Sir Kensington’s Fabanaise Review
Just over a year ago, the magical powers of aquafaba were discovered. Just a handful of crazy vegans pouring bean juice in a mixer and seeing what could be done. I remember spending almost my entire spring break last year playing with this magical liquid testing what its limits were. I researched and talked with others about our various experiments, posting everything in the, then small, Facebook group. It was such an exciting time being a part of the discovery and experimentation of aquafaba.
One of those experiments was seeing if the aquafaba would emulsify just like eggs when making mayonnaise. It seemed like a bit of a long shot since aquafaba doesn’t have the exact same properties as eggs, considering it doesn’t have a yolk, but we gave it a try anyway! That recipe has now made its rounds on the interwebbies and it’s been so cool seeing it featured on so many other’s blogs and websites. I never thought the recipe would end up being so popular!
Fast forward a year and aquafaba has been featured on The Huffington Post, Food Network, The New York Times, and many more. The aquafaba craze is taking over the world and it has everyone’s attention, vegan or not. It’s kind of insane how much attention aquafaba has gotten and it’s been so much fun seeing the evolution of it all. The Facebook group now even has over 47,000 members and it continues to grow everyday with more and more people testing the limits of the magic egg replacer.
With all of the attention aquafaba has been getting, the condiment company, Sir Kensington’s, saw the recipe for aquafaba mayonnaise and started testing their own mayo to be produced on a large scale and sold in stores. That’s pretty mind boggling to me, knowing that aquafaba has become such a huge innovation and even more exciting that the aquafaba mayonnaise craze was all started right here with one little experiment. The whole thing gets even cooler with the fact that Sir Kensington’s is partnered with a hummus company to obtain their aquafaba and help eliminate food waste. How awesome is that??
A few weeks ago the CEO of Sir Kensington’s contacted me and sent me samples of their new product, Fabanaise. I received a jar of the original vegan mayo and a jar of the chipotle vegan mayo to taste and review. Pretty cool, huh? Unlike other vegan mayonnaises, fabanaise is refrigerated even before opening, which is somewhat encouraging because it doesn’t have any kind of weird ingredients or preservatives in it. The list of ingredients is very short, and all things you would find in your everyday pantry.
I opened up both jars and decided to try them just on their own first, without putting them on anything. Upon opening the jars, they both look just like any normal mayo, smell like mayo, and are nice and thick. The chipotle one is very tasty and has just a bit of a kick to it, but not too much. We put this on some black bean burgers and it added the perfect amount of spice and creaminess to the whole burger. The original on the other hand was not quite as good. The flavor of the original was not reminiscent of mayonnaise at all to me. It’s missing a bit of tang and is actually a bit on the sweet side, which struck me as odd. It has an odd flavor, but I can’t quite put my finger on what is has going on. I also put the original mayo on a sandwich and it was a bit more like traditional mayonnaise, but still lacked that tang I was looking for. I think it would work best in dishes that don’t rely on the mayonnaise flavor as much as the creaminess, like potato salad. As far as the original goes, I think I’ll stick to homemade aquafaba mayo or Hampton Creek’s mayo to get that authentic mayonnaise taste.
Regardless of the mayonnaise, I think it is great that aquafaba has become such a big thing and is helping reduce food waste in so many ways.