Egg Substitutes
Eggs, while a “nutritionally complete food” and breakfast staple, can be a nutritional troublemaker for some.
This doesn’t mean that eggs are bad. It just means that there could be an egg sensitivity. My colleague, Heidi Turner, MS, RDN, calls eggs her “nutritional nemesis.”
But worry not. Any food sensitivity—whether it’s eggs, dairy, nightshades, or what have you—can be healed. Food sensitivities (the IgG response) are different than food allergies (the IgE response).
(You can go here for directions on the life-changing Elimination/Provocation dietary experiment that sleuths out food sensitivities. This experiment, is, hands down, one of the pillars in reversing autoimmune conditions.)
I had to give up eggs a few years ago because they exacerbated my alopecia. It wasn’t easy—I love eggs for breakfast. But I did it.
One of the most common questions I get is about egg substitutes. Now, you’re not going to make an omelet with any of the replacements listed below or scramble them up with your favorite veggies, but they’ll work in recipes that call for eggs.
Some of the time, if the recipe calls for more than one egg, these may not work from the standpoint of taste and texture. Additionally, as you can see, some of them are quite flavorful (like peanut butter), whereas others are more bland (like chia).
If the recipe calls for more than one egg, one idea is to mix things up, like one applesauce egg and one yogurt egg (again, depending on the recipe).
Use your taste preferences and intuition to experiment with these substitutes—and I bet you won’t miss the egg.
Egg substitutes:
Ground flax: 1 Tbsp ground flax (not whole seed) + 3 Tbsp warm water = 1 egg (Blend and let sit until mixture is gel-like, about 10 min.)
Ground chia: 1 Tbsp ground chia (not whole seed) + 3 Tbsp warm water = 1 egg (Blend and let sit until mixture is gel-like, about 10 min.)
Yogurt: ¼ cup = 1 egg (Can use coconut yogurt if dairy-free.)
Arrowroot powder: 2 Tbsp + 3 Tbsp water = 1 egg
Ripe banana: ½ mashed = 1 egg
Applesauce: ¼ cup unsweetened = 1 egg
Peanut butter: 3 Tbsp = 1 egg
Agar agar (gelatin substitute from seaweed): 1 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp water = 1 egg
Comments
Thank yyou. I use the water
Thank yyou. I use the water from canned chickpeas – it makes a brilliant frittata/potato tortilla, and the meringues from the same liquid are dreamy.
Ah yes, aquafaba. It can work
Ah yes, aquafaba. It can work well and has a good, egg-like consistency, but the linings of cans can contain hormone-disrupting chemicals, even BPA-free cans. Companies often use BPS, which is just as bad. To make matters worse, the canning process often involves pouring boiling hot food into these cans, which just leeches more BPA/BPS.
Jovial makes chickpeas in glass jars!
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