Last week, a commenter on my post about giving up cheese mentioned that eggs are a real stumbling block for her. She didn’t specify whether it was eggs in baking or the whole egg that she missed, but either way it’s a topic that bears addressing!
While I can’t promise that there’s a reasonable vegan equivalent for something like deviled eggs, there are lots of options to satisfy your eggy desires without any animal products!
Baking
There are a ton of different ways to substitute eggs in baking, and the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale website covers all of my favorites. The key with eggs is that sometimes they’re being used for binding in recipes, sometimes for moisture, and sometimes both. It might take some experimenting to get the right replacement.
Luckily, you can find whole recipes for pretty much anything you’d want to make. I highly recommend Vegweb for baking recipes.
Breakfast and Brunch
Giving up eggs doesn’t have to mean giving up your favorite breakfast and brunch foods! Check out this awesome frittata recipe from Veg Cooking. If a simple scramble is what you’re after, the PPK’s tofu scramble is my favorite. It’s really flexible, too! You can use whatever veggies you have on hand.
Commenter Cheeseless had an intriguing recommendation in the omelet department:
About the eggs…Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz has some tofu omelette recipes that feature black salt, which has a very sulfuric smell/taste that is similar to eggs. So similar in fact, that I made it and then couldn’t bring myself to eat it!!! But if you are craving eggs, it might be perfect!
I’m definitely going to be on the hunt for some black salt! My omnivorous husband might enjoy an eggy-tasting omelet.
For a starchier breakfast option, these 5 Minute Pancakes are a family favorite in my house. Sometimes we mix in blueberries or banana, too!
I also really like the look of 101 Cookbooks’ Spinach-Mushroom Quiche!
Elsewhere
Giving up eggs also means giving up conventional mayonnaise, but don’t despair! Veganaise makes a mayo substitute that is out of control delicious. I will not name names, but do not be fooled by some other brands of soy mayo! Most of them taste really fake, but I promise you that Veganaise tastes just like the real thing. You can find it at your local co-op or at Whole Foods.
One of my favorite Veganaise-based recipes is Fegg Salad. It’s not quite like an old fashioned egg salad sandwich, but it’s definitely delicious! It’s great in sandwich form or on a bed of greens.
Tofu is a pretty good egg substitute for things like fried rice or in soups. Just crumble firm tofu in at the same time that you’d normally scramble in an egg.
So, this is where I turn to you guys: did that answer your eggy questions? Are there other places in your diet that you’d miss the egg that aren’t covered here?
Image Credits:
Eggs. Creative Commons photo by wwworks
Vegan Sweet Potato Muffins by Becky Striepe
[...] 3 eggs (or your favourite vegan egg substitute) [...]
[...] in breakfast and goodies – and you may find yourself in a bind with the egg recall. Vegans get around the egg problem all of the time and most of the solutions are already in your [...]
Evz-
I have always heard this about people actually getting too much protein and never really concerned myself with my protein intake… but generally I think they’re referring to people who eat meat and dairy who get too much. It wasn’t until I started dating a guy totally obsessed with protein (and I started eating tons more beans) that I realized how great protein really is. It’s far more filling than just fruits/veggies/grains. I found it much easier to control snacking between meals when I upped my protein intake. I used to need some cookies or other high-fat food to get through the day, but beans are a healthier way to do that. And, actually, if you’re increasing the amount of exercise you do at all, I find that I need a lot of protein. While I certainly agree that meat eaters going vegetarian don’t need to worry inordinately about protein, sometimes if you’re veg for a long time you start to get into patterns of eating quick easy things that totally lack protein and you actually should put some thought into it… at least I found that I needed to
- Thanks for the mention of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale
- Chandelle: FYI, you can buy a version of Veganaise with grapeseed oil. Granted, not every store may carry this variety. But you can always ask for it!
- One of the problems with eggs, at least today, is that hens have been bred to grossly overproduce eggs. Hens’ un-engineered cousins in the jungles of Southeast Asia lay about 20 eggs in the spring, then give their bodies a rest. But intensive breeding has coerced modern hens to lay up to 300 eggs a year. This takes a substantial toll on their bodies (eggs come from calcium and other nutrients in the body) puts greater strain on their systems, and increases the risk of uterine and ovarian cancer and painful malfunctions such as prolapse.
So all you talented bakers, foodies, and recipe-thinker-uppers, keep up the great work on eggless baking, methodologoes, and meals, so that we can hasten the day when we can let all hens revert back to their normal body rhythms and egg production rate.