There has been a lot of talk about winning and losing; some prince’s new romance; elections; things that must fall and then some more election talk lately.
Luckily there has been a lot of talk about aquafaba as well.
Aquafaba is simply the cooking liquid of beans and other legumes.
In short, the name of this magic ingredient was only coined about a year ago, after two guys by the names of Joël Roessel and Goose Wohlt experimented with some chickpea cooking liquids and discovered their similarity to eggs in cooking.
- Aqua = WATER
- Faba = BEAN
Great! Now that we’ve got the Latin sorted..This protein- and starch rich liquid is currently widely used in vegan and vegetarian recipes. Canned chickpea liquid, for instance, makes a fabulous vegan mayonnaise alternative. In my opinion it can’t really be called a mayonnaise unless it’s an egg-emulsion, so maybe we should stick to calling it a veganaise?
It can also replace eggs in vegan meringues (yes, really!) and cakes , can be used as a thickening agent in stews and soups and acts as a foaming agent in dairy free mousses.
My Green Princess Dressing is a perfect way of using chickpea cooking liquid to add protein AND flavour. PLUS it makes me feel good as there is less wastage.
How to do it:
Simply add all the ingredients to a blender / food processor and blitz until foamy. It takes literally 2-3 minutes. Alternatively use a stick blender and a pulse action to get the same results.
*It might seem like a lot of oil, but yields almost 4 cups of creamy, green, vegan goodness.
What you need:
- The reserved liquid of one can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
- ¼ can of chickpeas
- 1 clove of garlic
- Juice and grated peel of ½ lemon
- 2 tsp whole grain mustard
- A small handful of fresh leafy herbs (I used flat leaf parsley and basil)
- ¾ cup of neutral tasting oil (olive oil is not a good choice in this case)
- 10 capers
- A large pinch of salt
- Black pepper to taste
- 1tsp Xylitol or sugar – optional
*Store refrigerated.
The dressing was wonderful with some chilled roasted veggies and pasta as a meat free salad.
Read more on this fabulous find:
Have a look at how easy it is to make the veganaise and Coconut Craze’s recipe: https://coconutcraze.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/aquafaba-mayonnaise-eggless-mayonnaise/
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