Yes, it can be done, and that’s not all. Vegan Meringue Cookies can happen in your kitchen with ingredients you probably already have in your cupboard! So what’s the secret ingredient? Aquafaba is what it’s called. Now let’s break that down a little.
Aqua = water. Faba = bean.
So what does that make? Bean water!! I know, you are totally drooling right now. Bean water cookies. Yum? It’s true, you can make a meringue out of the water that’s leftover in a can of beans, and it’s basically exactly the same result as if you were to use egg whites, except totally vegan! Celebrate, yay, exciting, hands to the sky, woot woot!
I am not the brilliant genius who figured this out, in fact there is a whole site dedicated to the genius: aquafaba.com here you can learn about the history of aquafaba, the science, and you can even buy an aquafaba t-shirt if that’s something you need in your closet. It’s a pretty amazing discovery and the vegan community is going wild. I see lemon meringue pies, macaroons, and fluffy batters in the future… and all with an ingredient that I was throwing out. Pure brilliance.
After a few experiments I discovered the key is to buy chickpeas that are unsalted or no salt added. When I tried making meringues with a can of chickpeas that had salt added (check the ingredients), they were still pretty darn good, but they did have a slight smell and taste of bean. Not terrible, but not what I was aiming for. When I used the water from a can of unsalted chickpeas, that bean taste disappeared and all you can taste is perfect meringue heaven. Scrumptious. Some serious meringue connoisseurs (aka friends) tried these, and they actually preferred them to egg white meringues. Win for the vegans!
How do we make these delights? Take a 19oz can of no salt added chickpeas, and pour out all of the liquid. It should make about a cup of liquid. Save the chickpeas to do whatever you like with later on.
Add the chickpea liquid to a mixer bowl along with the vanilla and cream of tartar.
Start blending on high and slowly add in the sugar as it beats. You may need to stop and scrap down the sides to get any of the sugar that is stuck to the sides of the bowl.
Keep beating, and it should start to get fluffy. The goal is to achieve stiff peaks. Not there yet…
…Still too soft, keep beating.
Ah, just right. When you lift the beater the meringue should hold a stiff peak, even if you jiggle the bowl, the peak should stay as is. It took me about 6 to 6 1/2 minutes to reach this stage in my mom’s Kitchen Aid Mixer.
Now line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. You can stick down the corners of the parchment by adding a small dot of the meringue, to help hold the parchment in place.
Use a pastry bag or a spoon to dollop the meringues on the baking sheet.
When you are done you will have a whole bunch of pretty little meringues, ready to go into the oven. Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 1/4 hours, rotating the pans half way through. Now it’s a little difficult to tell exactly when they are done, and I really racked my brain on how to share this information, but there is not much of a visual cue, so you are going to have to go with your gut a little on this one. If the meringues are small or you want a chewy center, opt for less time. If they are large or you prefer a meringue that is crunchy all the way through, opt for more time. It’s not very easy to tell when they are ready just by look, so the best way is if you are able to take one out of the oven, (carefully tear a piece of parchment off with a meringue on it) let it cool, and see if it’s are the correct texture, and if it is, take the rest out of the oven. If not, bake longer.
When you take them out of the oven, let them cool and enjoy! Store in a dry place so they maintain their shape.
- The liquid from 1, 19oz can of Unsalted Chickpeas (about 1 cup of liquid)
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ¼ teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- ¾ Cup White Sugar
- Preheat the oven to 200F (100C).
- Pour out the liquid from the can of chickpeas, and add it to a mixer bowl along with the vanilla extract and the cream of tartar.
- Start beating on high, and slowly pour in the sugar as the beater is running. You may need to stop and scrape off any sugar that stuck to the sides of the bowl.
- Continue to beat, stopping every now and then to check the meringue. When stiff peaks hold in the meringue without it collapsing, they are ready. It took me about 6 to 6½ minutes to reach the stiff peaks.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and use small dots of meringue to hold the parchment paper down if needed.
- Use a pastry bag, or a spoon to dollop on the meringue into even mounds.
