Deviled (v)eggs

Whether you follow Planticize regularly, or not, I feel I need to start off this post with some “excuses”, and a quick little rant, if for no one else than myself. I have not been writing, cooking nor photographing my creations nearly as much as I’d have liked this past few weeks. One huge reason for that is that things are breaking: doors, faucets, keyboards, monitors, my cat (well a couple of his teeth anyway)… and that’s just the start of it. Of course, always having my priorities in place, I got the computer stuff fixed first – and here I am, somewhat back in business.

One thing that I haven’t broken, something that hasn’t cracked, are any eggshells – this recipe is 100% man-made, with 100% plant-based ingredients! So whether you are an excited vegan who is thinking “Easter is saved!” or someone who loves to experiment in the kitchen and try new things – check this out!

Easter is all about eggs and rabbits doing what rabbits do best and… Nevermind. So, I knew I had to do some kind of egg-ish recipe. Little did I know it was going to turn out this awesome. But it was a rough and windy road there. Over the course of 3 days, I made and threw away a whole lot of rotten (v)eggs – wasteful I know, but when you’re experimenting, somethings cannot be avoided.

I’d heard of some people attempting this with plant-based milk, but either they were embellishing a bit, they’re white/brown colorblind, their taste buds are wayyyyyy off, or it’s a combo of all three things. I started by going to my super duper local, all-vegan shop (yes, I have one nearby, and yes, it’s a luxury) and asking them which plant milk they thought was whitest of white. The two kind assistants both agreed that rice milk was the whitest. So I went home and cooked up the concotion and watched as the liquid went from white-ish to a horrible grey/brown. I threw them in the fridge, took them out 30 minutes later, bit into one and well, no, I don’t even want to describe the experience!

I tried almond milk – nix, it wasn’t even white to start with, and other milks were worse. Anyone who knows me knows that I do NOT give up – I was going to crack this (v)egg problem and that was that. Then it dawned on me that the problem was that most plant milk is too thin, so I upped the ante and went for plant cream. I started with an oat-based cream. Mistake! I should have known, that even if oat milk is my #1 cereal buddy, there’s no hiding that distinctive oat-i-ness sometimes. So then I tried soy cream. This worked MUCH better and the (v)eggs remained white, but the flavor and consistency – not so much. So I added a little of this a little of that, keeping the ingredients as white as possible with each adding subtle flavors, and finally it all came together.

Speaking of coming together, agar agar (repetitive I know, but I don’t name these things) is what holds the whites together and gives them they’re special consistency. It’s derived from seaweed and acts just like gelatin. When boiled in a liquid and cooled, the result is a jelly-like substance. And believe it or not, it’s nothing new – it was discovered in Japan over 350 years ago! And as for kala namak or black salt, you just gotta have it, really. It’s wonderful, inexpensive, lasts a long time and is simply something that you need to convincingly create a plant-based version of any kind of egg-dish.

Just because I haven’t written in a while, doesn’t mean you want to listen to me all day or night, so I’ll let you get to it! An important note is that this recipe, once you know what you’re doing, haha, is SUPER easy. Stick as close as you can to this recipe, use the whitest ingredients you can find, and I promise you that you will blow the mind of anyone who tries one of these incredible deviled (v)eggs!