Thursday, September 8, 2016

Vegan Scrambled Eggs



VeganEgg with rotel, kale, and daiya mozzarella

If anyone reading this happens to be vegan, or simply on an egg-free diet, here's a product you may not be familiar with. Follow Your Heart released VeganEgg several months back, and I was eager to try it but honestly didn't want to set myself up for disappointment. I buy a great egg substitute for cooking (Ener-G Egg Replacer), and have been very happy with it for years now. However, it doesn't work for things like scrambled eggs or omelets. And most of the other egg substitutes that I've tried over the years have not ended too well.

So when Follow Your Heart announced that they had come up with an egg replacement that you could use to make scrambled eggs or omelets, I was beyond skeptical. But, after much deliberation, I splurged and bought one carton off of Amazon (it wasn't available locally at that time). The package said that it would make up about 12 eggs, and the reviews were already very mixed by then.

VeganEgg carton (about 12 eggs)
So, I listened to the advice found on several reviews and made sure to use really cold water by throwing a water bottle in the freezer a while before starting the meal. So far so good. Then I had the brilliant idea to throw a can of rotel into the pan to stretch it out some, because this stuff costs more than I typically spend on myself for a meal. Let's just say that if you do throw something into this egg mixture, make sure the mixture is 99% cooked before doing so, or it'll be a gooey mess. They forgot to mention that in the reviews.

After about three more times of messing with this stuff, I splurged and bought a big jar. Why? Because prices on the cartons were going up and demand was higher than supply. So I ended up with a 2 lb jar of stuff that I knew I liked but didn't really know how to make it turn out nicely yet.
VeganEgg jar (about 90 eggs)

But, there's nothing like have a $50 2-lb jar of powder equivalent to 90 eggs sitting in your cupboard to motivate you to learn how to get better at cooking with it. After several more batches (and botches), I've now become very attached to this stuff come Sunday brunch.

I've used it to make scrambled eggs, omelets, potato casserole and French toast. My omnivore husband will even eat it, he just doesn't most of the time due to it's cost. Real eggs are much cheaper.

Tips:
1) keep a bottle of water in the fridge, that's cold enough to do the trick
2) using a milk substitute may sound like a good idea, but both rice milk and cashew milk turned out to not be good for this - I did not try any other substitutes, so maybe you'll have better luck
3) make sure your skillet is hot before adding the VeganEgg, and do not use oil in the pan
4) use a larger skillet than you would for regular eggs, the more surface for this stuff to lay on, the more even it will cook
5) most of the time it won't stir in all the way and you'll still have powder floating in the bowl before adding it to the pan - this does not affect the final product at all
6) if mixing in other ingredients, wait until the VeganEgg is 99% cooked before adding anything past salt and pepper
7) if adding frozen greens (chopped kale or spinach), cook them to room temp or higher before adding - unless you like them to stay cold and crunchy
8) add salt and pepper
9) it will store in the fridge after it is cooked, and reheats just fine whether alone or mixed with other foods

Tonight's dinner:
Breakfast Burrito In A Bowl - Tater tots, Scrambled eggs (with rotel, chopped kale, and daiya mozzarella), Brown rice, Black rice, and Refried beans

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