13 Eggless Alternatives To Egg Salad

Egg salad is a classic for a reason. It's simple to make, versatile, and delicious. However, if you don't eat eggs, you might think it is completely off the menu. It doesn't have to be this way, though. There are many eggless alternatives to egg salad that you can serve over salad leaves, stuff between two slices of bread, or fold into a tortilla wrap.

A classic egg salad recipe consists of chopped or mashed hard boiled eggs mixed with mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper. However, many people add extras, such as chopped celery and onion, fresh vegetables, or other produce. Then, there are regional differences, and lots of variations in how egg salad is made around the world. If you're looking to make an egg-free egg salad, you'll need to make some big changes. Some alternatives aren't much like egg in taste or texture, but they fill that hole and taste amazing in a sandwich. Of course, you'll also need to use a vegan mayonnaise instead of classic mayo, but then you can add all your favorite mix-ins.

Whether you're vegan, allergic to eggs, or cooking for someone who fits either of these categories, we've got some excellent eggless egg salad ideas. Even if you do eat eggs, it's a chance to get creative, expand your repertoire and try something new.

Tofu makes a great egg alternative for an egg salad. It's already commonly used as a vegan substitute for egg — for instance, as tofu scramble — because of its texture and ability to take on flavors. When crumbled, tofu takes on a surprisingly egg-like texture. Medium and firm tofu are great for those who like a firm egg salad, and soft or silken tofu are perfect for people who prefer a more moist texture.

It's a good option for anyone looking for new ways to cook with tofu — and it's super simple, too. There's no need to cook it before you use it. Just open up the package, crumble or mash it into a mixing bowl, and add in your other ingredients. Tofu can be bland on its own, but it takes on flavors well, so don't be shy with the seasonings. You might need more salt than you'd imagine. You can also use kala namak, or black salt, which contains sulphuric compounds and helps give the tofu an eggy taste.

Since it's a good blank canvas, tofu egg salad works well with basically any mix-ins. Onions, green onions, celery, bell peppers, pickles — they're all delicious in a tofu salad. You can serve it any way you'd usually serve the egg version, but a sandwich is the obvious choice.

Chickpea salad is an amazing vegan alternative to egg salad. While chickpeas might not taste especially eggy, once you mix them with vegan mayo, mustard, seasonings, and extras of your choice, it's a surprisingly convincing substitute. The key is to mash your chickpeas. Whole chickpeas are texturally wrong and will come rolling out of your sandwich. But, once mashed, their texture isn't far off a conventional egg salad.

Fresh dill can take your chickpea salad to the next level, especially if dill is something you usually like in egg salad. Or, you could follow the lead of this herby chickpea salad sandwich recipe and use a trio of fresh herbs — parsley, dill, and tarragon. You can boost the flavor further by adding garlic powder and onion powder into the mix. And, if the color of your salad matters to you, a dash of turmeric will make it look more yellow and egg-like. Other great mix-ins for a chickpea salad include dill pickles, red onions, celery, and capers.

If you're unfamiliar with tempeh, it's a traditional food from Indonesia made from fermented soybeans. In the last few decades, it's become increasingly popular as a vegetarian and vegan protein source. While it's often used as a mock meat, it translates well as an egg alternative in a tempeh salad sandwich.

Tempeh is already cooked and ready to eat, so there's no need to cook it again before making it into an egg salad alternative. That said, tempeh has a fairly strong flavor that not everyone loves. This mellows with cooking, so you might choose to steam your block of tempeh for about 5 to 10 minutes before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.

To make this salad, you need to crumble or chop the block into small pieces before mashing it. A whole block of tempeh is too firm to mash, so this step helps. Since you don't need to be precise, you can use a food processor to roughly chop it. It has a much firmer texture than boiled eggs, but some people like this extra bite.

Since tempeh has a distinct flavor, it's good to have some robust mix-ins to balance things out. Along with mayo, mustard, and seasonings, plenty of diced onion, capers, pickles, and sweet pickle relish are all great additions. Adding smoked paprika or curry powder can also add another dimension of flavor.

Does an avocado salad sandwich taste like an egg salad sandwich? No. But, does it hit some of the same rich, creamy notes? Absolutely. There are a few ways you can approach an avocado salad sandwich. You can totally mash the avocado and then add your mix-ins, focusing on crunchy veggies like onions and celery for texture. Or, chop avocado into rough chunks and combine it with mayo, mustard, seasonings, and your choice of veggies. Perhaps our favorite, though, is to half-mash the avocado, so that it has some creamy parts and some chunky parts, then mix through mayo and mustard. This gives you the most egg-like texture.

You can also choose to combine mashed chickpeas with mashed avocado. In this combination, the chickpeas are more like the egg and the avocado acts as a mayo substitute. This is a great combo if you don't have egg-free mayonnaise to hand — or if you just want to use more whole foods. You should be generous with seasonings, since avocado isn't naturally salty. Fresh herbs make a nice addition to this version, too.

