Medium tofu is the perfect texture for a plant-based egg salad substitute! This vegan tofu egg salad is quick to make, creamy, and absolutely delicious. Blend up my sunflower seed “mayonnaise” to make this tasty lunch oil-free!
Full of flavour
A soft and creamy texture
And ready in 20 minutes or less!
Ingredients For Vegan Tofu “Egg Salad”
A tofu with a higher moisture content is the key to achieving a texture closer to that of mashed egg whites. Medium tofu (or medium firm tofu) is my favourite variety of tofu to use for this vegan “egg salad”. Soft or silken tofu will likely be too soft and mushy but you could use firm or extra firm tofu for this recipe. The differences will be that the “egg salad” will taste more dry with firm tofu and the package of tofu you buy might be smaller.
I season the tofu with:
- Nutritional yeast: for savoury depth.
- Pickle juice: for some tang.
- Black salt: for “eggy” flavour. Take a look at this Food Network article on Kala Namak (Indian Black Salt) if this is a new ingredient for you.
- Turmeric: for yellow colour.
- Garlic powder.
- And a pinch of black pepper.
To make this recipe oil-free I love blending a quick homemade “mayonnaise” from sunflower seeds! You could use 4-6 tablespoons of a store-bought plant-based mayo if you’d like. You could also use my 5 minute oil-free tofu based mayo! When I first started testing this recipe I set aside a portion of the tofu, blended it with extra seasonings, and used that for the “mayonnaise”. However, I felt that this tofu “egg salad” needed a bit of a richer taste and that’s where the healthy fats from the sunflower seeds come in!
- Soaked sunflower seeds: soaked in cold water in the fridge overnight OR quick soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes.
- Lemon juice.
- Mustard powder.
- And a bit of sea salt.
*If you don’t have sunflower seeds and you want to use a portion of the tofu for the “mayonnaise” just scroll to the notes section of the recipe card. All of my instructions are there!
Method
This vegan tofu “egg salad” recipe is quick and easy to prepare!
- Drain any excess liquid from the tofu package but there is no need to press the tofu of extra moisture.
- Break the tofu into larger chunks, add them to a medium sized bowl, and sprinkle with the seasonings. Mash the seasonings into the tofu only until they are just combined. (If there are a few larger chunks of tofu I think it resembles chunks of egg white in a traditional egg salad).
- If making my sunflower seed “mayonnaise” quickly blend the ingredients together.
- Add the homemade “mayonnaise”, or 4-6 tablespoons of a store-bought mayonnaise, to the tofu mixture and stir to combine.
- Feel free to stir in any chopped celery, pickles, green onion, or herbs!
Pile this vegan tofu “egg salad” onto your favourite sandwich bread with leaf lettuce and homegrown sprouts! Sliced avocado, pickles, and any other fresh greens you like are also great choices.
Any leftovers of your “egg salad” will keep well in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Recipe Cost For Vegan Tofu “Egg Salad”
This recipe costs us approximately $3.67 Canadian for the tofu and the sunflower seed “mayonnaise”. This amount of “egg salad” generously fills 4 sandwiches and our cost is about $1.45 per sandwich with the added costs of the bread, lettuce, and homegrown sprouts.
If I were to make this recipe with eggs instead of tofu my cost for the eggs would be equivalent or only a few cents less than the cost of the tofu!
And, the homemade sunflower seed “mayo” costs me $0.35 to blend up. If I were to use a store-bought plant-based mayo my cost would be about 95 cents and a traditional mayo would cost me about 65 cents. So… this vegan tofu “egg salad” recipe is pretty thrifty for a delicious vegan and oil-free option!
Let me know in the comments below if you love this vegan tofu “egg salad” recipe and make sure to try my creamy Chickpea Smash Sandwich too!
Print
Tofu “Egg Salad” (Vegan & Oil-Free)
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: serves 4
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Make a delicious vegan tofu “egg salad” with a quick sunflower seed “mayonnaise”. The homemade “mayo” makes this tasty lunch oil-free!
Ingredients
- 454 g medium tofu (can use firm tofu but the softness of medium is closer to an egg)
- 2 tsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp pickle juice
- ½ tsp black salt (kala namak – for “eggy” flavour)
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- Pinch of black pepper
Sunflower Seed “Mayo” (or 4-6 tablespoon vegan mayonnaise of choice)
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds, soaked and drained
- ¼ cup water
- ½ – 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ tsp mustard powder (or ½ – 1 teaspoon prepared mustard depending on taste)
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ⅛ tsp sea salt
*All the ingredients for this recipe are from our pantry & freezer tips!
