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No Tofu? No Problem! Pumpkin Seed ‘Eggs’ Are Here For You
Make this delicious egg-y alchemy today and blow your own mind!
During the Covid-19 pandemic, I’ve noticed some folks in my online recipe groups are running out of tofu. So the time feels right to share this recipe, as a sort of vegan PSA. If pumpkin seeds are more available where you are and you’re craving something eggy? This one’s for you!
This recipe was born one day when I was home from work, sick with a little cold, and craving nothing more than a tofu omelet with cheese. I had some Daiya cheddar shreds in the freezer yodeling my name, but alas no tofu and no energy to go get some.
I googled my way through a few vegan egg ideas, then stumbled upon Spero Foods’ The Egg, a product that uses pumpkin seeds as its base. The Egg seemed innovative and cool, and was higher in protein and other good stuff than its competitor, the JUST Egg. Intrigued, I read on, only to find that the company was trying to re-brand kala namak — a delicious, sulphurous salt long used in South Asian countries in both culinary and medicinal applications — as “Egg Salt” and selling it in teeny jars at an outsized price (I buy double the kala namak from a local South Asian grocery shop for half the price here in Toronto).
Spero Foods has lots of cool seed-based products at great prices; I by no means wish shame and ruin upon them. The Egg Salt thing just struck me as another example of my fellow white vegans’ penchant for appropriating and erasing ingredients’ heritage and traditional uses, acting like we discovered “foreign” foods and finally found their true destiny. Maybe one day I’ll devote a whole article to this issue. But for now I share this anecdote only to explain what ultimately motivated my sniffly self to get in the kitchen and rip off, er, emulate The Egg that day: It was rage. And it worked! I nailed it on my first try, and smugly inhaled my yummy, comforting omelet, mind blown.
I’ve since used this pumpkin seed egg in countless applications — scramble, quiche, pasta carbonara, a yolky drizzle on a salad (it works!), and just last night I made a frankly banging version of Alison Roman’s Crispy Potato Kugel after lasciviously eyeing the recipe all week long.
