Vegan Boiled Egg

Welcome back, sorry for the radio silence on this blog. As some of you may know I have a new job working for Extinction Rebellion, I've also been getting used to this whole lockdown situation, and then I had tonsillitis for a week. I hope everyone is keeping well, in these scary times. I do have some content planned that is super simple store cupboard recipes. But today I've got something a bit more fun! I realise getting supplies can be difficult right now, especially weird ingredients, I actually had everything in except the silken tofu, which sort of shows how weird my cupboards are, but if you are looking for simple stick around over the next couple of weeks.

Last year for Easter I made Vegan Crème eggs, which went down a storm! Everyone loved them, and to date they are one of my websites more popular pages. Now you know your girl loves a theme, so I stuck with eggs for Easter. I was also inspired by Gaz Oakley's vegan dish for Wagamama that contains a vegan egg. I really liked Gaz's dish, but couldn't keep from being a tiny bit disappointed the egg was sweet (coconut and mango) rather than imitating a real savoury egg.

So I put my mind to the task of an egg! This recipe is actually split into to two parts, this recipe is for the egg, and I have another recipe for the ramen here. If you came just for the ramen click that link now, cos I'm about to get eggy with it.

To start of I knew that I wanted to use tofu to create my egg, as it's a versatile texture, and absorbs flavour well. I tried to use both firm and silken tofu, but after much experimentation realised silken tofu was the way to go.

Black salt is what gives the egg it's distinctive eggy flavour. Black salt is a kiln fired rock salt, that has a sulphurous smell. You can find it in Asian supermarkets, and online.

To get that proper egg texture I added vegeset, which is a vegan gelatine alternative. I think I found this months ago in a health food shop, and brought it for a recipe, that I ended up not using it for, and it's been sat in my cupboard ever since. You can also purchase it online.

Ok weird ingredients explained, now on with the evolution of an egg!

Makes 4 - 5 eggs

Ingredients

For the egg white

150g silken tofu (half a pack)

3 tablespoons almond (or other plant based) milk

1/4 teaspoon black salt

1/4 teaspoon garlic granules

1 teaspoon vegeset (vegan gelatine substitute)

For the yolk

150g silken tofu (half a pack)

4 tablespoons almond (or other plant based) milk

3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1/4 teaspoon black salt

1/4 teaspoon tumeric

3/4 teaspoon vegeset (vegan gelatine substitute)

Method

1) Place half a pack of silken tofu, 3 tablespoons of almond milk, black salt and garlic granules into a blender for the egg white. Blend until smooth.

2) Pour the mixture into a saucepan and add the vegeset. Slowly heat the mixture, mixing all the time.

3) Once the mixture is hot and smooth, pour quickly into egg shaped moulds. The vegeset sets very quickly once it cools, so work quickly. Leave to cool, and once cooled a little place into the fridge.

4) In the same blender, add all the yolk ingredients except the vegeset, and blend until smooth.

5) Remove the egg whites from the fridge, and carve small circles into their centre. I found it easiest to do this with a rounded teaspoon.

6) Pour the egg yolk mixture into a saucepan and add the vegeset. Slowly heat the mixture, mixing all the time.

7) Once hot and smooth, use a teaspoon to pour the egg yolk mixture into the centre of the eggs. Allow to cool and place into the fridge. Any left over egg yolk can be refrigerated and used for tofu scramble.

8) Once completely cooled, remove from the egg moulds, and either enjoy as a boiled egg or pop into ramen. Click here for the ramen recipe.