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28/04/2026
Meet aquafaba, the egg white replacement that works remarkably well as a substitute. It is a starchy, slightly viscous liquid left over when you cook chickpeas or open a can of them. It whips, foams, and emulsifies much like egg whites, making it a popular egg substitute in vegan and allergy-friendly cooking. The science behind why it behaves this way comes down to proteins, starches, and plant compounds called saponins. Read on to learn more.
Aquafaba, quite literally, is the amalgamation of the Latin words for water and bean. It is the liquid that remains after boiling legumes. What might have been the habit for many cooks—discarding the brine—can actually be a cost-saving trick. Aquafaba's potential was uncovered almost by accident through the independent experiments of Joël Roessel, a French singer, in 2015 and Goose Wohlt, an American software engineer in 2015.
Both discovered that whipping this bean liquid with sugar produced convincing meringue. Wohlt posted his results online, and a Facebook group called ‘Vegan Meringue: Hits and Misses’ ran with the idea, testing and refining recipes. A decade later, the research is catching up to what bakers already figured out by trial and error.
Understanding why aquafaba works requires a quick look at what egg whites actually do in a meringue recipe. Egg whites are roughly 90% water and 10% protein. When you whisk them, those proteins unfold, wrap around air bubbles, and bond with each other to form a stable, airy foam. Sugar then reinforces this structure, and heat sets it permanently in the oven.
Aquafaba pulls off the same trick through a different but functionally parallel chemistry. When the legumes are being cooked, various compounds are leached into the water, creating aquafaba. These components include proteins, primarily albumins and globulins, carbohydrates such as starches and soluble fibre, and saponins. It is this specific combination of proteins and carbohydrates that gives aquafaba its ability to work as an emulsified egg white substitute.
Saponins, particularly, are doing most of the heavy lifting; they are the ones that cause the soap-like foam they produce when shaken. Their presence in chickpea cooking water is one of the primary reasons aquafaba behaves so differently from plain water or other plant-based liquids. Under the right conditions, proteins and saponins work together to improve this foaming aspect.
The case for aquafaba goes well beyond the fact that it happens to foam. Several characteristics make it genuinely superior or comparable to egg whites for meringue recipes and related applications.
Aquafaba works as an egg replacer because it contains soluble proteins, starches, and saponins that mimic many of the functional roles eggs play in baking: emulsifying fats, trapping air for leavening, binding dry ingredients, and contributing moisture. This makes it useful not just for meringues but also for mayonnaise, mousses, and even cocktail foam.
Aquafaba proved to be a promising egg white replacer; it had a higher foaming capacity than a commercial egg white replacer, and sensory evaluations showed that all sensory descriptors had the highest scores for the aquafaba-based meringue.
Aquafaba is a healthy, vegan, low-calorie substitute. One tablespoon delivers just 3 to 5 calories – compared to a single egg, which contains about 70 calories and 186 milligrams of cholesterol.
One of the leading egg white substitutes for culinary foaming is aquafaba, the liquid from cooking legumes – a product previously considered waste. Using it closes a loop: you cook the chickpeas for one recipe, and the liquid serves another.
Aquafaba is considered a safe egg-white alternative for people who follow a vegan diet and therefore eat no animal products, and also for those who suffer from egg-white allergies, as well as those with some genetic disorders that require a low-protein diet.
This meringue recipe follows the French meringue method, one of the simplest approaches, and the one best suited to aquafaba.
Ingredients:
Aquafaba: 6 tablespoons
Cream of tartar: ¼ teaspoon
Caster sugar: ½ cup
Vanilla extract: ½ teaspoon
Optional: gel food colouring
Method:
Ensure your mixing bowl and whisk attachments are completely clean and free of grease.
Place the chickpea liquid (aquafaba) and cream of tartar into the bowl of your stand mixer. Start at a slow speed and whip until foamy. Then gradually increase speed until white, glossy and stiff peaks start to form.
Add the caster sugar, one tablespoon at a time, while continuing to whip at high speed. Adding it too quickly will deflate the foam.
Add the vanilla extract and continue whipping until you have glossy, stiff peaks.
Preheat your oven to 120°C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Pipe the meringue into cookie shapes onto the parchment-lined tray.
Place into the oven and bake for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, switch off the oven but do not open it. Leave the oven off with the door closed for one hour.
Remove and cool completely before storing.
Getting the aquafaba meringue recipe right the first time is largely a matter of knowing what can go wrong and pre-empting it. These tips address the most common failures:
Use canned aquafaba over homemade for consistency. Canned chickpea liquid tends to be a ready-to-use consistency, while home-cooked liquids vary. If your aquafaba seems thin, gently simmer it to reduce and concentrate its proteins before measuring.
Add cream of tartar every time. Cream of tartar really works for stabilisation in aquafaba meringue, and it is used exactly as you would use it when whipping egg whites. Do not skip it.
Do not rush the sugar. Adding sugar too quickly collapses the air bubbles you have worked to build. One tablespoon at a time, with the mixer running, is the way to go.
Don't be put off by the raw taste. If you taste the meringue mix before it goes into the oven, you can taste the chickpea flavour, but once baked, all traces of chickpea flavour vanish.
Never open the oven mid-bake. A sudden rush of cool air will crack and collapse meringues while they are still setting. The hour of residual oven heat after switching off is what dries them through without browning.
Avoid humidity. Meringues are highly sensitive to moisture in the air. If the weather is at all hot or humid, put them in an airtight container and store them in the fridge for the most long-lasting results.
Use fine sugar. Large sugar crystals dissolve unevenly and can create a weeping meringue. Castor sugar gives a smoother, more stable result.
Once you have mastered the vegan meringue recipe, the same liquid opens up a wide range of plant-based preparations. You can fancy desserts like the Australian pavlova, meringue cookies and even French macarons. As a practical guideline, use about 3 tablespoons (approximately 45 ml) of aquafaba to replace one whole egg, and roughly 2 tablespoons to replace one egg white.
Aquafaba itself is generally not known to cause bloating, but it comes from chickpeas, which can cause gas in sensitive people due to oligosaccharides in legumes.