- Bake for 1½ to 2¼ hours, rotating the pans half way through. Now it's a little difficult to tell exactly when they are done, and I really racked my brain on how to share this information, but there is not much of a visual cue, so you are going to have to go with your gut a little on this one. If the meringues are small or you want a chewy center, opt for less time. If they are large or you prefer a meringue that is crunchy all the way through, opt for more time. It's not very easy to tell when they are ready just by look, so the best way is if you are able to take one out of the oven, (carefully tear a piece of parchment off with a meringue on it) let it cool, and see if it's are the correct texture. If it is, take the rest out of the oven. If not, bake longer. When they are ready let them cook and enjoy!
- Store in a cool dry place. They are best eaten that day, but if your environment is very dry (not humid), they can last a few days.
Bon Appetegan!
Sam.
If you liked this recipe you might also enjoy:
Can I soak the chickpeas myself and then Use the water?
I’ve never tried it myself, but here are some instructions on how to do it from another site. Enjoy!
Just made these today. They are delicious, Sam!!!
Thank you for the recipe!
Yay! So happy you enjoyed them, Carmen!
OMG these turned out amazing and took less than 6 minutes to whip up in my Kitchenaid stand mixer on speed 10! I remembered the importance of having a cold bowl and cream when making dairy whipped cream, so I refrigerated my aquafaba before using it in this recipe so maybe that helped keep the whipping time shorter. I’m so happy to discover a cookie recipe that can be made with only 4 ingredients (ones I always have on hand to boot). I had some of the batter left over after filling up all my cookie sheets, so I tried freezing it to see what would happen. The next morning I had a container of delicious vegan vanilla ice cream on my hands. WOW
Amazing! So happy you loved them so much, Sierra. Very cool trick about freezing, I will have to try that myself! 🙂
Mine keep melting!!! I think I may have gotten a small amount of water in the batter. Would that be why? After a minute in the oven they become sugar Aquafina water….
Hmmm… I did a bit of research and this site seems to say that there are several reasons why that could happen, but that it is likely from not whipping it enough. Do you think that might have been the problem?
Just used red kidney bean water with a tablespoon of cocoa powder to add flavour and hide the murky colour!
Haha awesome!
The best things that I have ever made
So happy to hear that!
Mine are in the oven smelling delicious now! I used white bean aquafaba…so not sure how this will work. They are rather flat looking, so will try beating them longer. I did it for 6 mins, but might need longer next time. The batter tasted amazing (and you can lick the bowl when it’s not egg!) I’m excited to try these. I used vanilla extract because I’m allergic to almonds. Thanks for the weirdly amazing recipe! 🙂
Haha! My pleasure! For the next time, if you beat them longer, I noticed that the aquafaba doesn’t seem to get over beaten and break like egg whites do, so no worries about over doing it! Enjoy!
I also noticed that if you add just a tad more sugar during “the end” of the beating process that the meringue will start to set more and have more structure or maybe just conserve like 1 tbsp to sprinkle in at 6 minutes
Oh, that’s an interesting tip! Thanks, Savanna!
“… if you giggle the bowl, the peak should stay as is….”
Sam, I love you. I read the above and my heart just smiled as I myself giggled, and maybe jiggled at the same time.
Thanks for sharing this. I’ve got my first ever meringue in the oven, though it’s gone flat, hence here looking for some tips- think I got them
Big hugs and happy creating ✌️
Bahahahaha! Whoops!! That’s a funny typo, haha. Big hugs to you, I hope you enjoy your meringues!
Thank you love 😉 Got off of them and into aquafaba ice cream and mousse and toum….Endless fun. 😉
Oooh! Sounds yum!
My favorite meringue cookies are coffee pecan. I cant wait to try the aquafaba.
This sounds perfect because I don’t like super sweet cookies. My new favorite is to add ground pecans and a little Starbucks Italian Roast Via or instant espresso to standard a meringue kiss recipe. I like it better than my usual with white chocolate chips or crushed candy canes.
Sounds delightful!! I hope you love them T.E. 🙂
Hi Sam, can I use canderel instead of Sugar?
Thanks
Michelle xx
Hmm… I’ve never cooked with canderel or any artificial sweetener, so I tried doing a bit of research to discover if meringues could be made with artificial sweetener, and from what I found, it doesn’t look like there is a lot of success. Hope that helps!
