Vegan meringues are almost the same as meringues made with egg whites

Can you see the difference? Neither do I!

The meringues on the left, are the vegan ones. Externally, they are almost indistinguishable from the classic egg white meringue.

They are also almost the same in taste especially if you flavor them with spices.

What is the difference?

The ones on the left are just vegan, instead of egg whites, I used acquafaba.

What is acqua faba?

Acquafaba It’s the cooking water (NOT the soaking water) of legumes, i.e. chickpeas, beans, or lentils.

I honestly just came across it by accident. You see, in the spring I always have a lot of egg white leftover from my Sauce Bernaise that I make to go with asparagus. And for which I need only the egg yolks.

But once when I cooked chickpeas, I was sorry to just throw away all the cooking water.

I remembered that it is used in vegan cooking as an egg white substitute.

And so, I tried it out. And I have to say it totally convinced me.

The only drawback: the vegan ones are a bit softer and melt more in the oven

It is more difficult to make nice dense piles. But that’s the only thing!

You can also use the chickpea water from the can or jar. This is then of course faster, because all the soaking and boiling is omitted.

Very important:

• no fat may come in touch with the acquafaba! Not even the fat from the fingers!
• acquafaba must be quite concentrated for whipping. That is, if you make it yourself, you must cook the chickpeas in only little water. If you took too much water, you can concentrate the liquid by boiling it down.
• Chickpea boiling water is the best (better than beans or lentils).
• 100 ml acquafaba equals about 3 egg whites
• since acquafaba is a little less stable, baking powder gives the mixture more stability.

You can also use whipped acquafaba for light mousse desserts or for baking cakes and cookies.

Here is the vegan meringues recipe:

Vegan spice meringues

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 3 hours hrs

Course Dessert, sweet

Cuisine vegan

Ingredients

  

• 100 ml acquafaba
• 150 g of sugar
• ½ tsp of baking powder
• Ca. 1½ teaspoon of the spice to your heart's ginger, cinnamon, cassia, cardamom

Instructions

 

• Beat the acquafaba until it’s stiff and then drizzle in the baking powder and the sugar and beat again until the mixture is shiny and dense.
• Then add the spice and mix well.
• Put small piles of the mixture onto a tray lined with baking paper, either with two spoons or with a sac-à-poche.
• Allow to dry in the 80°C oven (slightly open) (takes about 3 hours).

Notes

The Meringues are dry when they sound hollow when you knock on them with a wooden ladle.

Keyword acquafaba, vegane meringues