Vegan Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms and Spinach

These soy-free vegan scrambled eggs are easy, delicious and nutritious, and you can make them in a hurry. Spinach and mushrooms add freshness, flavor and even more health. A gluten-free recipe, can be nut-free.

This is my go-to vegan scrambled eggs recipe, and I love it for many reasons, including but not limited to the fact that it:

• comes together in minutes, much like regular scrambled eggs would.
• is packed with heart-healthy protein that's not tofu, and it has delicious veggies like mushrooms and spinach.
• is versatile -- you can vary up the veggies and you can make it nut-free if you want to.
• tastes simply awesome with nothing more than a slice of toast and a cup of joe for company.
• is sure to make friends and family -- but most importantly you -- fall in love with it.

In more than a decade of veganhood I've been through several versions of scrambled eggs, starting with the perennial egg substitute, tofu. While tofu scrambled eggs are good enough, I wanted a recipe without soy that would be just as awesome, or hopefully more.

I've arrived at my vegan "egg" substitute with lots of thought and through trial and error, and it's made partly of chickpea flour and partly of cashew nuts.

Chickpea flour is a common enough substitute for eggs among vegan cooks, probably right after tofu, and I've long had a vegan omelet recipe for a Besan Cheela that uses chickpea flour as an egg substitute. But for my scrambled eggs, I wanted to minimize the chickpea flour flavor while not killing it altogether. But more importantly, chickpea flour tends to dry out in the skillet and I wanted something in there that would keep the consistency of the "eggs" soft and smooth. Ergo the cashews.

I say this often, and it's worth repeating, that when you take meat or eggs or any animal product out of a recipe, you can't just sub a plant-based food and call it a day. So, if you were making scrambled eggs with just eggs, you would add cream, salt and pepper, and any veggies you wanted to use, and you'd be done. But for the vegan version, you need to build more flavor into your eggs, because by themselves neither chickpea flour nor cashews (nor tofu for that matter) are very flavorsome.

I make my vegan egg mixture in the blender, and into it I toss -- besides the chickpea flour and cashews -- a tablespoon of cheesy nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and ground black pepper. This flavorful blend adds even more points to the recipe's nutritional profile, and makes this recipe taste not like scrambled eggs, but waaaay better.

You can eat the vegan eggs with toast, or you can toss them into a wrap. Add some roasted potatoes for even more oomph.

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Ingredients for vegan scrambled eggs:

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Crimini or button mushrooms
• Spinach
• Chickpea flour
• Raw cashews
• Nutritional yeast
• Onion powder
• Garlic powder
• Turmeric
• Parsley

Tips for making the perfect scrambled eggs:

• Don't be tempted to add everything to the skillet at once. Saute the mushrooms and let them soften, then add the spinach and let it wilt, before you add the "egg" mixture. This will give you a little more control over the moisture in your recipe, since both veggies will express water.
• Chickpea "eggs" start to set as soon as you add them to the pan, much like actual eggs will do. But the chickpea flour also needs to cook, so don't just add it in and push it around with a ladle for a minute and serve it up. You need to let your eggs sit over heat for a few minutes, stirring them frequently, so the chickpea flour cooks evenly and loses any raw flavor.
• You have some control over how dry or moist you want your eggs to be. I like them not too dry, so I take them off the heat after about four or five minutes. The longer you cook chickpea flour, the dryer it will get, like eggs.
• If you want to make this nut-free, use a cup of chickpea flour and skip the cashews.
• I think mushrooms and spinach are perfect in this recipe, but I won't stop you from experimenting. Think veggies that cook fast, like bell peppers or peas or green beans or most leafy greens.

Looking for more vegan breakfast recipes?

• Vegan Pumpkin Bread Pudding
• Vegan French Toast Casserole
• Savory Vegan Squash and Rice Pudding
• Vegan Hash Brown Casserole
• Vegan Cranberry Breakfast Bread

Vegan Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms and Spinach