Julie Harris from London in the UK wrote to us yesterday to ask what she could substitute for eggs in recipes that need a binding agent.
There is a history of food allergy in Julie’s family and she has decided to delay the introduction of eggs to her son Joshua (egg whites are a common allergen).
Here are a few simple ideas for alternatives to egg that you can use as a binder in your recipes…
- If you are preparing a savoury dish, then mashed potato (sweet or white) makes a great binder! If you’re making homemade beef patties (or beef burgers as they’re known in the UK), then mashed potato is just perfect for ‘glue-ing’ all the ingredients together! Use 2-3 tbsp per egg.
- Oats make another good binder in foods like patties – and add a nice boost of nutrition too! Use 2-3 tbsp oats per egg.
- Bananas are ideal for binding ingredients in baked goods, like bread and muffins. Use around 1/2 banana per egg (mashed, of course). Do bear in mind that there may be a slight banana flavour to the end product – so don’t put it in a recipe where this will be disagreeable.
- Applesauce is good for baking, too. Use 3 tbsp per egg. The taste is less obvious than banana, making applesauce more suitable for a wider variety of recipes.
- Silken tofu works as a binder in both savoury and sweet recipes. Use around 2 oz (1/4 cup) tofu per egg.
- Another fab egg replacer in baked goods is flax. Just combine 1 tbsp ground flax with 3 tbsp water.
Something to bear in mind…
In some recipes – particularly those for baked items – the eggs are not there JUST as a binder. They may also be a ‘leavening’ agent – that is, they help the food to rise and give a light and fluffy texture. This is particularly true if the recipe calls for more than one egg.
The egg substitutes listed above do NOT have leavening properties, so the end result may be a little denser than expected.
Sometimes, you can get around this by adding a little baking powder of baking soda to the recipe, which provides the necessary ‘lift’!
Do you have any ingenious ways of replacing the eggs in recipes for YOUR baby? Please comment with your ideas!
aviva katz
Monday 12th of October 2009
My baby is allergic to eggs and so I use this subsitute all the time in my recipes. It's from food allergy.org. It's 1 tbs water, 1 tbs vinegar and 1 tsp. baking powder.