Thanks, I’ll stick to caster sugar and divide the points for weight watchers
Michelle xx
Great! Enjoy 🙂
I made these today. For those of you looking, I found salt free chickpeas in the natural foods section of my grocery store (Giant), rather than with the rest of the canned beans.
The texture is spot on, but I still found them…. beany. (I actually really dislike chickpeas anyway, which is part of the problem.) I’d still be interested in trying it with another type of bean. I think that folks who haven’t encountered the ingredients list probably won’t be bothered by the flavor, though.
I wonder if different brands of aquafaba have different tastes? I served mine to a professional baker and she was blown away by them. Glad you loved the texture Arielle!
I tried making these tonight, but can you tell me what might be wrong? The batter tasted great and I got stiff peaks after probably ten minutes with my stand mixer. I baked them for two and a half hours at 200 and they never hardened at all- they were still totally sticky and not at all solid. I turned up the oven to 250 out of desperation and ended up blackening them, and yet they were still gooey. We don’t have much humidity. Any insight? Thanks!!
Hi Sarah,
It’s a bummer they didn’t work for you! It’s difficult to know without being in the kitchen with you, but it just sounds like they needed to bake longer. Slightly varying temperatures in ovens, humidity in the air, slightly different measurements can all have an effect. If you try them again, after the two-hour point, I would just check on them every 15 minutes until the desired texture is reached. Hope that helps!
Hi Sam, can I used this for a meringue topping for a fruit pie, like lemon meringue pie that is not going to be baked or will it not hold shape unless its cooked?
Usually the meringues on lemon meringue pies are baked for a bit as well, and yes it totally works for that, I will have a recipe in my cookbook 🙂
My favorite cookie when I was not vegan was raspberry meringue cookies with raspberry jello can I use vegan jello to get the same affect.
I’ve never tried it myself, but if you have done it with traditional meringues, I can’t see why it wouldn’t work here. Enjoy! 🙂
Some of my classmates made raspberry vegan meringues not too long ago using fruit puree. I’m not sure what their ratio was but it is possible.
I just made these for the first time! I used Aquafaba with sodium, and the meringues still turned out, but there is a slight chickpea flavour. It didn’t affect anything else though! I baked them for probably an hour and 50 minutes and they turned out nice and crunchy!
Yes, that’s exactly the result I had. The salted aquafaba is still good, but there is a slight chickpea flavour. I think you’ll find with the unsalted that the chickpea flavour disappears! So happy you enjoyed them 🙂
I tried these last night and they exploded in the oven after 6 minutes hahahahah! I was crushed lol
Oh no!! Exploded!? I have never heard of that before. My guess is that your oven temperature might have been to high and an exterior shell was formed before the interior was cooked? If you think that might be right you could pick up and oven thermometer to test your oven.
Is it ok to use the liquid from great northern white beans instead of the liquid from chickpeas? If so, what makes chickpea liquid so specially suited for this?
I have never tried it myself, but yes, apparently all beans work the same. If you give it a go, let us know how it tastes!
The bean taste was definitely there, but that is because there was sodium added. Oops! I also had a hard time getting them to take shape, but the texture was perfect! In any case, they were a big hit at the potluck I took them to, so it worked out in the end!
So happy you enjoyed them! 🙂
I don’t like canned beans. Can I subtitute with water from the chickpeas cooked in pressure cooker?
I haven’t tried it myself but this YouTube video explains how to make aquafaba. Hope this helps!
I just put my pan into the oven, and I am AMAZED! I think this vegan meringue beat up silkier than the egg meringue! I’m curious to see how they’ll taste out of the oven. I only had salted chickpeas, so I used almond extract to give them a little bit of a cherry flavor (to mask any potential “off” taste). The “raw” meringue tasted incredible…I never would’ve guessed they were vegan. I’m planning on making mint, mint-chocolate chip, chocolate, and cherry (with chopped maraschinos) in the future if these turn out well. Thanks for the recipe, and thank you for providing the link on how to make your own aquafaba!
It’s so cool isn’t it!? I also find that there is no risk of over beating the meringue/ hope you love them Yvonne! Your flavour additions sound amazing!!
