Name: Vegan Deviled Eggs
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 1 min
Total time: 41 min
Ingredients: 1 Cup Cashew milk; 1 tsp Agar agar powder; 1 Pinch Himalayan pink salt; 1/4 lb Firm Tofu; 1 Tbsp Vegan mayo; 1 Tbsp Grape seed oil; 2 tsp Dijon Mustard; 1/2 tsp Apple cider vinegar; 1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt; 1/8 tsp Kala namak black salt; 1/4 tsp Turmeric powder; 1 pinch Black pepper; 1 pinch Paprika; 1 tsp Cashew milk, as needed

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

These Vegan Deviled Eggs are seriously insane. They look, feel, and taste just like real deviled eggs but made entirely from plant based ingredients! Learn how to make these completely vegan deviled eggs.

This recipe was inspired by a blog post of Lagusta’s Luscious.

These deviled eggs are perfect for any occasion. Including but not limited to holidays, even easter, which is coming up, spring time, baptisms, celebrations. You name it, they’re appropriate.

Especially if you’re trying to impress your guests or wow meat eating, not so vegan supporting family & friends. Your eggs will be the talk of the town. Just be sure to let them know where you got your oh so magical recipe from 😉

What’s the secret to these amazing vegan deviled eggs? It’s agar agar powder and kala namak salt.

What is Agar Agar

Agar is the vegan alternative to gelatin. Instead of gelatin derived from skin, hooves, and ligaments, agar is derived from red seaweed. Yes, seaweed. Agar was first discovered in the late 1600s in Japan. The term agar agar is actually a malay word meaning red seaweed. Gracilaria or Gelidium seaweed to be exact. But in Japan, agar is referred to as “kanten.”

Agar agar is a natural additive used for many culinary, cosmetic, and even pharmaceutical applications. This natural ingredient is gaining popularity in the west because of it’s gelling properties. It is used in many industries as a thickener, texturizer, moisturizer, emulsifier, flavor enhancer and absorbent.

Culinary wise, it’s perfect because it’s

Plant derived
Odorless
Colorless
Gels at low concentrations
Soluble in boiling water
Perfect vegan gelling agent
Used for soups, desserts, sauces
Making vegan deviled eggs.

Health Benefits of Agar

Interestingly enough, there is a diet based around agar called the Kanten diet. The idea is that the kanten fills you up and makes you feel fuller and thus leads to weight loss. We are not dieticians but found this interesting. We are by no means encouraging a kanten diet and if you are interested to speak with your health professional.

Difference Between Agar Powder and Agar Flakes

In our opinion, agar powder is easier to use compared to agar flakes. The powder dissolves instantly while the flakes take longer to dissolve. Agar powder is also cheaper compared to the flakes.

agar agar powder — Agar agar powder packet

Pro Tip

Our personal rule of thumb is 1 tsp of Agar powder to 1 Tbsp of Agar flakes.

Where to Find Agar Powder

The best place to find Agar is at any asian market. There are many different forms of agar besides powder and flakes. Typically at asian markets it is not uncommon to find agar threads, dessert mixes and even agar bars. If you are shopping at a Japanese market or a grocery store with many japanese products it is important to keep in mind agar will typically be labeled as “Kanten.”

Another good place to find agar is at health food stores. This seaweed byproduct has become more popular in recent years as plant based diets continue to rise in the west. Agar thus far, is the best natural alternative to gelatin. It is important to keep in mind if shopping on a budget that agar will be more expensive if purchased at a health food store vs a japanese market.

Our advice is to look for agar powder at your local asian grocery store first then at a health food store. If you can’t find this product near you amazon is always an option.

How to Use Agar Agar

Specifically in regards to the agar powder and flakes, always pour the powder or flakes into cold or room temp liquid. Then mix and add heat.

If the powder or flakes are added to hot liquid it will clump up and not dissipate evenly throughout the liquid. For this reason, the liquid needs to be brought to a complete boil. The boiling will activate the gelling properties.

Turn off the heat then check to make sure the agar has fully dissolved. Normally there should be no problem if using powder. If using the flakes, the flakes will take longer to dissolve than the powder.

You’ll know if the flakes haven’t dissolved because there will still be little agar specs in the liquid. Plus the liquid won’t begin to thicken.

Kala Namak Salt

Kala namak salt is our second secret ingredient to making these vegan deviled eggs a reality. Now that we’ve explained the boiled egg white texture it’s time to discuss flavor.

Kala namak, also known as Himalayan black salt, is a pink/ black salt derived from south asia. It is manufactured and sourced from the salt mines surrounding the Himalayas. This pungent, sulphurous salt is an amazing culinary ingredient. It is the key to mastering the flavor of eggs without actually using eggs.

Health Benefits of Kala Namak Salt

In Ayurveda, kala namak is prescribed and used for many different medical conditions. It is considered a cooling spice and used as a digestion aid and even as a laxative. It is also said to relieve heartburn and flatulence.

Why Does Kala Namak Salt Taste Eggy?

Due to the iron sulfide this salt obtains its dark color. The sodium chloride is what gives kala namaka it’s a salty taste. While the sulfur and hydrogen sulfide are the biggest contributors to this salt’s savory taste and prominent distinctive smell.

