Get Ready for ‘Faba Butter,’ Vegan Butter You Can Buy That’s Made With Chickpea Water!

Butter made out of chickpeas? Yep, it’s a thing! Brooklyn-based vegan company, Fora has perfected the recipe for a new plant-based butter called “Faba Butter,” made using aquafaba, the brine water that is leftover when cooking chickpeas.

Aquafaba can act as an emulsifier, leavening agent, and foaming agent because it has properties similar to those of egg whites. Together with water, coconut oil, and plant-based liquid oil, aquafaba helps create a rich, creamy product that cooks, tastes, bakes and spreads just like traditional butter. Faba Butter will make it’s debut this year at the Winter Fancy Food Show and Fora co-founders, Andrew McClure and Aidan Altman already have plans for aquafaba-based whipped cream, frostings, and dressings.

“We’ve worked with some vegan chefs and they tell us that it’s the most functional butter alternative on the market that they have worked with,” Altman told Food Navigator. So exciting!

In an effort to make their product zero-waste, Fora buys the leftover aquafaba from hummus producers, an ingredient that would normally be tossed. While we’ve seen aquafaba used in commercial products such as Sir Kensington’s vegan mayo, Fabanaise, it seems like Fora is set to revolutionize butter.

Faba Butter will likely to be met with success. More than ever, people are becoming aware of the impact that meat and dairy have on the planet, animals, and their health, and they are actively seeking out plant-based alternatives. According to a report from Neilsen examining growth in the plant-based food space, dairy alternatives are a fast-growing category, with 20 percent growth, topping $700 million in sales over the past year.

Products like Faba Butter are not only powerful because they are expanding the ever-increasing plant-based market, but they are also much-needed if we are to create a more sustainable future for the food world. Considering the fact that dairy farms use approximately 3.4 million gallons of water every single day, this is an industry that needs to be completely transformed. But thanks to forward-thinking companies like Fora, the food space is evolving towards more sustainable (and delicious!) options.

We can’t wait to try Faba Butter! To stay up to date on Fora, check out their website.

To learn more about the impact of our food choices as well as trends and developments in the plant-based food space, check out our podcast #EatForThePlanet with Nil Zacharias.

Image Source: Fora/Instagram