How to Use Aquafaba (with recipes!) (2024)

Looking for aquafaba recipes? Learn how to use this amazing, vegan egg substitute in baking, breading, and beyond!

Aquafaba is a vegan egg replacer that totally changed the world of vegan cooking. Not only does an aquafaba egg replace animal egg in recipes like a dream, it's basically free. Here's a guide to getting started with this magical egg replacer, plus some amazing aquafaba recipes!

What is aquafaba?

Aquafaba was discovered by Goose Wohlt. It is just the liquid you'd normally drain and toss from a can of beans.

It turns out that bean liquid has a similar protein profile to egg, which makes it an amazing egg replacer.

How to use aquafaba

There are so many ways to use this all natural, inexpensive egg replacer!

Use it in any recipe that calls for one to two eggs. For something like quiche or an omelet, aquafaba alone is not going to work. You're better of using something like tofu or chickpea flour and following a tested vegan recipe.

I have used aquafaba with boxed cake mixes that call for three eggs. While it does work, your cake won't have exactly the same structural integrity it would if you used animal eggs or followed a tested from-scratch vegan cake recipe. It works well best if you're making a sheet cake, in my experience.

Here are some ideas for how you can use aquafaba:

• in baking (see the first part of this section for caveats)
• as a binder to make breading stick to baked or fried food
• to make vegan meringues
• to make vegan marshmallows and marshmallow fluff

Tips for making vegan meringue

If you're familiar with how to make meringues, these tips will help you make aquafaba meringues!

Sugar plus protein is what gives you stiff, shiny peaks. As far as I know, you need real sugar to make traditional meringue, whether you use it with egg whites or with aquafaba.

For a vegan meringue recipe, your ratio of bean liquid to sugar should be around one part liquid to 1 ⅓ parts sugar. You can get away with 1 ¼ parts sugar, if you prefer.

Start with a small amount of sugar. You can always add more sugar if you're not getting the stiff peaks you want! I see recipes that say to add the sugar after you have soft peaks, but I had success adding most of the sugar right from the get, then adding more as needed.

Aquafaba recipes

OK, so those are the basics, but with anything new, it's nice to have recipes to jump off of. Below are vegan aquafaba recipes to get you started.

Marshmallows and marshmallow fluff

Why buy expensive vegan marshmallow fluff at the store, when you can use Seitan is My Motor's five ingredient recipe?

This marshmallow party is pretty awesome, and Seitan Beats Your Meat (best blog name ever?) blew my mind with her homemade Lucky Charms.

Mayo

Serious Eats uses aquafaba to create a super easy vegan mayo!

Pizza crust

Sarah from Fried Dandelions uses aquafaba to create crisp-yet-soft, perfect pizza crust.

Mousse

Whip up that aquafaba into rich, creamy mousse! A Saucy Kitchen shows you how to use it to make chocolate mousse. If chocolate isn't your thing, try strawberry mousse or coconut mousse instead.

Whipped cream

For a Cool Whip-style vegan whipped cream, aquafaba is your friend! Try this amazing recipe from The Hidden Veggies.

Egg substitute for breading

Aquafaba is fabulous for getting breading to stick to things! It's what I use in my Avocado Fries:

Oil replacer

You can also use aquafaba as an oil replacer, when the oil is used as a coating to add crispiness or when it's being used to make flavoring or breading stick.

For example, I use aquafaba instead of oil to create crunchy, air fryer chickpeas and help the delicious ranch seasoning stick to them:

Have you done any experimenting with bean liquid in place of eggs? I'd love to hear about your aquafaba adventures!

How much aquafaba per egg?

Replacing eggs with aquafaba is easy! In any baked recipe (or for breading), simply use 3 tablespoons of aquafaba per egg. If your recipe calls for a large egg, use 4 tablespoons (¼ cup).

You can use aquafaba in any baking recipe that calls for one to two eggs. Sometimes it will work in a three egg recipe, but I wouldn't push it further than that.

What kind of bean liquid will work?

As I mentioned above, this is for the liquid from canned beans only.

If you cook beans from scratch, you need to simmer the leftover cooking liquid until it reaches a thick, egg white-like consistency before you use it as an egg replacer. Once you simmer it to a good thickness, you can use it just like canned.

I have not tested every type of aquafaba out there, but I can tell you about the ones that I have used:

• chickpea or white bean liquid - I consider these the gold stars. Use them with abandon! They're a neutral color, so your baked goods won't take on a tint. White beans aquafaba has a slightly milder flavor, which makes it best for something like a meringue.
• pinto, red, or black bean liquid - As long as you don't mind a bit of discoloration, you can use these without issues. They work best in darker items, like muffins, quick breads, and breading.

Can you freeze aquafaba?

You can freeze aquafaba.It will keep for a few days in the fridge, but you can freeze it for up to six months. To freeze:

1. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze completely.
2. Pop out the frozen cubes and transfer to an airtight container to freeze long-term.

Defrost overnight in the fridge or for about 30-60 seconds in the microwave.

Since one standard ice cube tray section holds two tablespoons of liquid, you can use two aquafaba ice cubes for one large egg.