— Demetra Stamus

I have a freezer full of aquafaba and that is my favorite base to make vegan meringue. So if there is anyone here who doesn't know what aquafaba is, this is the refers to the aquafaba means bean water actually. And it is the liquid that beans have been cooked in. And aquafaba meringue is generally made from the liquid from garbanzo beans or cheche or chickpeas, depending on where you are from. We don't salt the liquid. So if you're using the aquafaba, the bean liquid from a can of chickpeas by unsalted chickpeas, the re and if you're making it from scratch, which is what I do, add a piece of kombu seaweed to the water that you'll be cooking your beans in. I use my instant pot and once the beans are soft enough, I take the piece of kobu out, save it, I might use it again, drain the beans, put the liquid back into the instant pot and, and use the, um, what is it, the soup setting until it is reduced by at least half with the can. Most cans yield about between two thirds and three quarters of a cup. So we wanna standardize it and we wanna make this aquafaba really sturdy. We want to make sure again, that it's going to whip every single time. So I reduce the canned to a half cup, then chill it. And because I eat a lot of chickpeas, I have a lot of aquafaba in my freezer, I simply defrost it and use it. So you're gonna start with your cold reduced chickpea liquid. Add a small amount of cream of tartar, which is the same thing you would do if you're making meringue from egg whites. That is an acid. And I think that we use a quarter of a teaspoon for a half a cup of aquafaba and then beat that until it is opaque and a little further. And once you've got soft peaks, I start adding sugar and I use castor sugar. By that I mean that I grind vegan organic sugar until it's fine in my Vitamix and store it. I've got a bunch behind me, a tea, a tablespoon at a time and beat after every addition. And then when all of the sugar is in, keep beating it. And it sounds like a long time and it can be a long time, but you can walk away from it. Unlike egg white meringue, you really can't beat aquafaba meringue. I shouldn't say that, you know, there really are no absolutes. But I have really, and by beat, I mean with the whisk attachment on my mixer, I find that, um, it, it can be whipped for a very long time until you get really stiff peaks. You can put the bowl upside down over your head in the same way and it, you can, you can toast it. You can use a torch demetra in the same way that you would with egg white meringue. And I have some students, this is actually baked Alaska is a very popular, um, assignment in this course, a graded assignment. I've had a couple of students over the years who didn't have a kitchen torch and have toasted their aquafaba meringue under the broiler. Just be careful. So I hope that that answered your question, chef Demetra. And let me know what you're gonna be making with it. It's great. You can also make, um, you can make cookies, you know, meringue cookies. And then I take leftover meringue cookies or shards and I do something called eat mess, which is a real dish that came from evidently boarding school Eaton in the uk, which is meringue and pudding or lemon curd or chocolate pudding or whatever.