Silken Tofu Is The Unexpected Ingredient You Can Swap For Eggs

Aside from being the classic breakfast item that boosts your protein intake, the mighty egg is used in a variety of dishes as an emulsifier, thickener, and more. If you're out of eggs, or you're making the switch to a vegan or plant-based diet, silken tofu works as a replacement for eggs.

In both cooking and baking, eggs provide moisture and structure, bind ingredients together, work as a leavening agent, and enrich food with color and flavor. What can't they do? With so many roles, it's hard to imagine anything being able to replace them, but silken tofu can do almost anything eggs can do. As the softest kind of tofu, the silken type has a high water content and is extremely smooth, hence the name. When making vegan desserts or baked goods, silken tofu creates the moisture needed and thickens the batter.

It also makes desserts richer, but it's important to follow the proper ratio, otherwise the results will feel more heavy than rich. When making the swap, one egg amounts to ¼ cup of tofu. For blended or pureed tofu, one egg will be equal to 60 grams. Silken tofu isn't always pressed since it tends to crumble from the weight. With baking, however, it's important to remove as much water as you can so it doesn't thin out your batter too much.

Like eggs, tofu works as an emulsifier. It contains lecithin, a type of fat also found in eggs that helps bind ingredients together. Aside from holding your desserts in place, silken tofu can be used to make salad dressings and mayonnaise for your plant-based salads, such as a vegan taco salad.

Silken tofu can even be used in recipes that are solely made up of eggs. Use it to make a scramble or whip up a tofu quiche. While both tofu and eggs are on the plainer side, eggs have a slight hint of savory flavor that can be accomplished with nutritional yeast when making tofu scramble. To get the perfect fluffy texture, it's important to avoid over-pressing the tofu before scrambling it.

For an egg-free pumpkin pie, silken tofu's smooth texture is the ideal ingredient to recreate the recipe. It will also work deliciously well for an unconventional chocolate mousse.