A new use for the old can of beans

Canned beans are a time-saving shortcut to great dishes like hummus. But did you know that you can also use the liquid from those beans to make great desserts? According to The Washington Post, bean liquid can be used as an egg white substitute to make things like a vegan meringue.

This discovery has been credited to Joël Roessel, a 34-year-old opera tenor and vegan. He wanted to create a vegan version of floating islands, the merginue dessert.  Roessel published this discovery on his blog, Révolution Végétale, in late 2014, and “the concept quickly began to catch on with others, including Goose Wohlt. The American software engineer is credited with coining the word “aquafaba” – “aqua” for water and “faba” for beans – to describe the ingredient that most people simply pour down the sink.”

In March, Wohlt posted his version of a vegan baked meringue, created from the liquid from a can of chickpeas and sugar, to the Facebook group “What Fat Vegans Eat”. People there have run with the concept, using liquid drained from a variety of canned or cooked beans to create fluffy meringues and other treats like macarons and even Yorkshire pudding. No less an authority than Rose Levy Beranbaum has taken up the mantle, creating a vegan meringue recipe (pictured above). If any of you has tried this, we’d love to hear about your successes or failures with the concept.