How To Make An Omelette Without Cracking A Single Egg

Just because her diet is plant-based, that doesn’t mean hot for food blog’s Lauren Toyota eschews comfort food. In fact, she couldn’t live without it.

For Chatelaine’s video series, Vegan It! with Lauren Toyota, the former MuchMusic VJ and current YouTube star and cookbook author demonstrates how to create vegan versions of everyone’s favourite comfort classics — like grilled cheese and caesar salad — without elaborate recipes or compromising on taste.

Vegan Mac And Cheese! How To Make The Classic Comfort Food Without Any Dairy

In this Vegan It! episode:

Lauren whips up a fluffy, filling and eggy omelette. Here are her tricks for:

Finding an egg substitute

When making vegan comfort food, Toyota replicates the flavours and textures of meat, egg and dairy-filled recipes. But her dishes also have to look like their conventional counterparts. To replace eggs in her omelette, Toyota uses chickpea flour (which also adds additional protein), nutritional yeast and turmeric for their bright yellow colour — these powders also act as flavour enhancers.

Making the vegan omelette fluffy

Instead of whisking or beating eggs, Toyota mixes together vegan pantry staples, such as medium firm tofu,

non-dairy milk, nutritional yeast, tapioca starch (as a binder) and a bunch of spices in a high-speed blender. This gives her batter an airy consistency so it has a similar texture to eggs when cooked.

Nailing the filling

Plain omelettes are fine, but nothing beats one that's stuffed with veggies and cheese. Toyota fills hers with sauteed mushrooms and green onions as well as vegan cheddar cheese, but says you can get creative with your toppings — as long as they're plant-based.

Vegan Omelette Recipe

MAKES: 2 large omelettes

PREP TIME: 20 minutes

COOK TIME: 35 minutes

Omelette Batter

• 2/3 brick of medium-firm tofu (approx. 1 cup crumbled)
• 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
• 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 3 tbsp chickpea flour
• 2 tbsp tapioca starch/flour
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp Old Bay seasoning (optional) * can sub chili powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper
• 1 to 2 tbsp vegan butter (for frying omelette)

Omelette Filling

• 1 cup mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 green onions, finely chopped
• sea salt and ground pepper, to taste
• 1 cup shredded vegan cheddar cheese

Instructions

1. Place all the ingredients for the batter in a blender and combine until very smooth.
2. For the filling, heat a large non-stick pan over medium heat with vegetable oil. Once hot sauté the mushrooms until mostly cooked, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and wipe clean so you can make the omelette in the same pan.
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add a coating of vegan butter to the surface of the pan. Pour some of the omelette batter into the centre and spread it out until it's about 1/4" thick. It will take about 3 to 4 minutes to cook on the first side. You'll notice the batter being cooked through and getting darker in colour around the perimeter of the omelette.
4. At this point add in some of the cooked mushrooms, finely chopped green onion, and shredded cheese to one side of the omelette. After 30 more seconds or so you can use a spatula and lift one side and fold it over to create a half moon shape.
5. After another 30 seconds or so gently flip the omelette over on to the other side.
6. Cover the pan with a lid to allow the cheese to really melt well inside, cooking for another 2 to 3 minutes.