Vegan meringues made from tinned chickpea water and no egg…that taste the same as normal meringue and are delicious…say what?!!! My mind was recently blown when I decided to try making meringues using aquafaba instead of eggs. The resulting meringue was AMAZING and a brilliant recipe to try if you are vegan or don’t have any eggs in your storecupboard.

Aquafaba is chickpea water – the liquid you get in a can of chickpeas, that I usually drain off and throw away (it looks and smells pretty unappealing…but it is actually magic!). While in the can some of the protein from the chickpeas soaks into the water, resulting in a magic liquid that mirrors the properties of egg. I really wanted to have a go at making meringues with aquafaba, after having read about how great it is, but was a bit sceptical about whether it would work.

Work it did and I was so impressed! I loved being able to use something I would have previously thrown away, transforming it into a tasty treat. It felt very satisfying being able to make something from “nothing”.

Make sure you are use a salt-free aquafaba – check the ingredients on the tin of chickpeas you are getting the liquid from, it should states “chickpeas and water” only. If salt is listed in the ingredients then it’s not suitable for meringue making as you’ll get a salty flavour.

My vegan meringue kisses recipe uses pink food gel to give the kisses pretty pink stripes. You can easily skip this step if you don’t have any food gel in your cupboard, and make simple white meringue drops instead.

This recipe makes a lot of meringue kisses, so feel free to reduce according to your requirements. Otherwise pop them in an airtight tub and they should keep for a couple of days. If they become sticky, pop them in the fridge.

Eat them solo as lovely, bite-sized morsels, or: combine with cream and berries for a homemade Eaton mess; sandwich together with chocolate; crumble on top of ice cream; or maybe even with coconut yoghurt and fruit.

Magic Vegan Meringue Kisses (Makes Approx 40 Kisses)

Here’s the recipe for these aquafaba meringues, plus you’ll find some photos below of the various stages. These should help you know when you have achieved “soft peaks” and “stiff peaks” with the meringue mixture.

Ingredients

  • 150ml aquafaba (you should get quantity this from one 400g tin chickpeas)
  • 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 170g caster sugar
  • Optional: pink food gel colouring (I used Dr Oetker)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 110C.
  2. Use a sieve to strain the aquafaba from the tin of chickpeas into a bowl and pop the chickpeas aside as you won’t be needing them for the meringue (scroll to the end of this post for ideas on how to use the chickpeas themselves in other recipes).
  3. Add the cream of tartar and vanilla to the aquafaba, then use a hand-held electric whisk to whisk the aquafaba for 5 minutes until soft peaks form.
  4. Add the caster sugar very gradually, a couple of spoonfuls at a time, whisking for at least 5 minutes until the mixtures turns glossy and shiny, forming stiff peaks. Ta daaa, that’s your meringue mixture ready for piping!
  5. To make the pink kisses, take a small paint brush, some pink food gel and a disposable piping bag with the end cut off (you want an opening of approx 2cm. Using the paintbrush to paint three stripes of food gel INSIDE the piping bag. Don’t worry if they’re not neat. Now carefully spoon the aquafaba meringue mixture into the piping bag – you’ll probably need to do the piping in two batches unless you have a giant piping bag.
  6. Line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper of reusable non-stick baking tray liners. Pipe little blobs of meringue onto the tray in lines, to form kisses approx 5cm in width. To create the shape, hold the nozzle close to the baking sheet and gently squeeze the meringue out, gently lifting upwards to create the meringue kiss. You should have enough mixture to pipe around 20 kisses on each baking sheet.
  7. Pop the meringues into the oven and bake for one hour at 110C, then turn the oven off and DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR. Leave the meringue kisses in the oven for one hour before removing them.
  8. After they have cooled in the oven, remove and carefully ease them off the baking sheet. You can either eat them straightaway or pop them in an airtight container for up to two days. If they become sticky, pop the tub in the fridge and this should crisp them up again.
Aquafaba
How the aquafaba should look at the end of step 3.
Lovely glossy meringue after step 4, with the sugar incorporated.
Oh so glossy!

For more gluten and egg free recipes, why not try one of these dishes:

And some recipes to use up those chickpeas:

Bon appetit! x