Learning to cook without eggs was my biggest challenge when I went vegan. I learned that you just need to choose the right substitute based on what you want the eggs to do: adding loft or tenderness for baked goods, binding other ingredients together, or just plain eating. Here’s how to reduce or eliminate eggs in your cooking.

Whip It: Use Aquafaba (Chickpea Broth) instead of Eggs for Baking

Aquafaba is essentially free. I poured chickpea broth down the drain for decades! Now I know that  three tablespoons of aqufaba replaces one egg in many recipes for cakes, cookies, and breads. You can whip it like egg whites to make meringues, macarons, and mayonnaise.  I even use it in place of milk in frosting, tablespoon for tablespoon. The liquid from canned chickpeas works as well as broth from home-cooked legumes.

Try the magic with my recipes for Bang Bang Carrot Spice Cookies,

Visit my aquafaba hub for recipes and tips.

Bake it Tender: Make Baked Goods with Bananas, Applesauce, or Sweet Potatoes

Three tablespoons of ripe mashed bananas, smooth applesauce, or baked, mashed sweet potatoes will serve as one egg in many baking recipes. Any of these will hold moisture. Match the flavor to what you are baking. Applesauce is the most neutral of the three. If you need to substitute for two or more eggs, try a mix of one of these moisture agents with three tablespoons of aquafaba per egg. That’s what I use for my Best Vegan Chocolate Brownies.

Eat It: Scramble Chickpea Flour and More

Aquafaba provides lift in baked goods, but it doesn’t scramble worth a cluck. For that, you need chickpea flour, which is often called garbanzo bean flour or besan. Add a pinch of black salt (kala namak) to add a sulfurous egg-like flavor. You can scramble chickpea flour or make a delicious Nomelet (which is not an omelet). My recipes for socca and chickpea scramble are in my book Fifty Weeks of Green.

You can also break up firm tofu and cook it in a skillet with your favorite scramble mix-ins, maybe onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms.

Since 2017, the Eat Just company has offered Just Egg, an amazing “egg” made from mung beans. It’s wonderful for scrambles, frittatas, omelets, and casseroles. I keep a box of the Just Egg Folded squares in the freezer to go with pancakes or in sandwiches.

Glue It: Use Flaxseed as a Binder

Cooked eggs also hold other ingredients together, like food glue. Fortunately, ground flaxseed does the same trick. Learn how in one of my favorite recipes: Hot Italian Cocoa Cookies.

Choose Egg-Free Prepared Foods

Egg prices bump up the cost of many prepared foods, such as cakes, cookies, bread, and salad dressings. Look to egg-free items for bargains, such as tortillas, pitas, and anything vegan.

Healthier, Kinder, Greener

Chicken’s eggs are loaded with cholesterol and lack fiber. Plant-based food is naturally cholesterol free and rich in fiber.

Factory farms provide ideal settings for bird flu to develop and spread. Millions of birds are dying or being slaughtered to try to contain the virus. It’s now infecting to humans, cats, and other mammals. As the second Trump administration bans masks, guts regulations, fires inspectors, and silences scientists, we are even less prepared for bird flu than we were for Covid.

The ASPCA says “All birds—meat chickens, egg-laying hens, turkeys, ducks, geese and others—are excluded from all federal animal protection laws. By sheer number, these are the animals most urgently in need of protection.”

Factory farming pollutes is a big way. “In 2019, researchers at North Carolina State University estimated that 24 million pounds of ammonia fall back onto the Eastern Shore’s land and waters after being emitted by the region’s CAFOs.” It’s a stinky mess for neighbors and dangerous for people, wildlife, and fish.

Going egg-free is a great way to save money, eat well, and make a difference.