By Team Dirty
May 30, 2022,
What came first, the chicken or the…tofu? Our Eggless Egg Salad recipe has been a Dirty favorite since 2017 when it was created by our tofu-loving co-founder. It has everything you love about traditional egg salad—a yummy texture, crisp veggies, and luscious creaminess—without any of the drawbacks. Can we get a hell yeah for no cholesterol? Thanks to two key ingredients, it even has the same eggy flavor and yellow color you’ve come to expect.
Eat this baby as is by the spoonful.
Throw it on a sandwich with all the fixins.
Stuff tomatoes with it for fancy hors d’oeuvres.
Best of all, this delicious Eggless Egg Salad is vegan and oil-free!
What’s inside
Tofu: extra firm tofu provides a soft but not mushy texture. We press the tofu to remove excess water before using. This helps manage both texture and moisture in the final recipe.
Raw cashews: there are few creamy plant-based recipes that don’t use cashews and that’s for good reason. This mild-tasting tree nut is a great source of natural fats and blends to a creamy dreamy texture after a quick soak. It’s perfect for vegan mayo recipes like this one. Raw means that the cashews should be unroasted and unsalted.
Turmeric: this is one of the key ingredients. Not only does it provide phenomenal anti-inflammatory properties, and a mild savory flavor, but more importantly, it gives our Eggless Egg Salad a light yellow color.
Black salt: this is the other key ingredient, also called “kala namak.” Black salt has a sulfuric eggy smell and flavor. Contrary to its name, it’s actually a light dusty pink color and can be found in most international food markets or online. It’s not the same as Hawaiian Black Salt.
Let’s make Eggless Egg Salad
First, measure your cashews and soak in hot water for 10 minutes. If you have a high-powered blender, you can skip this step.
Now, let’s press our tofu. If you have a fancy tofu press, then get on with your bad self! However, if you haven’t been blessed by the tofu gods, don’t fret. We’ll walk you through it.
Take the tofu out of the package and give it a quick rinse. Place it in a flat-ish dish or plate. Then lay a cutting board or upside-down flat plate on top. Balance a heavy book on top of that and let sit for 10–15 minutes. Be sure to use a flat item to hold your book, or you may end up with a leaning tower, a broken dish, and floor-flavored tofu. Not fun.
While your cashews are soaking and your tofu is pressing, dice up your celery, onion, and parsley. You can put everything in the same bowl once you’re done.
After your cashews are done, drain them and place them into your blender along with the rest of the mayo ingredients. Blend until super creamy and smooth. The mixture should look like light yellow mayonnaise. Leave in the blender for now.
Remove your tofu from your pressing setup, place it in a medium-sized bowl and use a fork to mash it until it’s uniformly crumbly. Think the size of your fingernail or smaller.
Add your veggies to your tofu and stir. Now, add your mayo, black salt, and black pepper and stir again to combine everything. Give it a taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. If it’s eggy but not salty enough, add more regular salt.
Yum! It’s ready to go as is, but keep reading for one of our favorite ways to nom this delicious salad.
This recipe makes about four cups of Eggless Egg Salad and will keep in the fridge for around five days.
Make a big, tasty deli-style sandwich
To create picnic-ready Eggless Egg Salad sandwiches, follow the instructions below.
Squirt some yellow mustard on a slice of whole grain, sprouted, or gluten-free bread (toast it first if you’re feeling crunchy).
Add a layer of lettuce (we like green leaf), and a bit of red onion.
Then dollop on a big scoop of Eggless Egg Salad and top with another slice of bread.
Cut in half and serve with a dill pickle if you’re feeling it. Enjoy!
Side note: are you someone who feels strongly about the proper way to cut a sandwich? Are you Team Diagonal or Team Down the Middle? Tell us in the comments below!
Substitutions
Cashews: for a nut-free mayo, substitute equal amounts of sunflower seeds and follow instructions as written.
Celery: you can sub almost any crisp raw veggie for this. Good options are carrots, radishes, jicama, or bell peppers.
Get eggy with us
No credit card or perfection required.
Yellow onion: substitute with another type of onion or something else in the allium family like leeks, shallots, or raw garlic. If using garlic, start with a minced teaspoon and taste before adding more.
Parsley: you can sub fresh parsley with two teaspoons of dried parsley or another fresh herb you like. Thyme, tarragon, or sage could work. Start with a teaspoon and taste before adding more.
Black salt: if you don’t like the eggy flavor, you can use regular salt instead. Keep in mind your Eggless Egg Salad will actually taste eggless. That’s fine with us if it’s fine with you!
