Egg replacers to use as binding agents are many. For example, flax or chia mixed with water works well in many baking applications, or aqua faba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas) can work well instead of egg white. But there aren’t too many options that will make you an omelette!
American firm Eat Just, have just received approval from European lawmakers to market their mung bean protein-based Just Egg in the EU, a product that already sells quite well in North America. It does work very well in that omelette or scrambled egg use case. Meanwhile, several European food producers have been launching their own products.
One problem though is that, like with other vegan equivalents of non-vegan products, these egg replacements are not inexpensive. They also tend to be quite processed. It would be good to be able to make your own at home, for significantly less!
I have seen a few variants online, including people grinding dried mung beans into a flour, but I have come up with a recipe that is quite cheap and quite tasty. There is some prep that you need to remember, but mostly that is just leaving stuff to soak.
The key ingredient, which you may not have at home, is kala namak, also called Himalayan black salt. It is mostly sodium chloride (NaCl), so a direct replacement for salt, but it also contains sulphur which creates a pungent, eggy smell. The strong smell doesn’t really survive cooking though.
Ingredients:
50g rolled oats
200ml water
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp kala namak
1 tsp baking powder
The peas/beans need to be soaked in water overnight. They should be soft by the time they are ready to be used. Drain and rinse well before use.
Soak the oats in cold water for about 20-30 minutes. Pour into a sieve and rinse under running water.
Now, put everything in a liquidiser and whizz it up until smooth! That’s it! Put it in a container and store in the fridge. It should easily last 2/3 days.
I use about 100ml to replace one egg in a recipe.
If you put the 100ml into a lightly oiled, medium hot, non-stick pan, allow it to start to cook for a minute, the stir it with a spatula, it will break into clumps which you can further break up into smaller nuggets as it cooks. Sprinkle on some more kala namak to enhance the eggy-ness. This is a perfectly acceptable scramble.
You can also chop an onion and add to a medium-hot pan with some oil. Cook the onions for a couple of minutes until translucent and add in a potato that has been chopped to a small dice, a teaspoon of mixed herbs, and a couple of pinches of salt.
Stir occasionally and cook for 10~ish minutes until the potato is mostly cooked. Now, stir in 400ml of the “egg” mix. Allow to cook for a couple of minutes until you see the edges start to firm up.
Pop the pan under a hot grill until the top browns nicely. Cut the torte into quarters and serve - two each for a lunch, or one quarter with some fries and peas for dinner!
