Ingredients
water from a can of chickpeas
100g caster sugar
- Heat oven to 110C/90C fan/gas ¼ and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Drain the can of chickpeas over a bowl, saving the chickpeas for another recipe.
- Using an electric whisk, beat the chickpea water until soft peaks form (similar to egg whites). Add the sugar a little at a time, whisking constantly until thick and glossy. This step is crucial to helping the meringues hold their shape and you'll be whisking for up to 10 mins – far longer than for a traditional meringue.
- Spoon or pipe the meringue mixture over the tray in 8cm blobs. Bake for 1 hr 15 mins until crisp. Leave to cool.
Method
So vegan meringues. Why bother, or what does that mean? Well considering meringues are egg white and sugar, removing the egg doesn't leave you with a lot. But (and I confess, to my surprise) these vegan meringues taste just like, well, meringues. There isn't a hint of hair shirt or sandal about them. And combined with some nice fruit and (in my case anyway) cream then you could feed them to most anyone without them knowing they were any different. Maybe a little less crunch and a little more chew, but I like chew in a meringue so thats not a problem.
And truth to tell I made these (a) cos we are in lockdown and you have to do something (b) because I had read about using aqua fava in this way and was intrigued; and (c) I had used a can of chickpeas to make hummus, and so had a bowl of aqua fave to hand. All I had at risk was some sugar, so lets try.
For the uninitiated aqua fava is a curious way of saying the cooking water froma can of chick peas. I think the cod-latin makes it sounds more respectable and less nose wrinkling, but that is what it is. I imagined that anything made using it would have the nitrogenous hint of chickpea lingering over it, but I was wrong.
Next time you make hummus or some other chickpea including recipe, give this a go and see what you think