Instructions
- If making the sunflower seed “mayo”, start by soaking the sunflower seeds in boiled water for 15 minutes to soften them. Alternatively, soak the seeds overnight in cold water in your fridge. While the seeds are soaking, prepare the tofu.
- Drain any excess water in the package surrounding the tofu but there is no need to press the tofu. Add the drained tofu to a medium sized bowl and loosely mash it up (you will mash it more once you add the other ingredients).
- Sprinkle the seasonings onto the tofu and mash it some more. I like to leave a few larger pieces of tofu so they resemble larger pieces of egg whites in a traditional egg salad.
- If you are not making the sunflower seed mayo then stir in 4-6 tablespoons of your favourite vegan mayonnaise. Otherwise, drain the soaking liquid from the sunflower seeds and add them to a blender with ¼ cup fresh water and the remaining ingredients. Blend until it is as smooth as possible. This “mayonnaise” will be more textured than traditional mayonnaise but once stirred into the tofu you won’t notice the texture. Stir the sunflower seed mayo into the seasoned and mashed tofu.
- Taste your vegan egg salad and add any extra salt if needed, pickle juice/lemon juice for tang, or even a few drops of your favourite hot sauce.
- To make 4 sandwiches, toast your favourite sandwich bread, line the bread with crisp lettuce, scoop a generous amount of egg salad onto the lettuce and top with fresh sprouts.
- Leftover tofu “egg salad” keeps well in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Notes
Approximate Cost: $3.67 Canadian for the tofu and sunflower seed mayo. If I were to make this recipe with eggs the cost of the eggs would be equivalent or only a few cents less than my cost for the tofu. The sunflower seed “mayo” costs me $0.35 cents to make. My lowest cost for a store-bought plant-based mayo would be $0.95 and a traditional mayonnaise would be $0.63.
Another “mayonnaise” option is to set aside 80 grams of the tofu and use that for the mayonnaise. Add the reserved tofu to a blender with the seasonings listed for the sunflower seed “mayonnaise”. Splash in 2 tablespoon plant milk and blend until smooth. Add more plant milk as needed to reach your desired consistency.
Feel free to stir chopped celery, chopped green onion, or any fresh herbs you love into your tofu “egg salad”. These sandwiches are also delicious with sliced avocado or pickles.
- Category: Sandwich
- Method: Raw
- Cuisine: American, Canadian
Kathryn M.
Kathryn,
I am looking forward to trying this vegan egg salad recipe. I wanted to let you know, though, that for both this recipe and the chia pudding recipes that I wanted to save in PDF, your site’s pop-up Google ads always come up in the print-out and actually block part of your instructions. I can find no way to keep this from happening.
We’re loving the chia pudding – PB chia pudding is a hit in our house, for sure.
I plan to try this vegan “egg” salad recipe very soon.
Kathryn Alexandre
Oh no I’m sorry to hear that this is happening! Thank you for letting us know. We just quickly looked into it and there was a way for us to block ads on specific pages so we blocked them on the tofu egg salad and the chia pudding recipes. My tech support (aka Bryan) will look into how to block them on all of our printed pages! We’re glad you’re enjoying these recipes and again thank you for letting us know about this!
🐸
Hello 👋
I’ve made the red lentil Bolognese you shared with great success many times, thank you!
For this recipe, are the sunflower seeds that have been been soaked, then drained raw or roasted?
Can I use my salt-free, roasted sunflower seeds instead?
Kathryn Alexandre
Hello 👋 I’m so glad you like the lentil bolognese! That’s lovely to hear! And for this recipe I’ve only tried using raw sunflower seeds. I think roasted should be fine, you might just be able to taste more of that roasted flavour in the “mayo”. The same is usually suggested for recipes with soaked cashews. Raw cashews just have a more mild flavour so they blend into recipes a little more easily but roasted cashews could be used.
Barbara H
I’m not usually a tofu fan but this recipe was so easy that I wanted to give it a try. I used a vegan mayo that I already had at home but I have to confess you’ve changed me. Am I actually craving my leftovers of this? It’s going into the rotation. Thank you k.
Kathryn Alexandre
hahaha I’m so glad you took a chance on it Barbara and it paid off! Thank you for letting me know it’s made it into your rotation. Enjoy those leftovers!