White sugar is NOT vegan.
Hi Marni, white sugar isn’t vegan if bone char is used to refine the sugar. I believe this is a practise only used in the US as far as I know. Many brands are totally vegan, you just have to check with the company to find out. Here in Canada, one of the more common brands of white sugar is vegan as you can see on their FAQ page. In the US any organic sugar will be vegan if you are unsure of what brand to buy. Hope that helps!
Also you can buy vegan white sugars. That are specifically labeled as such. In San Francisco I know Whole Foods carries it (I buy it specifically for baking) so I’m sure if you have the same or something similar near by, you could find it.
Perfect! Thanks for the tip Marni!
Tried this with raw sugar and it turned out just fine, if anyone wants to know
Thanks Maia, great to know!
These worked for me! My only nay-say is that they were too sweet (for me). But I am super excited to make these again. Also, I baked for 1 hour an 45 minutes and they were a tad bit overbooked. I probably should have stopped at 1.5 hours. <3 Star
So happy they turned out for you 🙂
Im so sad these disnt turn out for me. The good thing was that unlike egg meringues that often easily brown and stay a bit chewy and sticky, these dried up great and stayed pure white. The problems I had was that some of them either flattened, disappeared or turned out hollow(all from the same batch) and even if they kept their shape they all stuck the the wax paper like crazy and they tasted and smelled strongly of chickpeas. Why?!?!?! 🙁
Oh I am so sad to hear that. Make sure to use parchment paper, not wax paper so that the meringues don’t stick. Did you use aquafaba from a can of unsalted chickpeas? I find when you use the aquafaba from a salted can of chickpeas it has a lot more chickpea taste. Hmmmm it’s very odd that within one batch there were so much variation in the outcome. I am really not sure why. The only thing I can think of is if your oven has temperature differences… some ovens have hot spots. I wish I could be more help Eli!
I’m sad, we tried making these but they totally melted flat and squidgy in the oven! Any ideas what went wrong? I really really want to make these 🙁
Oh, I’m sad too! Meringues are picky things whether they are vegan or not. It sounds like maybe the meringue wasn’t whisked enough? It should have stiff peaks that stand straight up. If you think it was stiff enough other problems might be if it’s too humid. It’s best to make meringues on dry days. I hope those tips help? I want them to work for you!
Hi iam excited to try this, pls tell me how to store the lft over aquafaba whipped cream and how long can I store it.
Hmm, I haven’t tried it myself, but my guess is it wouldn’t store very well. The bobbles will likely, slowly pop, and you will be left with liquid. I would recommend using all the aquafaba when you make it. You can always half the recipe if you like. Alternatively, aquafaba would store for a few days in the fridge, or freeze well, before it is whipped (just the liquid from the can). Hope that helps!
Hi
I live in the UK , can you tell what sugar you used was it caster or icing .
Thank you
I used granulated sugar 🙂
Thank you Sam
Can’t wait to have a go.
Just made these for Easter, easily found salt free, did use a hand mixer, so it took a while. Plan to tweak the recipe a little, maybe some more vanilla, but the people who ate them all thought they were good and no one suspected that they were not made with eggs.
Haha that’s awesome! Love it. So happy you were able to fool everyone 🙂
Hi! I was really interested in this recipe, it sounds amazing. What do you consider a lot of salt? I can’t find canned chickpeas without added salt, the lowest I’ve been able to find has 0.3g for 100g. Do you think that would do the trick?
Thank you.
Hi Andreia, when I made the meringues with the water from salted chickpeas the meringues were still good and everyone still devoured them, they just had a background of a chickpea flavour, whereas when I made them with unsalted, that disappeared. So you can totally make them with salted chickpea brine. I would choose whichever brand is lowest in salt and go with that, hopefully you won’t be able to taste chickpeas. 🙂
I just finished making these and they turned out perfectly! I used a hand mixer and was standing there for about 20 minutes but it’s all good now. I’m really excited for my (non-vegan) family to come home and try them out!
Oh yay! So happy they worked out perfect for you. So cool isn’t it? 🙂
I made these yesterday and fooled people into thinking they were made with egg whites. Delicious.
