Picture of Vegan Egg
Vegans won't eat or use animal products -- so the whole idea of a vegan egg is oxymoronic, a contradiction of terms, an impossibility, right?


I will show you in this instructable how to cook up a vegan sunny-side up egg which contains no animal products. It looks like an egg, it feels like an egg, but no bird ever laid eyes on this baby.

This is not the easiest recipe to follow. It requires a fair amount of specialized and hard to find ingredients, but once you've gathered everything you need and you've practiced a few times it's fairly quick, very tasty (it's a desert), and super fun to serve. This is extreme gastronomy, cooking for the concept, deconstructing the age old question of (which comes first) the chicken or the egg to replace it with the more fundamental question: what is an egg?

Step 1: Ingredients and materials

Picture of Ingredients and materials
The main ingredients are mangos, coconut milk and sugar, with a little bit of rice flour. Coconut milk is sold in 16oz cans and you can buy it either sweetened or unsweetened, low fat or regular. I used the unsweetened full fat variety it should work with any kind (just don't add extra sugar if you buy the sweetened variety).

You will also need calcium lactate and sodium alginate (to give your egg yolk the right shape and texture) and agar agar for the egg white. Sodium alginate and agar are extracted from seaweed, and calcium lactate, despite its name, is NOT made from milk (it is made by reacting lactic acid with calcium carbonate. Lactic acid, in turn is made with sugar, water and chalk). This desert is 100% vegan fun.

For tools you will need a hand blender and a small slotted spoon.

Although you might be able to find the ingredients locally and individually, it is much easier to buy a kit online. Think Geek carries a kit made by moleculeR which is fairly expensive but has very pretty packaging, and it's convenient because you'll get a good sample of ingredients and all the specialized tools too. It is from their DVD that I got the idea for this recipe: they give instructions for a reconstructed egg, but they didn't take the concept to its logical conclusion, they didn't make it vegan. Their egg white is made with regular milk, and doesn't taste as good as this version. Another online vendor is The Spice House which carries all three "molecular" ingredients, sodium alginate, calcium lactate and agar
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kevinchin765 months ago

Looks amazing... imagine the look if have bacon and egg made this way ; ) Do you make Bacon too ?

belsey (author)  kevinchin765 months ago
Never tried fake bacon, but it would be fun to try...
belsey (author)  Mastros3 years ago
I'm really sorry it you feel I tricked you into looking at my instructable, and even worse that you felt reading just the intro was a waste of time -- however if you'd gone on to read step two you might have understood that a vegan egg is one that is made with non-animal ingredients (coconut milk, mango, seaweed and calcium). A real egg is by definition not vegan, so a vegan egg must be made with alternate ingredients... the title accurately describes the "instructable."
kevinvw belsey3 years ago
Great article. I loved it. I was only a bit disappointed because I thought (for a brief moment) that it was going to be about how to "make" a real egg without a chicken. Kind of like the challenge that PETA put out to scientists to "grow" beef without a cow.

Thanks for you hard work!

I believe that currently they are able to grow meat in a labratory on a petri dish, no animals, no nothing. and it's exactly the same thing. I don't know if i can find the webpage again tho, just do some research, it's about to happen

bajablue belsey3 years ago
Maybe you should title this

The Vegan Anti-Egg

or: The Great Vegan Egg Impostor.

or: The Best Egg Impostor Ever! ;-D

lol... I personally think the title is fine as-is and this Ible is first-rate.

I am a vegan and enjoy faux meat alternatives. I grew up eating all of those foods and it is a comfort being able to enjoy the same dishes, cruelty-free. Thanks for the awesome instructable, belsey.

And Mastros: You are not the only person in the world. Others enjoy reading these kinds of tutorials. Just because you are not seasoned with common terms does not mean you get to decide how the titles should read and how things should be constructed. Vegan options are in high demand and cruelty-free groups are growing.

