Incredible, Edible Egg Substitutes
This post is suddenly relevant to everyone!
Okay omnivores, we vegans are finally useful to you. We always knew the day would come. We have been doing without eggs forever, so we know how it’s done. And I’m gonna share with everyone how easy it is. I don’t miss eggs at all.
The goal is to like the substitutions so much you won’t want to go back.
So here’s how to navigate life without eggs.
In Baking
When a recipe you are baking calls for an egg, just mix 3 tablespoons of water with 1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal. Let it stand for 10 minutes, and pour it in when you would add the egg. It even gets that egg white consistency.
Another option in baking is to use unsweetened applesauce or mashed banana to replace the egg. Use about 1/3 cup per egg called for.
The things also work to replace the oil/butter/shortening in recipes you are baking. Use equal amounts.
In Breading
The old “dip it in egg & cracker crumb” bit works just as well with a little bit of soy milk. If you want it thicker, to cling to what you’re dipping better, whisk in a bit of cornstarch. Dip in that, and then in the bread crumbs.
In my case, those would be from slices of Ezekiel brand bread, air baked, then cooled, then whipped through the blender.
Now don’t waste all that goodness by cooking it in oil, okay? Bake, or air fry.
For Egg Salad
This also works in place of eggs in other salads. Just mix a can of rinsed, drained, well mashed chick peas (aka garbanzo beans) with a spoonful of dill relish, finely minced celery, grated shallot, a little silken tofu, salt, pepper, celery seed, dill weed, yellow mustard, and the key ingredient, kala namak salt, also called India black salt. Its sulphur flavor adds the perfect hint of true egginess to egg recipes.
You can also mix this up for use in Macaroni and potato salads, or all by itself for eggless-salad sandwiches.
Use trial and error for the seasonings with this. Try what seems good. Add garlic, maybe some rosemary. I always try a tiny bit in a separate dish with new flavors, so I don’t ruin a whole batch. Some people like to add a little vinegar or lemon juice. Try and see what you think, but try with a tiny amount first. Or again, in a separate sample.
Layer the mixture onto whole grain bread or rolls with green leafies, tomato slices, dill pickle slices, red onion slivers, mustard, etc.
Don’t expect it to taste like egg salad. Expect it to be a very tasty substitute for egg salad, that you might learn to like just as much.
The Tofu Scramble
My husband has this down to an art form. The secret is to crumble and sauté the tofu first, pour on the sauce second, near the end of the cooking time. Some readers prefer a softer scrambled egg texture, and use a silken tofu, rather than my extra firm, which is a drier, more omelette-like consistency.
My hubs layers diced fresh tomato and mushrooms on top, and I add freshly ground pepper. This my favorite meal in the world right now. He makes it for me every Sunday.
Again, don’t expect it to be an imitation of real eggs. Expect it to be a new kind of food that might make a good substitute for those eggs.
The Flavor of Egg
If it’s just the eggy flavor you need, just add a shake or two of the kala namak salt, and it’s done.
I’m sure there’s something I’m forgetting.
Benefits of Not Eating Eggs
“The fat and cholesterol found in eggs can harm heart health and lead to diabetes, as well as prostate and colorectal cancers.” Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
13 studies showed eating eggs raised LDL Cholesterol compared to not eating eggs.
Research shows eating eggs increases the risk of death from coronary artery disease.
Eating eggs increases the risk of diabetes.
Meta-analysis of 55 studies found eating an egg per day increased risk of dying from cancer 13%.
Here’s a link to the article with the above info, all if it sourced back to the corresponding medical studies.
Benefits of Eating Soy
When you use tofu instead of eggs, not only do yo not add all the problems listed above, you add health benefits instead.
Eating soy reduces the risk of breast cancer and other cancers, and reduces risk of recurrence in breast cancer survivors.
Consuming soy reduces inflammation, which is the source of myriad other conditions.
Soy is beneficial for heart health, for bone health, for menopausal symptoms, and for Premenstrual symptoms.
The Cruelty Factor
There are other concerns with eating eggs. There’s the cruel treatment of millions upon millions of hens, whose entire lives are spent in a cage. Their feet become deformed from being on wire instead of on the ground. the immediate, live, maceration of male baby chicks. (Macerations means chopping up. They move them along a conveyer belt, cute, fuzzy, yellow baby chicks, blinking at the world for the first time, heading for a drop-off into whirling blades.)
So there’s that.
The Environmental Factor
There’s also the dead zone along the US Atlantic coast. A dead zone, or hypoxic zone is an area in the ocean where there’s not enough oxygen to support life. Fish who wander into the zone go belly up in short order. Nothing can live in that water. It’s bigger every year, and it’s caused by runoff from poultry and egg farms along the coast.
When we buy eggs…
Whenever we buy eggs, we should be aware that the price is far higher than what is rung up on the cash register. Your money is paying for more shit to run into our ocean, more baby chicks to be chopped up alive, and more hens to live their entire lives in boxes so small they can’t turn around.
You’re also paying for your coronary arteries to clog themselves a little bit more, by feeding them enough fat and cholesterol to be the sole source of nutrition for a developing chick for 21 days.
That’s something to think about.
Okay, that’s it for today!
It’s my birthday as I compose this, and I’m about to have some cake. The recipe for the cake and the frosting is in Be a Plant-Based Warrior Woman by Jane and Anne Esselstyn. I got it in spiral bound, and do not regret that decision. It’s one of my very favorite cookbooks.
Prequel Novella, LEGACY OF THE WITCH
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Book 1, MARK OF THE WITCH
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All four titles in this series can be pre ordered now!