Vegan Cooking Tips
Quick and Easy Ideas for Egg Replacers
By Chef Nancy Berkoff, EdD, RD
Eggs add moisture, texture, color, and taste to many foods; act as a binding agent and give a "rise" to baking products. There are many ingredients that provide the same properties without having to use animal products.
You can go with a ready-to-use vegan egg replacer, such as Just Eggs (mung bean, vegetable oil), Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer (potato and tapioca starch), or VeganEgg (soy and carrageenan).
If you have a bit more time, you might like to work with different, whole-food ingredients to create the taste and texture you prefer, as well as controlling what goes into menu items. Here are some egg replacers:
Baking powder + oil: A mixture of 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil, 2 Tablespoons warm water, and 2 teaspoons baking powder can replace one large egg. This works well in chocolate cake, cookies, or dense cakes, such as pound cakes.
Baking soda + vinegar (or lemon juice): Mix 1 Tablespoon apple cider or white vinegar with 1 teaspoon baking soda to replace one egg in "fluffier" baking products, such as cakes.
Chia seeds: Combining 1 Tablespoon chia seeds with 3 Tablespoons of warm water creates a gel after about three minutes. This amount makes the equivalent of one large egg.
Flaxseeds: Combine 1 Tablespoon ground (not whole) flaxseeds with 3 Tablespoons warm water, whisk, and refrigerate for 10 minutes. This creates the equivalent of one large egg.
Purées: About 1 cup (4 Tablespoons) applesauce, overripe bananas, cooked golden potatoes, canned peaches, pears, fresh, peeled plums, canned pumpkin, or cooked and thinned (with water or juice) sweet potatoes can be used to replace one egg. Consider the flavor or color of the product you select, as it could influence your finished brownies, cookies, loaves, or muffins. A chef's secret is to use puréed prunes (you can stew and puréyour own or use baby food) for chocolate bakery products.
Soft silken tofu: About 1 cup soft, silken tofu (about 4 Tablespoons) can be used to replace one large egg. If you need more than that, you'll want to use a different egg replacer, as tofu can make a product denser than desired. You could consider using vegetable oil (as below) to replace one egg, and tofu to replace a second egg. Tofu works better in denser baking products, such as biscuits, brownies, carrot cake, cookies, cornbread, muffins, or zucchini bread.
Vegetable oil: One-quarter cup, (4 Tablespoons), can be used to replace one large egg. If you need more than a one-egg equivalent, you would want to use a different egg replacer, as more than this can make the recipe pretty oily. Vegetable oil works best in denser baking products, such biscuits, brownies, carrot cake, cookies, cornbread, muffins, or zucchini bread.