Again, I think this was a great tutorial, and I'm sorry that others decide that their personal opinions need to get in the way of how a person should write a recipe. Keep them coming because I will continue reading.
Instructables is a community for people to share, learn and have fun, and a place to be diplomatic.
I came here specifically because the title was "Vegan Egg". I knew the minute I saw it, there would be no egg involved, and it would probably be some sort of ingenious non egg replica. I'm not vegan, either.

It's an amazingly well written instructable. It is clear, with great pictures, and shows exactly how a vegan would reconstruct an egg with the limitations of their eating style. Even to the point of adding nutritional additions. This happens to be one of the better written instructables that I have seen put together.

Did people get mad at Picasso when the image of a woman he painted was not what he expected? Everyone knows his style of art is not photo realistic, so there was no trick. Just another interpretation.

You might have not expected what you found, but a waste of time? No. This could have been, for you, an interesting article that showed how vegans and vegetarians work around the limitations they live by. Sometimes in a fascinatingly artistic manner using very cool ingredients. You could have learned that it is common for vegans and vegetarians to use names like "vegan mayonaise", "veggie bacon", or "veggie or vegan" anything to denote a meatless work around.

It's never a waste of time to learn things.
troseph Mastros3 years ago
Thanks. I completely agree.
Ijsbeer Mastros3 years ago
I think that the title, Vegan Egg, made it quite clear that it was the vegan equivalent of an egg. Anyone who eats (or is familiar with) vegan/vegetarian food will be used to things being reffered to as like this, e.g vegetarian bacon. We all know that it's not actually bacon, or in this case, an egg, but an equivalent that looks like/tastes like/can be used to replace the original product (bacon, egg, cheese etc.). And anyone who knows what vegan means would know thta this is not a real egg. I'm only replying to you because I'm home sick, and I feel like asting some time.

I think you're being a bit silly really. Have a nice day.
Akin Yildiz11 months ago

wow this is amazing.. thank you for sharing, i can't wait to show my wife :) one of the reasons of me going vegan was that I found out what an egg really is. it's not a fertilized egg, because there are no roosters around to mate with the mother.. yea, it was pretty nasty to figure out that I had been eating chicken period for 25 years, every morning, can't get more disgusting than that probably..!

phsycis1 year ago

mahhh mahhh tasted gewdd in murrr bellay

phsycis1 year ago

mahhh mahhh tasted gewdd in murrr bellay

theegghead1 year ago

THIS IS AWESOME! This looks like a great and healthy desert dish!

MAudette851 year ago
funny enough I was gonna try this then I scrolled down and saw some guys comment about slipping yogurt and mango together and im so down for that. that actually sounds amazingly delish. thank kid.
For the "egg" white - did you use agar flakes or agar powder? This looks super delicious BTW - definitely am going to give it a try :)
belsey (author)  SLCVeganista2 years ago
Agar powder
edsobo3 years ago
Thanks for the awesome 'Ible!
ailnn3 years ago
I was posting on an older site and now, I see, the same arguments are go still going on two years later. So I'm re-posting here.

Yeah, why bother, unless your intension is taking the mickey (this in deference of the "be nice" comment policy) out of the chicken or the vegans, why go to all that bother?
Stop being so upset already! Move on with your food choice of life and choose another instructable to look at. Please!
lynnhowlyn3 years ago
Very creative!

Here's a question I've wondered about for a long time: Do vegans breast feed their children?
Years ago I did know one vegan who decided to feed her baby soy formula instead of breastmilk to keep him away from dairy. That being said, there are extremists in any group and I have no doubt that she was one.
That's a really bad idea btw. Babies die of malnutrition on that method.
Actually, my 10 month old child had to have soy milk, as per his pediatrician's instructions. He was not able to digest milk- that's what kept my child alive...and yes, he was breast fed up until 10 months. He's is a healthy 27 years old now
Yes, but your baby was breast-fed for 10 months. I'm referring to things like this:

Hmm. I wonder. Do carnivores eat theirs?

