Simply put Aquafaba is bean brine. As a whole foods, plant-based food coach and cook, using aquafaba has been a great option for replacing ingredients such as eggs, oil and butter found in the standard American diet. My choice is to use organic low-sodium brine from canned chick peas (garbanzo beans) to maintain consistency in ingredients as a control while developing my recipes. Additionally the clearer color brine will not taint the outcome. On the other hand, I hear that other bean brine can be used from canned or cooked beans but I’m sticking to chick peas for now.
Aquafaba has been used by cooks in the last few years to enhance baked vegan goods but can be used by any baker who wants to cook healthier foods…who doesn’t wants to eat beauty health desserts. It is a useful ingredient for leavening and binding. Particularly wonderful for making cakes with beautiful crumb and a higher lift. Of course I use it in concert with many other leavening and binding ingredients. I started using aquafaba years ago and use it in my own recipes.
You can store aquafaba in the refrigerator for about one week and it also freezes well. Since we always have canned chick peas around, we always have aquafaba around – it’s a 2 for 1. Just save off the aquafaba from the canned chick peas. It’s so easy to find healthy foods to cook with the chick peas such as hummus, roasted for crunchy snacking, include in salads, use in soups and so many other ethnic dishes. We love chick peas and use the brine for aquafaba!
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