New York Times Profiles Aquafaba

In a recent feature, New York Times writer Jane Black traced the story of aquafaba from discovery to commercially available product. Last year, engineer Goose Wohlt stumbled upon what he coined aquafaba—the combination of “water” and “bean” in Latin—while searching for a suitable vegan replacement for egg whites. Wohlt found French tenor singer Joel Roessel’s experimentation with chickpea (and other bean and legume) fluid online and discovered it mimicked egg whites when whipped and could be made into meringue when sugar was added. Wohlt created a Facebook group entitled Vegan Meringue-Hits and Misses, where the now-44,000 members continue to experiment with the innovative ingredient. Currently, Wohlt revealed to Black, he’s perfecting vegan angel food cake. On the commercial side, professional chefs and bartenders have used aquafaba in recipe preparation for dishes such as traditionally egg white-based Gin Fizzes, while Sir Kensington’s partnered with Ithaca Hummus to redirect 20,000 gallons of its wasted chickpea brine for the company’s new condiment vegan Fabanaise, which hits shelves this month.

Photo courtesy of Vegans on Top