Really, if you're seriously troubled by this question, you could try investigating what sort of reasons peole have for chosing a vegan diet. If you're still preplexed, you could go out on a limb and actually talk to a vegan...
I'd say it's a valid question considering the fringe vegans who won't feed their pets meat products or eat things like honey (even naturally collected.) And what if lynn doesn't know any vegans in real life so decided to pose the question in a safe environment? There was also no mention of being troubled or confused by the notion, just that it was something wondered.

As you know, there exist vegans who choose the diet for activism, or other reasons exclusive of health interests. Obviously growing infants need the nutrients breast milk can provide, but it's not hard to imagine someone who does not think that through, regardless of their diet. The only way I find this question "dumb" is that it presumes that people do anything categorically.
Sorry, the sarcasm wasn't called for.

I didn't mean to imply that anyone is stupid. I found the question disrespectful but that could just be how I read it.

PlanetVegan seems to have provided a much better answer to the question (above)
I do think the carnivore's comment was clever... and I have definitely heard the breastfeeding question and others like it.. although, the question does illustrate a lack of understanding about veganism, I don't think it's usually meant as disrespectful.. But, for the record, there are a great many people who are aggressive in their questioning of vegans and vegetarians, they may not be the majority, but when those people ask about breastfeeding they are not asking out of curiosity, they are just being snide.. My point is, I can see how this sort of thing can cause a vegan to assume that the question was meant to be rude.. even when it wasn't..
oh, and for those vegans that don't eat even wild collected honey.. I do have a question.. how can one justify eating fruit, even organic and local, that requires the use of owned, honey producing bees, but vilify the honey as slavery..? that I have been wondering for a while..

I would pose that same question to honey-free vegans, but I've never had the chance to speak to one directly!
belsey (author)  wilderness3 years ago
If you ever had a fish tank, and the fish survived long enough to reproduce, you would know that yes, carnivores eat their own babies. All the time, and in great quantities.
:) thanks for pointing this out.

It just illustrates the point I wanted to make, really - namely that creatures vary. Fish (pescavores?) may eat their babies; so do captive pigs (omnivores) and wild rabbits (mainly herbivorous) but very few humans do, even among those who live on a predominantly meat diet (This is who I was refering to - technically I should have written omnivores).

Treating any group of people as a homogenous and alien entity rather than a loose collection of approachable individuals is problematic.
Apart from being misleading, it helps reinforce barriers and perpetuate ignorance.

But my comment was not really relevant, as Lynn probably thought you were a vegan, in which case my criticism is completely misplaced.

I responded rhetorically because I'm so used to hearing that kind of question from people who think they are being clever.

So - sorry again!
actually, it's not so stupid of him. breast feeding means milk, and they don't drink milk. and he didn't say he's troubled by it, just that he's been wondering about it.

To anwer you question lynnhowlyn: I think they do. as far as i know they don't drink animal milk because they feel we 'steal' it from the animals, and gthe calves are taken away right after birth (or something like that). since it's their own baby, it wouldn't steal anything, so i could think of no reason why they wouldn't.
Err... how on earth is breastfeeding a child cruel to animals? That's like saying, do environmentalists grow plants, the two are not related.
Its not about not drinking any milk AT ALL. It's about not drinking milk from other animals.
Only the females, who have babies.^^

belsey (author)  lynnhowlyn3 years ago
You know, I've asked myself the same question (I'm not vegan by the way). My guess is that they would... They're not the type to prevent calves from nursing, so why deprive their own babies? One of the reasons to be vegan is to reduce livestock production which is so much more costly to the environment than crops. There are probably in the world some vegans who choose not to have children to reduce their environmental impact, but for those who become parents, a mother's breast milk, as I understand it, does not contradict their values.
It's completely fine for a vegan to breastfeed her children, as the basis of the vegan animal rights ethical position rests on the premise that it is wrong to take from, and/or cause unnecessary harm to, other beings, human or non, without their consent. This ideal holds true whether we are referring to another being's liberty, labour, secretions, or their very lives. In the case of the breastfeeding mother, that is a completely consensual act, and therefore meets the criteria. :)
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