Aquafaba

After posting so many enticing recipes with aquafaba, I had a few requests to type up a blog post about how I make my aquafaba. To be honest, I’ve only used canned aquafaba once. There’s a lot of great reading about aquafaba at Aquafaba.com, including a FAQ by the creator of the first vegan meringue, Goose Wohlt.

I’ve tried to make my beans from dry since I purchased my Instant Pot 7-in-1 pressure cooker. Here’s my few minute speech about the Instant Pot – I tend to put large kitchen purchases on hold for a few months until I really know that I’m going to use them regularly. I did not do this with the Instant Pot. It was a bit of an impulse purchase, but I knew it would be put to good use in our house. It has a permanent place on my counter (which I try to keep cleared off) because I use it so regularly. I tend to forget about a pot of beans on the stove or yogurt in the oven, but with the Instant Pot, since everything is kept in a sealed environment, I don’t have to worry about my forgetful brain. I use it as a pressure cooker for beans, rice/grain cooker, yogurt incubator, steamer for seitan, and even for entire 1-pot meals.

Basically, this thing is amazing.

Back to aquafaba (bean water.)

Ingredients:
• 1 cup dry chickpeas
• 3 cups soaking water
• 3 cups cooking water

Directions:
1. Soak 1 cup of dry chickpeas overnight (at least 6 hours) in 3 cups of water. Drain soaking water in the morning and replace with 3 cups fresh water.
2. Set on high pressure for anywhere between 15-25 minutes. A longer cook will result in stronger aquafaba, but softer chickpeas, so adjust according to your chickpea usage. (Really soft chickpeas make great hummus.)
3. When chickpeas are done cooking, let pressure release naturally. Strain the liquid into a jar. This is usually about 2.5 cups.
4. Cover the cooked chickpeas in a sealed bowl with fresh water. Leave in the refrigerator overnight. Strain off the soaking water in the morning – usually results in another 1-2 cups aquafaba. It will be lighter in color, but should still have good whipping properties.
5. Refridgerate or freeze any unused aquafaba. I’ve used it after a week in the refrigerator with no off taste or smell.

The jar on the left is the “second shift” aquafaba.
5. Repeat this process (cover chickpeas in fresh water) and strain after 24 or more hours for a “third shift.”

The second and third shifts will require much larger amount of reduction for use in recipes like macarons or meringues, but as long as there’s still color to the liquid it contains the proteins necessary to whip.

When I’m making macarons, I still use 3/4 cup of the second shift aquafaba and reduce it down to 1/3 of a cup. If it’s not gelled into a solid mass in the morning, I add more liquid and reduce again. For the third shift, I reduce down an entire cup or more. It’s a bit hit or miss with the later shifts, but another group member puts all three shifts into one jar, which would stabilize your results.

Using this cold water extraction method, I’m able to get upwards of 3-5 cups of usable aquafaba from 1 cup of dry chickpeas. The key is the protein/starch content being released from the chickpea. As long as it’s still in water it’s still releasing it’s aquafaba properties.

Goose Wohlt, the creator of the term aquafaba, has also created “supercharged” aquafaba by pressure cooking for up to two hours. I have yet to try this, but if anyone wants to experiment, let me know your results!

Tags: aquafaba, dessert, diy, homemade, meringue, recipe, vegan