Where to Find Kala Namak Salt

Interestingly, this salt can be found in some walmarts, in addition to health food stores. If you can’t find this amazing culinary ingredient at a physical storefront, there are many distributors online to purchase from.

Vegan Deviled Egg Ingredients and Substitutions

For this vegan deviled egg recipe we pretty much recommend every ingredient to a T. Funny enough Luna has never had a deviled egg in her life but spearheaded this recipe. Nate, having grown up eating deviled eggs on many holidays was the supervisor and superior taste tester. Together it took about 2-3 weeks to perfect this recipe.

With that said we have tried many different plant milks, spices, and even agar products to bring this recipe to life. It is pretty much tried and true but there is a little wiggle room we want to talk about.

Cashew milk: We chose cashew milk as the base of the egg white because the milk is naturally very very white. We made our own cashew milk for this recipe using only cashews and water and salt. No sweetener was added. Making your own cashew milk is beneficial if you are looking to be more incontrol of the sugar or sodium content in your milk and your deviled eggs. For allergy or food sensitivity purposes, seed milk, like flax can but substituted instead. We did test the flax and while it did work the color had a brown hue. Just something to keep in mind.
Agar Agar Powder: Very important to use powder and not flakes. Part of the reason it took us so long to perfect this recipe is because in the beginning we started recipe testing with agar kanten flakes. The flakes would sometimes dissolve and sometimes not. By the time the flakes dissolved the cashew milk had already reduced to a foam and the egg whites had an airy foam like texture to them. So don’t use the flakes if you want this recipe to go right on the first try. The powder will dissolve quickly and evenly. The powder, we found, also takes less time to set compared to the flakes. The flakes, when dissolved properly, took 30 minutes in the fridge. The powder takes probably 10-20 minutes in the fridge but I highly suspect they would even set a room temperature. We haven’t tried it but after working with this ingredient, suspect it will.
Firm Tofu: For the base of the filling we used firm tofu. We tried other softer tofu’s but the firm tofu is what held up the best to be piped into the eggs and hold its form at room temperature.
Vegan Mayo: Normally in deviled eggs, mayo is used. This recipe is no different. Only instead we used vegan mayo. There are many different vegan mayo brands on the market today but we used Follow Your heart Vegenaise because we like the texture and flavor of the product.
Grape seed oil: When blending the yolk filling, we found the mixture needed more liquid to properly blend the tofu to smooth. We tested using two tbsp of vegan mayo instead but it didn’t work properly. It was still too thick. The grape seed oil worked perfectly because the oil was able to emulsion into the mixture when blended. It gave the yolk filling the texture it needed. Plus the grape seed oil has a very neutral flavor. Unlike olive oil, which technically would work… but would also leave an unwanted flavor. If you don’t have grapeseed oil, avocado oil or any other neutral oil would work.
Dijon Mustard: Is a classical ingredient when it comes to deviled eggs. It’s part of the deviled egg ingredient holy grail. You need the dijon. Plus the deviled egg guardians won’t look to you highly if you discard this ingredient.
Apple Cider Vinegar: Like every perfect dish there needs to be an acidic component. The apple cider vinegar could easily be substituted with white wine vinegar. Though we have not tested it with white wine vinegar. If you do use white wine vin instead of ACV, let us know in the comments!
Kala Namak: This is part of the non negotiable list.
Salt: We used himalayan pink salt for this. While the kala namak does have a salty taste, the more you add the more eggy the flavor gets too. For this reason we use kala namak for the eggy taste and pink salt for the salty taste.
Turmeric: If you really want to fully pull off these crazy vegan deviled eggs you’re going to need turmeric. Turmeric will naturally turn the filling to its traditional yolk yellow color. The more turmeric the more yellow it will become. For this reason we used only ¼ tsp.
Pepper: We used a pinch of pepper only. Feel free to use or not. Up to personal preference here.
Smoked paprika: We also added a dash of paprika into the filling. Only a dash because it will also be used to sprinkle on top!

Equipment

Unlike most of our easy only need a blender recipes, there are a couple important tools for this recipe.

Egg Molds: We used plastic egg molds because they were the best realistic egg shaped ones we could find on amazon. If you are going to purchase egg molds, highly recommend buying silicone instead of plastic. Silicone molds are more versatile and can also be used for chocolates. In case you ever want to make chocolate eggs in the future. In addition, we only needed one cup of cashew milk to fill eight eggs. If you use a different egg mold you may need more or less liquid depending on how many and the thickness of your eggs.
High speed blender: For the “yolk” mixture we used a nutribullet because its better suited for blending smaller qualities of volume, compared to a vitamix. We originally used our vitamix to blend the mixture but it did not come out smooth. So we tried the nutribullet and it came out perfectly smooth. Also, if it doesn’t come out super smooth, it will still taste great 🙂
Piping bag and tips: This is not necessary but the piping bag and tips will give the plating and extra wow factor. We purchased ours from Walmart but there are plenty of options online. As a substitute you can use a spoon to scoop the yolk into the egg whites.

If you tried one of our recipes or found our articles helpful, let us know in the comments below how it turned out!

Follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. Take a picture of your creations and tag us using #cookingupvegan.

Peace,
Luna & Nate