Chia Seeds
Egg replacer know-how is key when you get to where you are creating your vegan recipes using your non-vegan favorite recipes.
When I started trying to cook my old favorite recipes vegan, I ran into the problem of what ingredient do I replace the eggs with? Eggs are used commonly in recipes as a binding agent. They help to bind all the other ingredients together. The key was which ingredients will do this same binding action? After trial and error, here are five replacers that I find help to restructuring of non-vegan recipes.
Chia Seed Egg Replacer
If you have ever used chia seeds you realize quickly that one of the beautiful things about them is that when you add liquid to them, they gel. This gel is made up of water and makes the chia seeds a wonderful food for weight loss and they are highly nutritious, especially in omega-3 fatty acids.
Use white chia seeds, otherwise you will see the chia seeds in your recipe. If they are not available at your health food store, check on-line. They also impart no distinct flavor of their own but take on the flavor of the other ingredients which makes them a excellent replacement.
RECIPE for one “egg”
3 Tbsp warm water
1 Tbsp white chia seed meal
Directions:
Grind the chia seeds in a spice grinder or blender until a meal-like consistency. If you wish to grind a larger amount for future use, store in a airtight container in the freezer up to one year.
Add the warm water to a small bowl. Add the chia seed meal and whisk together. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. It is ready to use in your recipe.
Banana Egg Replacer
Bananas are a natural replacer because when mashed they become “gloupy”. Remember, however, they will make your recipe have a banana flavor so they are good replacers for things like breads, muffins, pancakes, etc. Any recipe that is okay to taste banana-y.
Recipe for one “egg”
1/4 cup mashed or pureed banana
Chickpea Flour Egg Replacer
Nutritionally, chickpea flour provides the protein as eggs, and also has many vitamins, minerals, vitamins, and calcium. This makes it a wonderfully nutritious replacement. Veganizing a recipe couldn’t be any easier.
Chickpea flour can also be called garbanzo bean flour, gram flour, chana flour, or besan flour.
Chickpea flour has a bitter taste before cooking…so there is no licking the spoon on this one!
Recipe for one “egg”
Directions:
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1/4 water or non-dairy milk
Whisk together, let sit 5 minutes, and use.
Flax Seed Egg Replacer
Flax seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids, fiber and protein. This makes them a healthy alternative to eggs. They have a slight mealy flavor so you wouldn’t want to add anymore than about 3 tablespoons of them to a recipe.
Use the golden flax seeds, so they dont put a brown color into your recipes.
Recipe for one “egg”:
3 Tbsp warm water
1 Tbsp golden flax meal
Directions
Grind the golden flax seeds in a blender or spice grinder. If you wish to grind a larger amount for future use, freeze it in a airtight container for up to one year. 1 cup of flax seeds= 1/3 cup flax meal
Add warm water to small bowl. Whisk in the flax meal. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. It is ready to use.
EnerG Egg Replacer
I love this culinary egg replacer and use it frequently because it is so convenient and non-perishable. It is not, however, a product high in nutrition. It is used for baking goods exclusively and once added to a mix must go into a preheated oven immediately.
Recipe for one “egg”
Directions:
2 Tbsps warm water
1 1/2Tbsp EnerG mix
Mix thoroughly in small bowl. Ready to use.
These are all simple egg replacers to use in baking recipes. Give them a try and you can skip the chicken eggs and 200 mg. of cholesterol too.
