Vegan meringues, light, sugary and totally irresistible. I’ll admit, I was a bit nervous making these. Aquafaba, or chickpea water, has quite a distinctive smell to it. However, as usual, sugar solves everything!
These meringues take a bit more effort than their egg white counterparts, but that effort is rewarded by how tasty they are with such an unusual ingredient. I served these with some vegan ice cream and fresh strawberries. After having eaten some off the pan!
What is aquafaba?
Aquafaba. You’ve probably heard of it but you might be a bit confused as to what it is. Essentially, it’s the water that canned chickpeas are in. You drain the chickpeas and retain the liquid and this is used as a replacement for eggs. In this recipe, we are replacing the egg whites that are used in a traditional egg white recipe. I have also used it to make delicious Brioche rolls, another traditionally eggy dish! Check out the recipe and keep it in mind if you ever have some spare chickpea water!
These vegan meringues take longer to blend than meringues made with egg whites. I spent about 20 minutes from plain chickpea water until I achieved the stiff peaks I was looking for. If it takes you this long, or longer, don’t despair! It will happen. I eventually managed to get the mixture perfectly stiff, I even held it over my head! This will require a powerful electric whisk, when I turned mine to turbo mode it really sped up the process. This is the electric whisk that I have, it’s fantastic and affordable! This is an affiliate link so I could earn commission from any sales.
I hope you love this recipe and feel as accomplished as I did at making plant-based meringues! Enjoy and let me know what you thought of them in the comments. I piped my meringues quite thin and they made nice disks. If you would like yours to have a bit more substance, pipe them a bit higher!
Meringues
Ingredients
- 110 g Caster Sugar
- 1 tin Chickpea Water (Aquafaba) Drain the water from the chickpeas and use it all!
- 3/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Add the chickpea water into a jug and blend until white and thickened
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 1/4, 100 Celsius, 212 Fahrenheit
- Slowly add the sugar while blending
- Blend the mixture until the mixture is stiff and thickened. This step took me about 15 minutes, keep blending, it will happen.
- Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper
- Either pipe or spoon the mixture into your desired shape onto the baking sheet
- Pop into the oven for 1 hour 20 minutes
- Once the time has passed, turn the oven off and leave them in the oven for an hour to cool
- Serve and enjoy!
- If you aren't ready to serve the meringues, put them in an air tight container. If they become sticky, put them back in the oven and reheat at the same temperature for 30 minutes, cool for 20 minutes and serve.
