Aquafaba

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌɑːkwəˈfɑːbə/

Definitions

1. A viscous liquid produced during the cooking of legumes, used in vegan cooking as a substitute for egg whites for binding and creating emulsions
2. A liquid derived from the cooking process of certain legumes, it is often utilized in plant-based cuisine to mimic the properties of egg whites for emulsifying and binding ingredients
3. This thick, protein-rich liquid extracted from cooked legumes serves as an egg white alternative in vegan recipes, enabling emulsification and binding in various dishes

Etymology: Aquafaba is a coinage, not an ancient word. In 2015, the US software engineer Goose Wohlt needed a name for the cloudy liquid left after cooking chickpeas or other beans, which turned out to whip and bind much like egg white. He combined two Latin words: "aqua", meaning water, and "faba", meaning bean. Both parts have long pedigrees. "Aqua" descends from a Proto-Indo-European root for water, and "faba" comes from an older Italic word that became the standard Latin name for the broad bean. Neither Latin speaker ever put them together, so the compound reads as a playful piece of classical-sounding invention rather than inherited vocabulary.

Synonyms: bean water, legume water, chickpea liquid, plant-based substitute, vegan ingredient