans at home, you might want to add carrot and onion peels for flavoring the beans. The resulting broth will be very flavorful and worth saving, but less useful for baking, since it's not neutrally flavored.

tgb• 6 years ago

This is an interesting point. I've taken to cooking beans from dry in a pressure cooker and usually in a "meal" that gets cooked with it at the same time. So I can't discard the water. The toxins in uncooked beans are real, but does the heat of cooking destroy them? It looks like the answer is yes [1], which says that "No significant lectin changes were observed after soaking the beans" but that the lectin levels are undetectable in cooked beans. (I.e. cooking, not soaking is the important part.) That does leave your question in somewhat of a limbo: maybe the water hasn't absorbed any of the lectin and so is safe?

Interestingly, [1] says:

It appears that cooking beans to the point where they might be considered edible is more than sufficient to destroy virtually all of the hemagglutinating activity of lectins.

But then the authors seem somewhat puzzled as to why anyone is reported symptoms of lectin poisoning - who's eating beans that are inedible in texture and hardness? They hypothesize raw food junkie's in salads.

EDIT: I'm more skeptical now that any conclusions can be drawn from this paper. They mention leaching as an important factor at one point, so maybe heat just makes leaching happen at an appreciable rate. And your uncooked water might still have lectin at levels they couldn't observe (since we're looking at it indirectly by only measuring the bean's content) and still be toxic. You only need 5 raw kidney beans to have symptoms.

[1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621....

athrun• 6 years ago

What a very interesting topic.

I found a more recent paper [1] that concludes it is beneficial to soak the beans and then discard the soaking water prior to cooking.

I prepare dry beans regularly and almost never discard the soaking water. Time to reconsider!

[1] https://nuppre.paginas.ufsc.br/files/2014/04/2010-Fernandes-...

ar-nelson9• 6 years ago

This is a misconception about what aquafaba is. Aquafaba is not the soaking water, it's the cooking water.

My usual process for cooking chickpeas is:

- Soak overnight in a bowl. Throw this water out.

- Boil for several hours in new water. Save this water, and boil it down further to make aquafaba.

Not all chickpea recipes allow for this; for example, falafel is usually made with chickpeas that have been soaked but not boiled.

ianai9• 6 years ago

How much more do you boil it down?

scythe2• 6 years ago

I was curious about this also. There could be FODMAPs in the soaking water of many legumes. For recipes with a small amount, it's probably small enough to be fine for all but the most sensitive individuals. Meringues, though, I don't know.

https://www.soscuisine.com/blog/top-5-confusing-fodmap-foods...

gamegod• 6 years ago

Does anyone know if that liquid is jam packed full of Bisphenol A, since it's stewing in direct contact with the edges of the can? I'm always suspicious of that.

tkzed49• 6 years ago

all of my Kroger brand cans state that they have BPA-free liners, so it ought to be possible to avoid this if you want to.

jz_• 6 years ago

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/bpa-substitutes-may-...

Might not necessarily be better, just different to satisfy the claim "BPA free".

abecode• 6 years ago

I used to live with a Mexican family and one of the first non-milk foods they fed the babies was the water drained from cooked beans. I'm not sure if it could be used to cook or make cocktails but it was somewhat thick.

Lobosque• 6 years ago

Had to read everything to realize this isn't some new open source software.

davio• 6 years ago

Now you have the name for your new JS framework

mjsweet• 6 years ago

We have been using aquafaba exclusively due to egg issues for myself and our kids. We have found that mileage varies. Try for organic salt free chickpeas... the taste is not as strong and works amazing for pavlova (Australian desert) and merengue. We have also made chocolate mouse with salt free and I would suggest it’s better than egg based mouse. Salted aquafaba we use in cakes. The most interesting thing about aquafaba is how it responds to heat, we think it’s a lot more forgiving than egg. Both have a protein that responds to friction, but heat works differently so you have to realise that cakes and biscuits have a different texture to “normal”, but we have found over time it’s our new normal and we love it. Lastly, my scientist wife just said that egg has many properties that are useful in cooking and aquafaba is certainly exceptional for a few of them, but not all.

nath_zul• 6 years ago

pavlova (Australian desert)

Excuse me?

dghlsakjg• 6 years ago

It is named after a Russian Ballerina, but is believed to to have originated in Australia or NZ.

nopassrecover• 6 years ago

Unsure if confused by desert/dessert or a kiwi disputing the origin, but it’s effectively a meringue nest that is crunchy outside and marshmallowy inside topped with cream and fruit

