The Vegan Sandwich with an Identity Crisis: Eggless Egg Salad

You know, being a vegan is really not as difficult as it sounds. Most people get all distracted with the idea of giving up meat, eggs, milk and cheese. OK, when you say it like that it can sound a little over the top, especially for people who are used to eating these things.

But it really isn’t all that bad. I had someone ask me once why a lot of vegan recipes mimic recipes from the more traditional American diet. My answer? Well, it’s simply because we can.

And most of us vegans grew up eating the standard American diet, so we enjoy recreating those recipes from our childhood. We get all the enjoyment of these comfort foods without the guilt!

We found this recipe for Eggless Egg Salad in the book, How it all Vegan! by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. We, of course, adapted it for our own tastes and it resulted in the recipe below.

The main ingredient is tofu. You might be thinking that you wouldn’t be able to do that, but just hang with me here a minute. It’s really not that bad. The beautiful thing about tofu is that it takes on the flavor of the things around it. In this recipe, the tofu is replacing the egg and the final product is a sandwich that is quite reminiscent of egg salad sandwiches…without the gas! (Uh-oh. Maybe that was just a personal problem). I know you can take beano to help, but this recipe avoids the need for that!

Eggless Egg Salad Sandwich

1 ½ lbs. extra firm tofu, drained & mashed
½ cup Vegennaise (non-dairy mayonnaise)
½ cup chopped fresh parsley
6 scallions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoons garlic powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon thyme
1 ½ Tbsp. prepared mustard

The best way to drain the tofu is to take it out of the container and cover both the top and bottom of the tofu with a clean absorbent towel (a dish towel works fine or you can use paper towels too). Press on the top of the tofu or set something heavy to help speed up the process of removing the excess liquid. (This is a lot easier than boiling eggs if you ask me!) I’ll do another post on how to press tofu and will include some pictures.

Then use your hands to crumble the tofu into small bits. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and then chill before serving to let the seasonings settle in. Wow, can it be any more simple than this?