These egg-free vegan meringues may be the ultimate something-for-nothing recipe. They taste like a melt-in-your-mouth lemon meringue pie. Instead of eggs, they use the broth left from cooking chickpeas. For flavoring, they use the zest from the lemons used to make hummus with those same chickpeas. Your only cost for these light, elegant treats is for vanilla and sugar. That means these organic lemon aquafaba meringues cost 3 cents each or $1.43 for a whole recipe. That’s wildly affordable!
[Update December 2019: I’ve increased the amount of sugar and lowered the oven temperature after trying Lynn Dic’s aquafaba meringue recipe in the Aquafaba Facebook group. The price above reflects these adjustments.]
Try them as a light finale for a heavy holiday meal, with afternoon tea, or as holiday treats. Spoon out classic meringues or go fancy piping out hearts, letters, and more. This video is from my How to Go Vegan Retreat.
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | 2 hours |
| Passive Time | 8 hours |
| Servings |
meringues
|
- 1/2 cup aquafaba chilled, homemade or from dried chickpeas or liquid from a BPA-free can of organic chickpeas
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar or lemon juice or light-colored vinegar
- 3/4 cup sugar 150 grams
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest loosely packed (the zest from two lemons)
Ingredients
|
Rate this recipe!
|
- Heat oven to 200°F/93°C with racks in the center positions. Line three cookie sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- Put strained and chilled aquafaba and cream of tartar into a mixing bowl and whip on high using a whisk attachment if you have one until stiff peaks form. This will take about 6 minutes with rich home-made aquafaba and up to 15 minutes with thinner aquafaba. It looks crazy, but I wear hearing-protection earmuffs while the mixer is running at high speed. Use them if you have them. You want to be able to hear people ooohh and aaahh at your creations!
- Add sugar one tablespoon at a time and continue whisking for at least 30 seconds to blend in thoroughly. Add vanilla and whisk until combined. Taste the fluff (it's safe -- no eggs!). If you feel any grittiness, whisk more. Sprinkle lemon zest over the whipped aquafaba and fold in gently using a spatula. You could use the whisk, but the zest will stick to it and causes a greater loss of volume.
- Drop globs of lemon aquafaba on the cookie sheets with a little swirling flourish. I get the right size from with a dining teaspoon. They don't spread, so you can space them closely.
- Bake at 2 hours, rotating cookie sheets top to bottom and front to back after an hour. Meringues will become hard, with small bubbles on the outside. Turn off oven without opening it. Leave meringues to dry at least 8 hours or overnight.
- Serve at once or store in an air-tight container. Increase storage time, add a handful of uncooked rice wrapped in a towel or envelope to absorb any extra moisture. They will keep for a month in here in the humid South and even longer in dry climates.
This is my variation on the original vegan meringue recipe by Goose Wohlt [and now updated with inspiration from Lynn Dic]. Adding the lemon zest softens the aquafaba enough that the peaks melt down into mounds before the meringues harden, but they are still pretty. For peaks, skip the lemon zest. Enjoy the vanilla flavor or use other oil-free flavor extracts such as almond. I use a stand mixer, but you could use a hand mixer or even a hand whisk if you have patience and strong arms. That's how the bakers for Marie Antoinette did it and possibly even Marie herself.
Learn more about aquafaba here.
