Light, airy and perfect vegan meringue cookies. Cute and fun and made with chickpea aquafaba resulting in totally perfect meringue!
I was daunted by the idea of vegan meringue for a long time and now I don’t know why.
Honestly, making these was incredibly easy!
If you are new to the idea of aquafaba, let me tell you about it. A few years back some geniuses discovered that the water (brine) from a can of chickpeas acted pretty much exactly like egg whites when whipped.
Basically the proteins from the beans leaches out into the water and makes that water very similar to egg whites in how it behaves. So you can use that water for all sorts of egg-like things!
I have actually used aquafaba before, very successfully, when I made my vegan mousse.
So goodness knows why I was daunted by the idea of vegan meringue, but somehow I just was.
But these came out so beautifully. So now you know I am definitely thinking about some vegan lemon meringue and vegan pavlova.
I researched a lot of recipes and methods, and tried a few different things and this recipe is exactly what worked best for me.
I also found some good troubleshooting tips for making vegan meringue that were very helpful from the Lazy Vegan Baker.
How To Make Vegan Meringue
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
To make these you just take some of the water from a can of chickpeas, and place it in your electric mixer with some cream of tartar.
You start off slow to get it nice and foamy.
Then you speed it up and as you can see things start to get very creamy and glossy!
You add your sugar and vanilla slowly as it whips and let it go until you have nice and glossy stiff peaks.
Pipe it out onto a parchment lined tray, as you can see I had a bit of trouble with my uniformity, some are quite a bit bigger than others!
Then you bake at 250°F (121°C) for 45 minutes and then you switch OFF the oven BUT don’t open it for another hour. This is really crucial. You leave the oven closed for an hour after it finishes baking, without opening it!
Ingredient Notes
Aquafaba (chickpea water) – this recipe uses 6 tablespoons of aquafaba, the liquid left behind from a can of chickpeas. This is roughly half of what you would get from one 15-ounce (425g) can of chickpeas. You can throw the rest out or use it in other recipes requiring aquafaba.
Cream of tartar – this really works for stabilization and it’s exactly like you would use if you were whipping egg whites.
Granulated sugar – works best for this as it provides the structure for the meringues.
Does It Taste Like Proper Meringue?
The end result of this recipe is the most perfect meringues ever. Absolutely perfect! Really, the perfect texture and perfect taste.
Now this is the curious part – if you taste the meringue mix before it goes into the oven, you can taste the chickpea water, the chickpea flavor is there.
So you might be sceptical at this stage, but have faith because once baked, all traces of chickpea flavor vanishes.
All that you are left with is perfect sweet airy light crispy meringue.
How To Store Your Meringues
Store them in an airtight container in the fridge for 5 days. If it’s even vaguely hot or humid where you are, put them in the fridge pronto.
We are currently having high humidity and within a very short time (like 15 minutes) these were starting to get sticky and wanting to collapse.
We put them in the fridge and they went back to perfect in seconds. So just beware of that. Hot and humid weather leads to sticky meringue collapse. So airtight container in the fridge and they will stay perfect for snacks for around 5 days.
More Gorgeous Vegan Desserts
- Vegan Sugar Cookies
- Vegan White Chocolate
- Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
- Cashew Ice Cream
- Vegan Coconut Cookies
- Vegan Energy Balls
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Meringue
Ingredients
- 6 Tablespoons Aquafaba liquid from a can of chickpeas*
- ¼ teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- ½ cup White Granulated Sugar (100g)
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Place the chickpea liquid (aquafaba) and cream of tartar into the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Start at slow speed and whip until foamy.
- Then gradually increase speed until white and glossy and stiff peaks start to form.
- Add the sugar in slowly while whipping at fast speed.
- Add in the vanilla.
- Keep whipping until glossy stiff peaks form.
- Preheat your oven to 250°F (121°C).
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Pipe the meringue mix into cookie shapes onto the parchment lined tray. Alternatively you can spoon it out, but I found piping to be much easier.
- Place into the oven and bake for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, switch off the oven but DON’T OPEN IT (excuse the caps, but this part is very important). Leave the oven off, but don’t open it for one hour. Time it.
- After the meringues have baked for 45 minutes and then sat in the oven for a further 60 minutes without opening the oven, remove them from the oven.
- They should be airy crispy perfection! If the weather is at all hot or humid, put them in an airtight container and store them in the fridge for the most long lasting results.