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlova_(cake)

hnick3• 6 years ago

It's as Australian as Russell Crowe!

cfontes2• 6 years ago

What is salt free chickpeas? they are all salt free aren’t them?

maxerickson• 6 years ago

Canned chickpeas are typically salted.

shireboy• 6 years ago

My wife made bean brownies once. They tasted like beans, not brownies.

sitkack4• 6 years ago

With caramelized onions? A sour cream and sriracha frosting?

mikeg84• 6 years ago

If you have a peanut allergy, please read: I learned about aquafaba from my younger brother who suffers from a severe peanut allergy. He ordered a cocktail at a bar that substituted egg whites for aquafaba so the drink would be vegan friendly. This was not disclosed on the cocktail menu and he had an allergic reaction. The staff felt horrible after connecting the dots, and his drink and meal were taken care of, but I wanted to share as a warning for anyone with a peanut allergy. be ware of aquafaba in cocktails

ar-nelson9• 6 years ago

Strange... is it common for peanut allergies to be triggered by other legumes, like chickpeas? I'm allergic to peanuts but have never had problems with other legumes, or aquafaba.

mikeg84• 6 years ago

Interesting. My younger brother stays away from all legumes. Chickpeas have caused reactions for him in the past, although much less severe than a peanut.

legitster• 6 years ago

Not to knock the wonderful developments that have happened in plant-based foods in the last decade, but this really makes me appreciate the egg all the more. Some of the egg alternatives seem to require a degree in chemical engineering to get right.

Between the many magical uses of the yolk and white (both separately and together), you appreciate how versatile a collection of fats and proteins it really is. And how user friendly it is. It even comes in it's own packaging!

m-p-32• 6 years ago

I'm glad with all those development into egg-free alternatives. My wife is severely allergic to eggs, and this really opened the door to produce she couldn't never have eaten otherwise.

dylan6044• 6 years ago

Sorry, but did you mean products instead of produce? If you did mean produce, how does an egg allergy effect produce (which I understand as fruits and vegetables) being able to be eaten?

KraftKacke3• 6 years ago

Unless she's allergic to the sulphur compounds, you may really enjoy Kala Namak. It's a traditional asian salt which contains sulfuric ingredients and it makes everything taste like eggs. (It's not heat stable tho.) With avocado you get something that tastes and feels like egg. A sulphur note is also very typical for non-vegan food, as animal protein decay releases these molecules at any stage. I do a modified version of the kinky vegan "Mett" (german, raw minced meat) based on rice cakes and tomato extract (don't judge it before you tried it) and the sulfuric hint really adds to it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kala_namak

youeseh• 6 years ago

Most definitely. I suppose, being able to achieve the results that eggs afford us, but by starting out with arguably simpler ingredients, we'll become better cooks.

As our understanding of fats, sugars and proteins improves, we'll be able to control them even better. Cooking is chemistry, after all :).

KraftKacke3• 6 years ago

I can attest to that. I became mostly vegan, because I had a new friend who was vegan and I started to cook with them in mind. It's fun and challenging, invites for experimentation. Climate and health considerations did the rest. Cooking with meat and cheese is like cheating. You have to be an idiot for it to become a boring dish.

ndiscussion3• 6 years ago

I have a hunch that we have so many simple egg-based recipes because they've gone through so much testing - perhaps in a hundred years we'll say the same thing of aquafaba.

IgorPartola• 6 years ago

Doesn't that say something about how eggs are easy to test compared to other things?

foopod• 6 years ago

Agree, it will be so cool when we can have everything eggs offer and none of the cruelty.

jjeaff3• 6 years ago

There are plenty of cruelty free sources for eggs. Go with a reputable free range grower or if you live in the countryside or even suburbs, there are usually neighbors that sell their excess eggs.

mod2• 6 years ago

As someone who raises chickens, with no cruelty, I'm surprised to hear it's not already an option.

Maybe you should look for another source.

m4636• 6 years ago

I don't know what the answer is - is it less cruel to let a chicken lay eggs for a long time yet remain alive, or raise a calf into a cow, then kill it for its meat?

bweitzman• 6 years ago

I made a vegan pavlova just the other week. Took chickpea juice straight out of a regular can of chickpeas and whipped it up with sugar. No adjustment necessary.

cfontes2• 6 years ago

The amount of salt, sugar and other preservatives in that water is probably not good.

