Guest Blogger: Luminous Vegans – Eggless-cellent Salad

As we loom closer to Virtual Vegan Potluck we’re picking up steam here at VBU! and introducing a new blogger to the family. Please meet Ketty! Here she is in her own words, “Hello! I am Ketty from Luminous Vegans. I live in Atlanta with the other luminous vegan, Neal, and our two rescued greyhounds Nikko and Miles. Luminous Vegans was created out of my desire to show non-vegan friends and family that vegan food is delicious! It has since evolved into a vegan mish-mash of DIY projects, adventures, reviews and of course plenty of food! While I work a full time job, I love to blog in my free time because I feel like it’s one small way I can contribute to the movement, by showing people how easy it is to be vegan. We are just two ordinary folks. It doesn’t take a superhuman to show compassion.” Follow her adventures on Facebook. Please welcome Ketty!

I am a diehard fan of all dishes creamy and salady, two things that can be a vegan challenge. Inspired by this recipe from Nava Atlas, I whipped up this tasty eggless “egg” salad and I’ve been nomming on it for the past day. The ingredients are approximations, so adjust the seasonings as your mouth sees fit.

Eggless salad sprinkled with paprika atop a bed of mixed greens and sunflower sprouts.

In a food processor, I blended one 14 oz can of rinsed and drained chickpeas, 1 scant tbs of vegenaise, 1 tbs of nooch (nutritional yeast), 1 1/2 tbs of lemon juice, 2 tbs of sweet relish, 1 tsp of dijon mustard, a dash of turmeric, about 1/2-1 tsp of black salt (Kala Namak) and black pepper to taste.

I transferred the mixture to a mixing bowl and added 1 chopped stalk of green onions and

one package of extra firm silken tofu drained and diced. I slowly folded the onions and tofu into the “eggy” mixture because I didn’t want the tofu to break up too much.

This is what the final product looked like. The chickpeas are the “yolk” and the silken tofu bits are the “boiled egg whites”.

This is an eggless-cellent version of the omni egg salad. The texture and taste is spot on. The “eggy” taste comes from the black salt which is not actually black in color (it is pinkish) and adds a sulfury taste to dishes. I used about 1/2-1 tsp of black salt in this, adding small bits at a time and tasting it as I went b/c this stuff is strong. Thanks to abracapocus, I was able to find black salt for a whopping 99 cents at Taj Mahal Imports.

Eggless salad sandwich mixed with sunflower sprouts with a side of chips and homemade peach pico de gallo.

I loved egg salad pregan and this definitely satisfies that taste for me. I’ve had it atop greens and in a sammich and I still have some left over for another sandwich or salad. N hates creamy-salady stuff, so this one’s all for me!

Are there any dishes/foods that you love that your partner (friend, roommate, sister, brother, etc..) hates (and hence you get to hoard it all to yourself)?

Know of any other ingredients, like black salt, that magically transform a dish?