Aquafaba

The word 'aquafaba' was invented by someone who clearly wanted to be interesting, but failed miserably. In Latin the word means 'bean water' and it is the name for the murky liquid which remains if legumes are cooked.

The cooking fluid of legumes such as fava beans (or broad beans), kidney beans and peas consists of carbohydrates (starches, sugars and fibers), proteins and other dissolved vegetable matter that have been transferred from the legumes to the water during the cooking process.

But the liquid contains mainly starch (amylose and amylopectin) and it has the same properties as protein. As a result, aquafaba can be used as a vegetarian substitute for the protein in eggs. Even ice cream, mayonnaise, meringues and marshmallows can be perfectly prepared with it.

In a recipe you simply replace the protein of one egg with 30 milliliters (two tablespoons) of aquafaba. You can replace a whole egg with 45 milliliters (three tablespoons).

Now you would be tempted to think that an ingredient that bears a Latin name to be centuries old, but you would be wrong. The reality is: it was only made up in 2014 by the French chef Joël Roessel.

His idea was picked up on social media and in March 2015 a recipe for an egg-free merengue was published on a vegetarian Facebook page with only two ingredients: the cooking fluid of beans and sugar.