Try to cook your own chickpeas, it's super easy, fast if you know the tricks and a hell of a lot cheaper, and I am no vegan, just love them, you also generate less waste.

m4636• 6 years ago

It's also nice that oranges and bananas come in thick and handy packaging.

The trick to the banana is that it's easier to open it from the bottom.

It's harder to get unwrapping an orange right.

borski• 6 years ago

It's impossible to get unwrapping an orange right. I've tried for a lifetime.

KraftKacke3• 6 years ago

I got a addicted to eating oranges with the peel. Obviously you need to get those not treated, "bio", or peel labeled for consumption. Some don't like the texture, but the automatic intensity and bitter-sweet contrast is so fucking awesome.

Try eating a whole chilled orange in the warm shower like an animal. Just make sure your bite gets pulp and peel both.

scythe2• 6 years ago

The egg also seems like a good target for biomanufacturing. It's a liquid (essentially), and mostly composed of just five proteins and lecithin.

girvo• 6 years ago

You just use 3 tablespoons of the water from canned chickpeas. I’ve been doing it for years now. It’s not that difficult.

Signed,

Egg Anaphylaxis

Rooster615• 6 years ago

While I fully support and love the fact that this is on the front page (aquafaba rocks :D), can we just take a minute and muse on how nice it is to see a sensible, clean, old-fashioned web site that gets information to you straightforward and unobtrusively?

I miss the old web.

lqet• 6 years ago

This is as good a place as any to ask the following naive question: what is the name for the cooking liquid of pasta? Just recently, I cooked some spaghetti in a very small pot and fished it out using a fork. I forgot the pot in the sink. After 8 hours, the liquid had formed a pancake-like mass at the bottom of the pot. Is it the same as aquafaba, just from a different plant (wheat?). Is there any use to it?

seanhandley2• 6 years ago

Starch water. You get the same when you cook potatoes.

namdnay• 6 years ago

. Is there any use to it?

Definitely, the wheat starch mixture you get when cooking pasta is a great emulsifier for fat-based pasta sauces.

yen223• 6 years ago

It's starch water, and it's great for thickening pasta sauces

Karawebnetwork• 6 years ago

You know how pastas (especially spaghetti) will stick to itself when you leave it out and become a big lump? Use that water to break it up instead of oil. It'll make your pasta easy to separate and won't stop sauces from sticking to the pasta.

grimgrin• 6 years ago

This is the cool part of the site

http://aquafaba.com/history.html

Joël's Discovers the Foam, Dec 2014
While actively looking for egg substitutes, Joël Roessel, a ténor from France, discovered through a systematic investigation into vegetable foams, that liquid from red kidney beans and hearts of palm can be coerced into a foam in the same way as flax mucilage. He posted his results on his blog at revolutionvegetale.com, providing a key contribution to unlocking the secret of aquafaba.

ndiscussion3• 6 years ago

Agreed, this seems like the most interesting part of the site to me. Fascinating history. I wonder what else remains to be discovered?

rosstex• 6 years ago

I wonder what else remains to be discovered?

Pretty much everything

grandchild• 6 years ago

Wow, I didn't know it was this recent. My gf introduced me to aquafaba, but I just assumed it was ancient middle-eastern kitchen lore, because... well, chick-peas are used there a lot.

So it seems these are good times for vegans.

autarch2• 6 years ago

I'm vegan and I tried making whipped cream from chickpea water. It was one of the foulest things I've ever tried. It tasted _very_ beany.

I haven't tried using it for other things, and I imagine it could work fine in baked goods or in things with other strong flavors on top of it.

But for whipped cream, the vegan winner is still old school Rich Whip ready to whip (http://richwhip.com/rich-whip.php), which dates back to 1945. Note that only the ready to whip carton is vegan. The pre-whipped ones contain milk products.

almog• 6 years ago

I'm not saying that it's as good as egg white meringue, but have you tried using non-canned aquafaba? The non canned option has more neutral taste in my opinion.

When I cook chickpeas (for Hummus) I sometime boil it twice - the first time to source aquafaba and the second time with vegetables added for the Hummus itself.

autarch2• 6 years ago

No, maybe I'll give it another try based on your suggestion.

jasonv• 6 years ago

As a vegetarian, I'm here to say canned chickpeas aren't great, but putting chickpeas straight into a pressure cooker for 15 minutes... they're awesome.

tomcam2• 6 years ago

Confirmed. The Instapot makes cooking beans such as chickpeas ridiculously easy and fast.