Video
Notes
- This amount of chickpea liquid is roughly half of what you’ll get from one 15 ounce (425g) can of chickpeas when drained. You can throw out the rest or use it for other egg replacement purposes or for another batch of vegan meringue.
- Keep the meringues stored in a covered container in the fridge for 5 days.
- Recipe adapted from A Little Insanity.
How would I make these chocolate? Thanks!
I haven’t tried to make these chocolate, but you could experiment with adding in some cocoa powder and see how it goes.
Going to make these soon! But I’m confused about the amount of servings – surely this doesn’t actually make 66 meringues?
Hi Chris, the number would depend on how big you make them. We got 66, but you can see how small they are in the photo that shows the tray before they go into the oven.
Does the chickpea liquid need to be room temperature? Thanks
It doesn’t usually make a difference.
I love this recipe! Made it multiple times
Thanks Jess!
I love this recipe. It works everytime!
Yay! Thanks so much Steph!
Can you use this as a meringue frosting, instead of baking the meringue cookies? Like Italian meringue that hadn’t been made into buttercream with the addition later on of butter.
Thanks!
Hi Keith, I’m not entirely sure as I haven’t tried that myself (yet). 🙂
Do they freeze
Yes they do.
Excellent recipe! Some waiting hands opened the oven 20 minutes before they were supposed to though! LOL
Haha, so glad they still worked out! Thanks for the great review!
I have tried so many recipes for aquafaba meringue and this is the one stored on my phone but never get many from it and they always collapse into flat discs despite reaching stiff peaks. I even reduced and cooled my aquafaba and no better. I think I am doing something wrong but no idea what!
Hi Helen, are you using the right amount of sugar? The sugar is what provides the structure.
I just made these & they turned out great! I used lemon juice instead of cream of tartar (as I didn’t have it, google said lemon juice/ vinegar is a good alternative). Then followed the instructions exactly. Note: tasted yummy also before cooking, maybe the lemon juice helped. They were so crispy outside. Thanks so much, very happy cook here.
So glad they were a success! Thanks for sharing!
pretty great! the bottom had a slightly off colour, and there’s a bit of a strange taste to them on that end. not sure if it’s the vanilla splitting and pooling at the bottom, or some of the chickpea protein not fully baking off? maybe my aquafaba sat too long? regardless, it’s noticeable but so far not overwhelming, i think it could be covered by dipping them in something like a fruit curd or jam. might give that a shot soon. thanks!
Hi Beck, there shouldn’t be any strange taste once they’re baked! You can sort of taste the ‘chickpea’ side of things before it bakes but you shouldn’t after it’s baked, so I’m not sure what caused that.
You probably didn’t mix the meringue long enough before baking. If you don’t dissolve the sugar completely it melts and pools at the bottom
I can’t believe how well they worked, they’re absolutely perfect. The only thing I’ve found is mine have a bit of a lemony aftertaste due to the cream of tartar. Maybe I added too much?
Hi Alison,
I tried the recipe with just 1.5 tbsp. Aquafaba. Could made 9 disc of 4cm diameter. After cooling down, it tastes sour. Couldn’t find the reason. Also, colour was light brown, say biscuit colour.
Please help me regarding the taste.
Hi Saranya, oh no, that doesn’t sound great. Sorry to hear. I’m not sure what happened there, but maybe something was weird with that can of chickpeas.
Very sad that these didn’t work for me. The only changes I made was to quadruple the recipe, as I used two tins of chickpeas. I made sure to measure the amount of liquid and adjust the quantities of everything else accordingly. They look amazing, but after baking and resting in the oven time (without opening), they’re totally soft and chewy 🙁
Hi Amy, I would try moving them to the fridge and see if that helps!
Best vegan meringue recipe I’ve ever made and I’ve tried quite a few over the last 6 years!!! Just follow the recipe precisely as is written to those who left comments wondering why it didn’t work out. I don’t want those comments to deter anyone from this recipe because as you have developed it is absolutely spot on!!
Thank you so much Audrey! 🙂
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. The only thing I changed in the recipe is I used half regular sugar and half erythitol sugar. (Which I have used in the non vegan version, and it works great) but this time. The form is there but when it’s time to take them out of the oven, they’re sticky and there’s no hard shell.
Please help, these are my husband’s favourite cookies.
Hi April, the sugar is crucial to the structure of the meringue. It’s not the same as the egg-version, which can hold it’s structure much better even without the sugar. In this vegan version reducing sugar doesn’t work well at all.