Haha! I love that. So happy you were able to fool everyone!
Made these last night and they looked great – but they were totally hollow inside! Any ideas why? It has been years and years since I made any type of meringue (it was egg-based back then), but I don’t remember seeing this phenomenon before. Thoughts?
Hi JenR!
This can happen with the egg-based ones too, it’s a result of too much air. So perhaps the meringue batter was beat a little too long? Hope that helps!
Hey! Really loved this recipe it turned out great. To everyone who is wondering about the cream of tartar, I left it out (because I had none) and the recipe did work, it just increased the amount of time spent beating it (by about 20 min). I would definitely recommend the tartar, but it will still work otherwise. Thanks!
So happy it worked out for you Rachel. Glad to know it worked without, but yeah, I think it definitely helps. 🙂
is there a substitute for cream of tartar
Hi Zina,
Cream of tartar helps the aquafaba hold it’s shape. There isn’t really a substitute. If you must, you can try leaving it out but I am not sure how it will turn out. Hope that helps!
I don’t know if it works or not, but I’ve read that if you can replace every 1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar (the amount needed per egg to make meringue) with 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or distilled white vinegar.
Hi, could you use this meringue to make a Pavlova, or does this recipe only work for small shapes. Hoping to make a Pavlova for Australian day and my vegan friend.
Thanks!
Hi Goose,
Absolutely you can! From my experience, you can use aquafaba for any egg meringue recipe and it works perfectly! Enjoy 🙂
Hi ..
I have been experimenting for a few years with this.. and recently have moved towards white kidney beans (tastes like maltesers). Cannelini, butterbeans.. black beans (didn’t taste good)… I’m erring towards a flash boil then cool the liquid… this destroys the lectins in the liquid which are in some beans and aren’t good for you…
Early on i tried the liquid from boiling whole linseeds (vorgster.blogspot.co.uk) .. i have proposed the name “Aqualini” for this liquid since it’s not a bean… and ‘lini’ is latin for linseed…
I liked the post…
It’s a bit unfortunate that the post is interspersed with pictures of roasted turkey from Aldi…
Keep it up…
If you try white kidney beans.. do boil the liquid for 2-3 minutes and cool it first…
Glad you are having so much fun experimenting! So sorry about the ads 🙁 I put blocks on ads that contain animal products, but sometimes they sneak through. If it happens again, I would very much appreciate if you could send me a screenshot and let me know what kind of device you were using, so I can have the ad removed. Enjoy the aqualina! 🙂
Hello, great I was wondering if there was a cruelty free recipe. My question goes as to if its necesary to add tartar.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
The cream of tartar helps the aquafaba fluff up and hold it’s shape, so yes, I would recommend it. 🙂
Just curious, I noticed several comments asking about cream of tartar.
I understand cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate) is a byproduct of the wine making industry.
Is there another non vegan source of this? Or are people simply mistaking because it has the word ‘cream’ in it?
Regards,
M.
Cream of tartar is vegan, my guess is that people just don’t have it on hand and are hoping to get away without a trip to the grocery store! Haha.
I don’t typically use canned beans, would the water from cooking them be the same as the canned water? Would love to try this, but good canned chickpeas are so expensive!
I haven’t tried it, myself but according to this Youtube video explains how to make aquafaba from scratch. Hope the helps!
Does this merengue have applications for meringue pies too I wonder?
oh I see below it does, that’s wonderful. Thanks for the post!
Oh haha! yep 🙂
Absolutely! I haven’t done it yet myself, but from what I understand, you can use aqua faba meringue the same way you use egg white meringue!
It is very possible and my mom has a great recipe for it! I prefer over dairy/egg lemon meringue pie 🙂
Yum!
These are magical little cloud morsels! I can’t believe chickpea water made authentic tasting meringues. It took me about 6-7 minutes for the stiff peaks and I baked for 2 hours for absolutely perfect meringues. 3 days after making them, and I’m still giggling over the outcome! Took them to a family dinner (all meat-eaters except my hubby, 2 year old daughter and myself)… they were skeptical at first but tried them with delight. Everyone agreed they were great. And my daughter… all she could say was “more meringue cookie please, more meringue cooking please.”
