The Mistake To Avoid When Substituting For Eggs In Vegan Recipes

A vegan diet can be a great choice for your health, the planet, and animal welfare, but no matter your motivations, adjusting your lifestyle can take some getting used to. One particularly tricky question is how to suitably tweak a recipe to make it vegan while avoiding one easy-to-make mistake.

When it comes to staple ingredients such as eggs and dairy, simply picking up a carton of a designated, ready-made substitution from your nearest vegan-friendly grocery chain won't always give you the best recipe results. Instead, you may need to adjust your understanding of the original ingredient's purpose. Eggs, in particular, can perform different roles in a recipe, especially when it comes to baked goods, so having a few different egg substitutions in your arsenal is a good idea.

For further insight, Chowhound turned to vegan celebrity chef and celebrated baker Chris Tucker, who's known for his innovative plant-based recipes. Tucker says that, "Substituting eggs in different recipes is not a 'one size fits most' scenario. Eggs are used in baked goods for a couple of reasons, to provide levity so the bake can rise, but to also add moisture." When substituting eggs in vegan baked goods, his advice is to understand what role they play in your recipe first.

Eggs often serve multiple purposes in baked goods — they help bind a mixture and add moisture, plus serve as a leavening agent. Therefore, a combination of ingredients is often the best vegan substitute for eggs. As for which ingredients Chris Tucker recommends, he says, "For cakes, I always use a combination of baking soda, acid (usually vinegar), and oil. The reaction from the baking soda and acid will give me the rise in the cake while the oil will give me the moisture."

For recipes where leavening is less of a concern and you primarily need a binding agent, naturally sweet and moist ingredients like mashed bananas or applesauce can also do the trick, plus add a layer of flavor. Other vegan options like ground flaxseed, silken tofu, and even cornstarch can work great for binding, but may not provide the desired moisture or levity, depending on the type of baked goods you are preparing.

For dishes like soufflé or angel food cake, which require a leavening agent like egg whites to achieve their light and fluffy texture, these substitutions won't do the trick. However, you can make a vegan angel food cake using ingredients like vegan butter, baking soda, and vinegar to make up for the absence of eggs. You could also use carbonated water as a leavening agent for cakes. And if you're baking treats that are usually finished with an egg wash, like croissants or pie crust, there are plenty of great vegan egg wash alternatives to try instead, such as plant-based milk or oil.