Ingredients
- 1 package extra firm tofu, drained, rinsed, and pressed (395 g / directions below)
Mayo
- ⅓ cup raw cashews, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes (45 g)
- ⅔ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (any variety)
- ⅓ cup tahini (80 g)
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast (15 g)
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard (15 g)
- 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Everything else
- ½ cup celery, diced (50 g)
- ¼ cup yellow onion, finely diced (40 g)
- 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped (8 g / any variety)
- ¼ teaspoon black salt (aka "kala namak" / can sub regular salt to omit eggy flavor)
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Remove the tofu from the packaging and rinse with water. Using your preferred method, press your tofu for 10–15 minutes.
- While your tofu is pressing, drain the cashews (discard soaking water) then place them into your blender, along with the rest of the mayo ingredients and blend until super creamy and smooth.
- When your tofu is pressed, place it into a bowl and mash with a fork until there are no big pieces and it’s nice and crumbly.
- Add the celery, onion, and parsley and stir. Add the mayo and stir again until all of the ingredients are combined.
- Add black salt and black pepper to taste.
Notes
We hope you enjoy this Eggless Egg Salad as much as our community members do. Let us know how it goes below!
If you love this and want more whole-food plant-based recipes you know will please, join Clean Food Dirty Girl and get access to thousands of recipes instantly.
May your sandwich always be cut the proper way.
Xo
Team Dirty
This recipe originally appeared in: I Didn’t Mind The Outhouse, It Was The Vampires That Terrified Me.
17 Comments
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How long will this keep in the refrigerator??
Penny – if you can keep around long enough this will keep for about 5 days.
We love egg salad/sandwiches. My husband especially loves curried egg sandwich and he hasn’t had any since starting WFPB eating. SI’m so going to be making this for him ?
Let us know what you think!
xo
Molly
I’ve been eating plant based for over 7 months now using almost exclusively CFDG recipes and meal plans and this eggless egg salad is one of my favorite sides to make and keep in the fridge to eat whenever I need a snack or quick breakfast/lunch. Follow the mayo link too, it’s all very yummy!
Silken or regular?
Hi!
This recipe uses regular extra firm tofu. Any recipe that uses silken tofu will specify that. 🙂
Enjoy the sandwich–it’s seriously delicious!
xo
Stephanie
So good, definitely a keeper, but I cant find it in the ” Recipe Vault”
We will add it to Recipe Vault but don’t have a timeline. We’re so glad you love it!
Luba, we added this to the Recipe Vault! https://members.cleanfooddirtygirl.com/get-in-your-kitchen/recipes/recipe-vault/3893-deli-style-eggless-egg-salad-sandwich-and-dill-pickle-spears
Team diagonal here!
Hi Shannon!
I’m a recent convert to Team Diagonal. It really produces the maximum about of perfect bites per half!
<3 Stephanie
This was soooo good. Another hit from CFDG. I realized after I made it that I saved the recipe from the original post, why did I wait so long to make it? I had it on Ezekiel toast, with lettuce and a farmer’s market tomato. This will definitely be a staple. And… I’m team open-faced, knife and fork!
Thank you! We’re glad you loved it. It’s such a great recipe and perfect for team open-faced or straight into the piehole!
I’ve been making this about once a week for the past month and a half -once I subbed sunflower seeds when I was somehow out of tahini – and I’ve also been swapping in 3 cups cooked chick peas for the tofu from time to time, coarsely chopped in the food processor. Extra fiber 🙂 So good!! Thanks again!!
Great suggestion! Thank you for sharing.
This has been a regular for a long time now at my house. My husband LOVES it when I make this! Enough that it was what he asked for as his birthday dinner 😉 A couple things I do: I double press the tofu. 15 minutes, switch paper towels, then another 15 minutes. Then I buzz it once in the food processor on “chop” and it gives a really nice, “egg-salad-y” texture. I use soy sauce in place of coc aminos, dried parsley instead of fresh, and I shred 2 cups of spinach in the food processor and add that to it along with a diced tomato and sometimes diced pickles, in addition to the celery and onion.
One way we like to eat this other than the traditional way is atop sliced baguettes. Occasionally as a sort of side dish.
This recipe keeps great frozen. Lately I make a double batch and freeze half for later on (if my husband doesn’t find it first ;)). We also love to travel with this recipe—make it ahead of time, freeze, then let it thaw overnight in a cooler while camping or a mini fridge at a hotel. Then it’s easy to make yummy sandwiches on the go. One thing we DIDN’T love was subbing with PB or other nut butters. Tahini really is worth getting for us just for this recipe. And the black salt really elevates it!
This is also super toddler and little kid friendly.
Hope all of this info helps someone 🙂
Thank you for one of our favorite recipes!