SN76477• 6 years ago

I want to get this into my hummus.

foldr• 6 years ago

The holy grail for me is aquafaba-based macarons that work reliably. I've managed to pull them off once, but aquafaba meringue is much less tolerant of higher cooking temperatures than egg white and is prone to exploding into a foamy mess.

gregoryl8• 6 years ago

My time to shine!

Hazelnut Choc Chip cookies, designed for Aquafaba.

NB. You can switch out more of the hazelnut/almond meal to adjust the taste, but don't go much below 1/2 cup of almond!

https://imgur.com/a/G2M1QoE

    1 & 1/4 cup almond meal
    1 & 1/4 cup hazelnut meal
    1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
    2/3 cup flour (gluten free blend works fine)
    2/3 cup raw sugar
    1 tsp baking powder
    1/2 tsp salt (ideally fine)
    
    Mix above together, set aside.
    
    1/2 cup aquafaba
    
    Separately, whisk aquafaba until fluffy
    
    6 tbsp coconut oil (liquid)
    1 tsp vanilla extract
    
    Add to aquafaba, whisk until combined
    Add dry ingredients from above
    Mix until tacky dough forms
    Place in fridge for 30 minutes
    
    Preheat oven to 190C
    
    Form a ball from about 1.5 tablespoons of dough.
    Place ball onto baking paper lined tray.
    Bake in oven for about 15 minutes.

xbar• 6 years ago

Thank you! I can't believe you have been here all along, hiding this.

vnxli• 6 years ago

Greg’s been holding out on us

snet0• 6 years ago

don't go much below 1/2 cup of almond

Is this just for taste reasons?

gregoryl8• 6 years ago

Texture and cost. The hazelnut meal tends to be a bit coarser, and is significantly more expensive, so you end up with gritty cookies that don't taste significantly more like hazelnut for more $$.

fnord123• 6 years ago

All comments about measuring solids by volume should go under here.

jeopardingo• 6 years ago

I want to see everything in grams!

gregoryl8• 6 years ago

It's a convention for baking I think. The choc chips will vary in size (I just smash up a block of cooking chocolate), but unless you go to extreme piece sizes, it won't have an impact on the chemistry if you're a little heavy/light (I vote heavy!)

blauditore• 6 years ago

I always wonder how much half a cup actually is, since cups are not standardized (I think). Googling for "cup size" didn't clarify anything either.

charlesworth912• 6 years ago

I made a tool that converts recipes from different volumes and weights to Grams, perhaps it would be useful here: https://charlesworth.github.io/recipe-slicer/

hinoki• 6 years ago

I use Frink to convert all my ingredients to mass before starting a recipe. It has different units for { sifted, scooped, spooned } x { cake, bread, all-purpose } flour. Different sugar types, etc.

It’s always my first step before baking a recipe the first time.

https://frinklang.org

anonu• 6 years ago

Isnt it a UI/UX question? Most people have measuring cups in their kitchen. Not everyone has a scale.

studius• 6 years ago

Ok- so... when I don't wash the aquafaba off of the beans in cooking, I get- let's say- "bloated".

I can only imagine eating these could result in a rough approximation of the decibel level of the Dragon taking off from Launch Pad 39A.

gregoryl8• 6 years ago

Likewise. My brother drinks it (he also drinks the water from when you boil cabbages, hes a strange unit.). I don't get that effect from the cookies, likely because its a fairly small amount across a lot of cookies.

jonahx• 6 years ago

Those look really good -- how would it taste different if you used egg white instead of aquafaba?

gregoryl8• 6 years ago

I don't know, I haven't made them with egg whites. Suspect they would work ok, possibly be too heavy/sticky. Give the aquafaba a try, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

vinni22• 6 years ago

In my experience taste is not as good.

ohadron• 6 years ago

Monospace font for a recipe - a nice touch for the HN crowd.

jadbox• 6 years ago

I just discovered making Aquafaba too, and have been using it as a tea/coffee creamer alternative as adding vanilla and stevia sweetener.

fireattack2• 6 years ago

I'm always amazed how cuisines vary vastly. In Chinese cuisine (which I'm familiar with), The use of egg "by"products (as in, not just cook egg straightly) in cooking is significantly less compared to Western cuisines. Milk byproduct, even lesser.

Triv888• 6 years ago

I used to throw it away because I thought that it was some kind of preserving liquid added by the manufacturer.

novaleaf• 6 years ago

I thought this stuff was discarded because it causes gas. If so, it seems inappropriate to replace other ingredients with it?

hnick3• 6 years ago

It's in the FAQ.

