A Mung Bean Egg DIY

Our friend Michelle told us about making French toast in the waffle iron.  Upon her suggestion we bought a bottle of Just Egg and promptly did so.  We had to turn down the heat a little bit compared to our standard waffles, but once dialed in was pretty gosh darn yummy.  The pinched parts of the waffle grid got an almost caramelized flavor.  It isn't something I'd do every day, but it was a solid breakfast tip.  Variety is the spice of life.  I'd totally recommend it.  

We didn't use all the Just Egg in our waffle experiments and so Matt played around with it in several additional ways--chxn fried rice, scrambled, as an omelette, etc.  They were all tasty and it was a really solid product.  I don't think it tastes anything like egg, but for me that's no downside.  It looks and acts like it though.  

It is too expensive though, if you ask me.  Just Egg wouldn't become a staple in our household.  So, Matt being Matt, he read the ingredients to see if it was something we could just make ourselves.  The primary ingredient is "mung bean isolate."  Well, shoot!  We've already got mung beans in the cupboard as part of our obsessions with Asian cuisine.  So then, me being me, I looked up some Just Egg knock-off recipes online.  One of my search results was for this mung bean egg alternate by the Minimalist Baker.   I've used other recipes from there--including the absolutely noteworthy frozen "Snickers" cheezecakes--so it seemed like a good place to start.

Matt, being Matt, changed the recipe left and right until it suited our household better.  We use plain soymilk instead of  coconut milk, for example, since we can make our own soymilk on the cheap (plus it is more local, too).  And we use cornstarch instead of rice flour, etc.  We have also never purchased the supposedly magical black salt with the sulfurous, eggy flavor.  That stuff seems to have taken the vegan cooking world by storm in the past year or two.  It doesn't sound like something I'd enjoy though.  Matt might, I'm not sure.  

In any case, not only does this mung bean egg make fabulous vegan omelettes and breakfast scrambles, it also works great as a binder for casseroles.  Our Spaghetti Pizza Bake was the best one we've ever made just because the noodle "crust" held together so spectacularly.

Mung Bean Egg

3/4 cup split mung beans
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
1 cup soy milk (or other non-dairy milk)
2 T olive oil
1/4 cup cornstarch (or tapioca flour)
1 tsp baking powder

Soak the mung beans in a bowl of water overnight. 
Drain.
Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend until very smooth.
Can be kept in a tightly sealed jar in the fridge for up to ten days.

Cooking procedures, of course, depend on whether you're going to make an omelette or a casserole, etc.  Matt adds the mung egg towards the end when making a breakfast scramble, after the potatoes and whatnot are already almost fully cooked.  We use 1/2 cup of mung egg in the spaghetti pizza bake-- 1/4 cup per egg in the recipe.  For omelettes, the filling is pre-cooked and set aside.  A thin layer of mung egg is added to a preheated cast-iron pan, probably 1/3-1/2 cup.  When bubbles start to appear in the egg and the edges are slightly brown Matt adds the filling and fold the mung egg in half, enclosing the filling and leaves it on the heat long for another couple of minutes.  So...there's some general guidelines, I guess.  My apologies it isn't more detailed.  It is Grandma-Style Cooking (i.e. just go by feel/look based on a presumed basic culinary proficiency).  If you desire something more specific than that, try the directions from the Minimalist Baker and go from there.  ;) 

It is a tasty and filling addition to our culinary repertoire.  Not to mention cheaper, more whole foods based, and results in less plastic waste than buying Just Egg commercially.  We're pretty happy about it.