Best Egg Substitute
Whether you're vegan by choice or allergic by force, eggs are everywhere. They're in everything, which makes avoiding them challenging.
You want breakfast 🍳, but half the options are omelets. You want lunch (Italian, Korean, Chinese, etc.), but a ton of the recipes 🍜 have eggs. You want dessert 🧁 , but only the ice cream doesn't have eggs.
Luckily, there are a lot of different substitutes for eggs. The challenging part is that it's not a one size fits all solution. Below I describe what substitutes work better in which foods.
JUST Egg
This is an egg substitute primarily made out of mung beans that has become more and more popular in recent years. Think of it as a whisked egg. It works great for omelets and it works well in baking. It doesn't work well in recipes that only require the yolk or the white.
Let's assume I'm not allergic to eggs and actually know what they taste like. Does it taste exactly like eggs? Not exactly. It's definitely the closest option in this list, but you can detect the vegetable or mung bean taste.
The biggest con for JUST Egg is the price. It's over 2 times more expensive than regular eggs. Let's do the math:
The substitute hovers somewhere around $4.50-$5 for 8 servings (12 oz). 1 serving roughly equals one egg, so even at $4.50 a bottle, that makes each egg cost $0.38.
Egg prices have been all over the board recently, but in normal times, you can expect to pay $2 for 12 eggs. At $2, that makes each egg only $0.17.
Conclusion: great substitute, good taste, expensive
Mashed Bananas & Apple Sauce
Never thought bananas or apple sauce could replace eggs did you? I know it sounds strange, but for certain types of food, they can work great. Plus, they're the simplest plant based substitute out there.
These options can work really well as bonding agents. Both apple sauce and mashed bananas are relatively thick ingredients that can mimic the vital role eggs play.
That said, they're both sweet options with distinct tastes, so they won't work in everything. They'll be best in desserts or other dishes that could use some fruity flavor. Say you're making a cake or some pancakes, then the fruit flavor could be a nice addition.
In terms of ratios, ~1/4 cup of apple sauce can replace 1 egg. 1 banana (best if ripe) can replace 1 egg.
Conclusion: easy to find, can work well in desserts as long as the flavors pair well
Oil
Oil is really viscous, so you can imagine using it in a dish can help bind all the ingredients together well. When using this substitute, I prefer to go with a more neutral tasting oil (vegetable oils like canola work well). That said, if you think the taste of olive oil or avocado oil could pair well in your dish, go for it.
Oil's neutral taste makes it a great option for most recipes. It's my go to substitute for desserts. Obviously though, it's pure fat which means using too much of it isn't the healthiest thing.
The substitution ratio may vary by recipe, but a good starting point is using ~1/4 cup of oil to replace 1 egg.
Conclusion: always on hand & works great in baking, but excessive use can make recipes unhealthy
Aquafaba
Aquafaba is whisked up chickpea water. You drain a can of chickpeas and use an electric whisk to whip up the water into aquafaba.
It's pretty specific and I have no idea who first thought of trying this in recipes, but it's an egg white substitute.
The big pro is that there aren't a lot of egg white substitutes. All the other substitutes mentioned in this article are for whole eggs (egg yolk + egg white). The others work because they can make the other ingredients stick together. Egg whites are different. Mousse, whipped cream, and meringues are a few examples of recipes you can use aquafaba for.
The biggest issue with aquafaba (at least in my opinion) is the taste. To be blunt, it's not good. It tastes exactly what you'd expect chickpea water to taste like. I rarely use this as a substitute, but if you don't mind the taste (props to you), it can work well.
2 tablespoons of the chickpea water (prior to mixing) can replace 1 egg white.
Conclusion: egg white substitute that can work if you don't mind the strong chickpea taste
Ignore the Egg
Obviously, this article is about egg substitutes, but I couldn't end it without saying that every recipe doesn't require a substitute. If the eggs are serving more as a final touch or decoration on top of a dish, sometimes it makes more sense to just avoid the egg. The dish could turn out the same or it could turn out awful - you won't know until you try.
What's the Best Option?
For baking, I generally opt for canola oil. It's simple, inexpensive, and doesn't drastically change the taste of a recipe.
For mimicking omelets or other savory dishes, I use JUST Egg. It's not perfect, but it really is the closest thing I've found to an all around egg substitute.