What about lectins, phytates/phytic acid, phytohemagglutinin, gas, etc?

Aquafaba by definition is made from beans that have been heat treated > 100C, and chickpeas have the least amount of lectins and phytates. If you're worried, use canned or home cooked chickpeas and avoid the other beans. There are over 20,000 members in the development group, and it's rare for people to report issues with gas, though some have.

aclimatt• 6 years ago

Aquafaba is amazing. But since we're talking about egg replacers, here's one even more remarkable:

Carbonated water.

No joke. Carbonated water can seamlessly replace egg in almost all things where the egg provides some rising / fluffy texture (not so much binding, like aquafaba does). It won't be stepping in your quiche any time soon, but cookies, brownies, cupcakes, anything with a fluffy inside.

1/4 cup of water equals one egg. Try it, you'll be amazed.

https://iambaker.net/egg-substitutes/

Wohlf• 6 years ago

Interesting, is carbonated water an emulsifier? I was under the impression this was the purpose of eggs in most recipes.

LesZedCB• 6 years ago

not so much binding

mattmaroon• 6 years ago

Eggs do a lot of things and carbonated water does almost none of them. The CO2 bubbles are ghetto leavening (which I guess would replace yeast) so overall, I think this is totally wrong.

jiofih• 6 years ago

Why would you substitute egg in cookies if nearly all of calories come from sugar and flour anyway?

weaksauce• 6 years ago

egg allergies are a thing. people also like to be vegan/vegetarian. also chicken farming is notoriously cruel in a lot of ways though it's getting better.

pcthrowaway2• 6 years ago

Not sure if this is a serious question, but other than the possibility for allergies and concerns about hormones, eggs cannot produced at mass scale in an economical, sustainable manner, without killing lots of chickens & chicks

m4636• 6 years ago

I think eggs are actually quite healthy, so I assume removing them from a recipe is probably to avoid eggs.

ArchOversight• 6 years ago

For ethical and moral reasons.

hashmap• 6 years ago

I tried making a fried egg using this suggestion and it did not turn out as well as I had hoped.

wickchuck• 6 years ago

This is gold

StrangeOrange2• 6 years ago

Pics or it didn’t happen.

canjobear• 6 years ago

did not work for scrambled eggs

ajot• 6 years ago

Not as a substitute, but my Galician grandmother always add some carbonated water to the pancake (think more like crêpes) batter, it helps a bit with retaining some bubbles but mostly make them more tender.

lapinot3• 6 years ago

I have experience with a bit of beer or old leftover sour dough for the same use (slightly thicker and fluffier crêpes).

koheripbal• 6 years ago

What's the best way to get carbonated water at home? Is it to buy it, or is there an efficient way to produce/consume carbonated water at home?

el_benhameen• 6 years ago

This stuff makes a pretty good mayonnaise/aioli when you blend it with some lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and garlic or spice of your choice. Thinner than mayo and definitely has a slight chickpea taste to it, but it's quite good with fries or on a sandwich.

sq_• 6 years ago

IIRC Guy Fieri did a Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives episode with a guy who was using aquafaba in making vegan deli "meats" with textures pretty darn close to the real thing. There's some really awesome wizardry going on in vegan foods.

JunkDNA• 6 years ago

My daughter now 10 was diagnosed with a severe egg allergy around the time she turned 1. We aren't vegans and I love all kinds of things with egg (including home made pasta).

We tried so many egg replacers and were just not that impressed. I was resigned to giving up a whole bunch of foods I love. Aquafaba finally let us have so many normal meals back. You don't realize how many foods have egg in them (especially in restaurants: Orange Julius I'm looking at you! Who puts egg in fruit smoothies?!).

We use it to make pancakes, waffles, cakes, and even brownies (we found most egg replacers to be an utter disaster with many brownie recipes).

bikamonki• 6 years ago

Sorry, not a drop of aquafaba is left for experimentation purposes when my Mom cooks her home-famous "menestra" (red beans stew). She serves it with white rice and you eat til you lick the bowl...and then lick pot.

notatoad• 6 years ago

Maybe it's just because I'm tired (or dumb) but after reading the front page, the FAQ, and clicking through some other nav I'm still not quite sure what aquafaba is.

Are they literally just talking about the stuff you get when you drain a can of chick peas? Or is there more to it than that?

ihaveajob• 6 years ago

Are they literally just talking about the stuff you get when you drain a can of chick peas?

