Are we kicking it in? Yes: an egg is part of the deal! Almost everyone loves a boiled egg for (Easter) breakfast. Moreover, eggs play an important role in many dishes and cakes. But what if you have decided you no longer want to eat eggs? Or if you have no eggs in the house and still want to bake a cake? Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives that taste at least as good as a real egg! We dived into the egg alternatives and listed some clever substitutes, classics in a new guise or a vegan alternative for your boiled egg.
One egg is not a (vegan) egg...
Eggs have been eaten since time immemorial, yet of course an egg is primarily - if fertilised - a source of life. For some people, part of the resistance to eating them also lies right there. But eggs are also promoted as part of a healthy diet. Besides fats and proteins, they also contain iron, vitamin A, B2 and B12. Moreover, due to their specific properties, eggs are used in a lot of dishes and baked goods. But don't want to eat animal products or are you looking for an alternative to egg for other reasons? That's perfectly possible!
Vegan cooking and baking without egg, how to do it!
Why are eggs used in so many dishes? They are easy to use, relatively cheap and easy to get hold of. But it is mainly their specific properties that make them so popular in the kitchen. After all, eggs bind together because they coagulate, they make products light, they give a specific flavour and a nice yellow colour. So look for ingredients that have the same properties as egg!
Vegan egg: these ingredients are great alternatives to egg
Just a disclaimer: I wrote that eggs provide binding, lightness and flavour, but this is not true in all dishes. Sometimes the added egg has no function or the effect is so minimal that you can safely omit the egg and don't need to look for a substitute at all. For instance, in pancakes, you can just fine omit that egg. Give it a try!
It also matters whether you want to substitute eggs from a sweet or savoury dish. Depending on the function of the eggs in your intended recipe, there are several options. You automatically develop some kind of fingerspitzengefühl before, but of course we'll help you get started first!
With applesauce, you can bake a delicious vegan cake without egg.
Applesauce
Applesauce is a great substitute for egg, especially in sweet baking recipes like cake. Like an egg, it acts as a binder. It also gives a fresh, sweet-sour flavour, but is not too overpowering. If you stick to three tablespoons of applesauce as a substitute for an egg, you'll be fine! Don't have applesauce in the house, but do have apples? With our recipe, you can make your own applesauce in ten minutes!
Bananas
Bananas, like applesauce, work as a binding agent in your recipe. That's because bananas contain a lot of starch. The banana flavour is not too bad, mainly because you only need half a banana to replace one egg. Banana works mainly well if you find applesauce too wet for your recipe. Additional benefit? Nicely ripe bananas are quite sweet, so you need less sugar in your recipe.
Potato
Looking for a binder for a savoury recipe where you would normally add an egg? Then potato is a great option. One potato replaces one egg. By the way, potato also works well as a binding agent in a soup or sauce that you find just a little too liquid, for example.
Chickpea flour
Another versatile kitchen friend is chickpea flour. Like potatoes, chickpea flour is great for binding your dish. In addition, chickpea flour (ground uncooked chickpeas) mixed with water is a perfect base for a vegan omelette. To do this, mix three tablespoons of water with three tablespoons of chickpea flour and fry in a pan with oil or (vegetable) butter.
Flaxseed
Flaxseed is a special commodity. You might know it from your smoothie bowl, but it can also be used as a substitute for an egg works flaxseed its magic! You do need to soak the (crushed) linseed in water first. After about twenty minutes, you will have a bowl that perhaps looks most like wallpaper paste, but is fine to use instead of a beaten egg. The addition of flaxseed ensures that your baking will rise nicely even without an egg. Use one tablespoon of broken flaxseed with three tablespoons of water. By the way, this trick also works with chia seeds.
Baking powder or baking soda
Looking mainly for a substitute for egg because your dish needs to rise? Then baking powder or apple cider vinegar with baking soda also work. For a nice rise in your dough, use three tablespoons of baking powder with three tablespoons of water. Do you have apple cider vinegar and baking soda at home? Then mix a teaspoon of apple vinegar with a teaspoon of baking soda. Don't be alarmed, this will foam! Then stir the goodness into your batter. This works better if you work with a wetter batter anyway, such as for a cake.
Jam
Does the recipe mention spreading a beaten egg over the top of your freshly baked cake/biscuits or bread for a nice shine? Jam works just as well! Preferably use a light jam like apricot jam, which gives the best colour.
Kala namak is a perfect spice alongside tofu. It has the flavour of egg, so that combination makes it feel like you're eating scrambled eggs, but without the egg.
Vegan egg: substitutes for complete egg dishes
The above ingredients are perfect substitutes for an egg in your dishes. If you want a complete egg dish veg? There are many tasty options for that too. The easiest: tofu! Fancy scrambled eggs? Drain a block of silken tofu and stir it into a hot pan with oil just like a scrambled egg. Salt, pepper and ready - although it's also nice to stir in some crunchy vegetables. The secret ingredient to give a real egg flavour to your tofu cramble or chickpea flour omelette? That's kala namak!
The secret ingredient? Kala namak
Kala namak is a volcanic rock salt from the Himalayas. In Indian and Pakistani cuisine, you regularly come across the black salt (which, by the way, is often not black at all, rather pink), but it is also increasingly used in the Netherlands. Indeed, its sulphurous smell makes it the perfect addition if you want the taste of egg but don't want to eat a real egg. Perfect for vegans, then! Not a fan of the smell? No worries, the smell is strongest during heating and largely disappears after that. So are you making a tasty scrambled tofu or a vegan omelette? Kala namak makes all the difference!
Buying Kala namak? You can do so at your better-stocked supermarket, online (e.g. at Pit&Pit) or at EkoPlaza.
Perhaps the very best vegan alternative to an egg: aquafaba
Aquafaba is the protein substitute. Worried you could never eat another delicious merenque or Eton Mess without egg? Aquafaba is your salvation. Aquafaba is the liquid found in a can of chickpeas, but you can also create it yourself when you cook chickpeas. Because the chickpea liquid is very high in vegetable proteins, you can whip it as fluffy as egg whites. Add sugar and beat until an airy foam forms. You can then spoon this beaten egg white foam onto a baking tray and gently bake it into a merenque, pipe it up in small circles to make meringues, or sprinkle it through your cake batter for an extra airy batter.
Vegan egg can also be found in the supermarket
Besides the smart egg replacement ingredients we gave you above, there are also more and more egg replacements in the supermarket, such as Vegan Egg from Greenforce and Plant-based egg from Plant B. With this, making a tasty omelette is totally a breeze!
Have you been inspired to get into the kitchen without egg? We are very curious about your dishes and recipes. Did we miss any ingredients? We are happy to add to the list so that everyone can start experimenting.
More sustainable tips from thegreenlist.nl
- Here you will find the best tips for a sustainable Easter.
- How can you be sure you are getting the right sustainable groceries? In this article, we share the finest addresses.
- What about soy? Is soy sustainable or not? We got to the bottom of it.
Photo credits: main image: cake and kala namak: Mahlee Plekker, applesauce, silken tofu omelette and omelette from Greenforce: thegreenlist.nl.
