Plant Based Easter- All About Eggs

Dear all,

Easter is all about eggs.


No matter whether you are a religious person or not, vegan or plant- based, the Easter eggs are at some point inevitable! In our family, Easter is all about the eggs and the bunny. And it is pretty much the only time of the year when you can see me standing in the “egg isle” at the supermarket looking to find white eggs. You might think that is an easy task but just yesterday I had a discussion at out local supermarket about the color of the eggs. Instead of opening every different brand’s egg carton, I asked an employee to help me find white eggs. Despite the fact that he was not friendly at all, which might be attributed to the approaching closing time of the store, he’d never before heard of white eggs. I could hardly hide my surprise! We always use white boiled eggs to decorate them and to play “Eier titschen”, which is German and means egg bashing – you hold the egg and your opponent tries to knock a dent into your egg. The winner is the person whose egg is dent free. Of course, before we bash the eggs, we color and decorate them.

What is the difference between white and brown eggs? Are the brown ones from hens which were fed a whole grain diet? 

CHICKENSThe answer is so simple that you may be surprised. White-feathered chickens with white ear lobes lay white eggs and red-feathered ones with red ear lobes lay brown eggs (this may not apply to all breeds). And besides that, there are certain chickens that even lay speckled eggs and blue eggs. But when you get down to the egg, nutritionally there is no difference — it’s all just in the looks. So I guess we have more dark chickens in down under than white ones 🙂

palmkAnother reason to get white eggs is be able paint the blown out raw shells beautifully, and to tie them with colored ribbons to one of the first sprouting spring branches. Usually, we use pussy willow or catkins (according to the German/English dictionary), which are one of the first sources for bees to find food in the European spring. That’s also the reason why catkins are protected and are not allowed to be cut. Here in Australia, I have to find other branches that can be decorated with our eggs.

Why exactly is it that a bunny delivers eggs and not chickens delivering carrots?

Bunnies produce a lot of offspring in early spring and are a symbol for new life. The same applies to eggs- they are a symbol for new life and fertility.

For our kids, Easter includes going on an egg and nest hunt, that the Easter bunny hides during the night. Let me tell you, the Easter bunny had a very, very busy Thursday looking for small trinkets to place in the kids Easter nests… We aim to put more little gifts into the Easter nests than chocolates. In the States, I got the newest beach towels or beach wraps, lunch bags and accessories online from Pottery Barn Kids. Unfortunately, I can’t order exactly what I wanted here in Australia and therefore had to spend a few hours in a packed shopping mall with a lot of other desperate “Easter bunnies”.

Ben and Viv would be very upset if the Easter bunny would not hide sweet treats in their nests and plastic eggs. At least I do my best to get some non- diary, dark chocolate eggs and bunnies with no artificial stuff added. Luckily, you can find more and more of these “healthier” alternatives, some even in regular supermarkets.

If you miss eating eggs on Easter try this recipe for“fake egg salad”. The texture and flavor really does resemble traditional egg salad (for the full recipe click here


I fill slightly toasted whole wheat pita pockets with this egg salad and crunchy salad leaves for a yummy school or work lunch and pack sweet cherry tomatoes on the side.

Happy Easter everyone!



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