Yes that's exactly it.

snarfy• 6 years ago

In my experience, whatever substance that's in beans gives you gas concentrates in the bean juice.

poopsmithe• 6 years ago

+1 I once had vegan brownies made with aquafaba (from storebought canned chickpeas) and I never want to eat those again, because of the explosive gas they gave me.

queercode• 6 years ago

im glad aquafaba is getting attention outside of vegan cooking

aboutBen• 6 years ago

Curse my bean allergy!

schoen• 6 years ago

I had a great aquafaba chocolate mousse in a restaurant in Haarlem (Netherlands). I think it was vanVeg on Zijlstraat. Unfortunately it's not listed on their menu and I'm not exactly going to try to pop over to the Netherlands during this pandemic to confirm my recollection.

Also, there's probably some other place in the world with a great aquafaba chocolate mousse.

seanwilson• 6 years ago

Aquafaba based mayo is great as well: just blend together aquafaba, oil, garlic and salt. It comes out with a similar texture and taste to egg mayo. I've had variations that add black salt to give it an eggy smell if you actually miss that part!

Another plant based trick is to combine vinegar with soy milk - it sours the milk a little and makes it curdle, emulating the taste and texture of buttermilk. Here's a pancake recipe from someone I know that has this trick to give a fluffy texture, where no eggs are needed:

https://angeliqueboudeau.org/fluffy-vegan-pancakes/

waterglassFull• 6 years ago

A few drops of vinegar goes great too

thr0w__4w4y• 6 years ago

No https? (checks calendar: yep, 2021. Checks 5 certs of owned domains from Let's Encrypt: yep.)

I'm all for non-tech people having sites like this, but in 2021 it's hard to excuse not supporting TLS connections to your web server.

eyelidlessness• 6 years ago

Wait, I’ve been ignoring this article all day and now I’m winding down and find out that people throw out their bean juice???

smilliken• 6 years ago

"The Science of Our Favorite Pulse, the Humble Chickpea | What's Eating Dan?"[0] is a good introduction to everything you can do with the chickpea, including aquafaba. His other videos are great too, he frequently takes this approach of going deep on a particular ingredient.

[0] https://youtu.be/qKGqT-3Uypk

sitkack4• 6 years ago

Everytime I open a can, the first thing I do is sip the delicious Aquafaba. I should run it through the carbonator!

vinni22• 6 years ago

I tried to make meringue from aquafaba while it worked it tasted awful because of the salty beany taste. Since then I gave up hopes of saving aquafaba for something.

allthetime2• 6 years ago

whiskey sours if you drink

predictmktegirl• 6 years ago

I always assumed that the water packaged with can beans would have tons of lectin seeped from the beans and therefore should be discarded. Is it safe to use?

b0rsuk• 6 years ago

I think so. Wikipedia:

  As a normal human digestive tract does not contain any anti-oligosaccharide enzymes, consumed oligosaccharides are typically digested by bacteria in the large intestine. This digestion process produces gases such as methane as a byproduct, which are then released as flatulence.

  Processing the beans, such as by boiling, soaking, cooking, can leach the indigestible sugars from the beans and significantly reduce, if not entirely eliminate the problem.

Also, red beans contain 3x as much of the foul stuff.

aszantu2• 6 years ago

anyone know about lectin content in aquafaba?

ridaj• 6 years ago

It's sort of interesting but I don't really understand the issue they seem to have with using protein isolate rather than the dregs of boiled peas. Maybe it's because isolate rings like a chemical name? It's especially funny when considering that folks appear to be fussy about finding a natural-enough vegan protein source to make meringues, the other half of which is white sugar anyway, aka refined sucrose if you wanted to give it a chemical name, and IMO a quite "unnatural" product to begin with

cybervegan• 6 years ago

That's really weird - I've just put on a pot of dried chick peas to boil, so I'm literally making aquafaba right now. Things that make you go "hmmm"...

datsun510• 6 years ago

Not a fan. I already distrust legumes, now I'm supposed to repurpose the water they cook in? No thank you. Sounds like it would be full of lectins.

chris_st2• 6 years ago

Anyone had good luck with beans other than chickpeas? My wife is allergic to some legumes, including (alas!) chickpeas.

My apologies if I missed something obvious on the site. I just see that kidney bean liquid isn't good enough.

peanut_worm• 6 years ago

So if I go whip some bean juice it will stiffen?

Aquafaba

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