So Sam, I do hope you are working on a vegan lemon meringue pie . 😉
Yay!!!! So happy you love them so much. Isn’t aqua faba magical!? I was so thrilled when they worked so well too. I am so happy you and your family enjoyed them and I am definitely keeping the lemon meringue pie in mind for a future post 😉
I really can’t believe this worked! I was so skeptical, but these cookies were absolutely amazing! Who would have thought?! 🙂
It works so shockingly well, doesn’t it!? I was so skeptical too, but they really are amazing. Those aquafaba discoverers are amazing folk! Haha. So happy you loved the recipe Laura!
hello! i have one question.
Which B-12 do you take?
Thanks
Hi Marina,
I’m not too picky about it, as long as it’s a vegan B12 supplement, I usually go for one that is 2,500 mcg once a week. Here’s one that will do: http://www.amazon.com/Deva-Nutrition-Vegan-Sublingual-Tablets/dp/B00EW1BVIS Hope that helps!
I am so excited to give this *another* try! I used canned garbanzos I had on hand, which–when I checked later–turned out to have a little salt and this may have affected the outcome (wouldn’t form peaks). Nonetheless, I was making your cranberry walnut chickpea salad sandwiches *anyway* and decided to reserve the liquid and try these meringue cookies. After what seemed like an eternity of whipping, I tried adding more cream of tartar to see if that would help the liquid form peaks. No luck. Finally I gave up, BUT I put the now creamy, sweet liquid over chopped fruit for a salad, and oh my! Score! I saved the rest (the 1 cup of garbanzo liquid yielded about 3 cups of frothy sweet cream) and will try it …maybe in my coffee? …in our vitamix-made ice “cream”? Anyway, thanks for revealing this very interesting bean “cream.” It will be interesting to see what happens with aquafaba in the future! Love your blog! Keep cooking!
Thank you so much Lisa! I don’t know why peaks didn’t form for you… I had a look around the internet and saw that it took some people as long as 20 minutes to get to the peak forming stage. (It only took me about 6). So perhaps it just depends on your machine, or the brand of chickpeas you use. I am so happy you enjoyed the cream anyways. Putting it over fruit sounds lovely!
Your meringues look amazing! <3
No one would ever tell these are vegan, really. So delicious!
It’s totally true, people are amazed that they are vegan!
I wonder if I could add a little bit of baking cocoa to chocolate them up a bit?
Hi Cindy,
I haven’t tried this myself, but I think it would work. I would start by adding 1 Tablespoon of Cocoa Powder and see how that works.
Let us know!
Sam
I tried this and the foam collapsed.
oh bummer! Thanks for letting us know how it turned out for you.
Hiya! I know this was a while ago but just saw this while reading the comments. To make them chocolatey just sprinkle your cocoa powder on the meringues just before they go in the oven
Ooo lovely idea. 🙂
Amazing! I’m in awe! Thank you Sam for sharing this trick!
You are so very welcome Salima! 😀
Oh my god! SO cool! My mom makes these super awesome raisin cookies with brown sugar meringue on the top and I was SO sad that they were not vegan options for these. THANK YOU! 😀
I used to think that this water (in the chickpeas can) was not for consumption at all… kind of toxic. I rince my chickpeas like crazy. So funny 🙂
Thank you again
Oh yes, you can definitely use this meringue for your mom’s super awesome raisin cookies!
You can totally consume the aquafaba. I normally rinse it off well too because it is kind of slimy, but this slimy water has some serious power that I didn’t know about!! 😀
@Stephanie, I am super interested to know if there is a recipe for your mom’s cookies online someplace? I tired looking it up and I can’t find anything. Perhaps she made it up? I found lots of “brown sugar meringue”, but none with a raisin cookie under it. They sound amazing!
This is genius! Question… I live on the coast, in the south, so it is humid year round. Do you think these will have the same issues that regular ones ( with egg whites) have with all the moisture in the air?
Thank you Diane! Yes, I think they react pretty much exactly the same, and will get soggy in humid air unfortunately. Perhaps if you bake them for a longer time, they might hold up for a little longer…