Although eggs and potatoes are two very different ingredients, egg salad and potato salad have a lot in common. A classic potato salad recipe contains mustard and mayo as the dressing, and then people put their own twist on it with add-ins like pickles and onion. So, if you're looking for an eggless egg salad alternative, you might not have to look too far from home. Cooking your potatoes a little longer than usual or using a floury variety gives it a crumblier texture that's more akin to eggs.

Now, for anyone thinking that potato salad would make a weird sandwich filling, hold on a second. It's actually a Southern classic. Eating leftover potato salad inside two slices of white bread, with butter or mayo and a healthy grind of black pepper is part of the culinary repertoire of the American South, so don't knock it until you've tried it.

You could also attempt a sweet potato salad, which is much like a regular potato salad, but with sweet potatoes. A little extra acidity, for instance from pickles or a squeeze of lemon juice, can balance out the sweetness for a well-rounded filling.

For anyone out of the loop, Just Egg is a commercial egg alternative. It comes in a carton, where it can be used to make scrambled eggs or omelets, much like you would with whisked whole eggs. You can also buy it ready-made in omelet form from the freezer. Although it's not meant to replicate hard boiled eggs, it still makes a decent alternative in an egg salad.

If you use the kind that comes in a carton, start by scrambling it in a hot pan. This will give you a decent texture for making egg salad, especially if you try to keep the pieces small. If you use the ready-made kind, heat it according to the package directions before chopping it into chunks. Then, you just have to stir through mayonnaise, mustard, and your choice of extras.

There are other commercial egg products out there, but Just Egg is the most widely available in the United States. It's designed to have a similar taste and texture to egg, so even if it's more omelet-like, it works well as an alternative. Another option is to mix some scrambled Just Egg with mashed or crumbled tofu. The tofu will act as the egg white and the Just Egg as the yolk, making it a more well-rounded choice.

There are some obvious egg alternatives, but once you've exhausted those, it's time to think outside the box. No, it doesn't taste anything like eggs, but cauliflower can mimic their texturing, making it a great substitute. Once you've mixed it with vegan mayo and all the trimmings, you'll be wondering what all the fuss about eggs was in the first place.

Want to try a cauliflower salad? Chop a head of cauliflower into small pieces. Spread the pieces on a baking sheet, drizzle with oil, and roast at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30 to 40 minutes until lightly browned. Let it cool, then mix it with your other egg salad ingredients. Although you could cook the cauliflower in other ways, roasting it gives it a deeper flavor. Even if you think you're not a huge cauliflower fan, you might be surprised at how much you like it when it's roasted.

Make sure you season your cauliflower well. If you don't salt it enough, it won't bring a good amount of flavor to the finished dish. If you're looking to introduce some international flavors to your eggless egg salad, cauliflower pairs nicely with curry powder and garam masala.

Mash white beans and mix them with the classic egg salad ingredients and you have yourself a tasty sandwich filling. This is somewhat similar to chickpea salad, but the difference is in the texture. Chickpeas have a firmer, more robust texture than most readily available white beans. When you mash white beans, they're much creamier and almost dip-like.

You can make white bean salad with any white beans you like, but ones you'll usually find in supermarkets include butter beans, navy beans, and cannellini beans. You can use these beans straight out of the can — no need to cook them or even rinse them. Just drain off the liquid and you're good to go. Of course, if you want to cook your own beans from scratch, that's fine, too. It will give you more control over the texture and you can opt to use varieties you might not find in an average grocery store.

Because of the mushier, creamier texture of white beans compared to chickpeas, it's a good idea to have plenty of vegetables mixed in for texture. You have the classic choices, like pickles, onion, and celery, but you can also try bell peppers, grated carrot, and anything else with some bite to it. 

You might be looking for more lentil recipes. In which case, why not try a lentil salad instead of the standard egg version? Like many of the options on this list, it's not going to taste all that similar to egg, nor is the texture particularly similar. But, it still has the same vibe, thanks to the dressing and whatever extras you choose to add, such as vegetables and herbs. Plus, like eggs, lentils are protein-packed and filling.

For this kind of salad, you'll need whole lentils, such as green, brown, or puy lentils. Red lentils are split, rather than whole, meaning they've been removed from their skin. This means they go mushy when cooked and don't have the right texture to pull this off. The added bonus of using whole lentils is that you can buy them in cans, so there's no need to cook them from scratch. It's fine to leave all the lentils whole, but if you'd like some extra creaminess, mash some of the lentils and leave the rest.

Hearts of palm aren't a super common ingredient, so not everyone is familiar with them. For those not in the know, they're harvested from the growing buds and inner cores of certain palm trees. They look a bit like white asparagus and have a mild flavor that's not far off from artichoke hearts or water chestnuts. Since they don't assert themselves taste-wise, they can take on the other flavors of egg salad and make a decent substitute. Sometimes they're used as a veggie tuna salad alternative, but they also work in place of egg.

You'll usually find them sold in cans or jars at grocery stores, so you just need to drain them, chop them, and mix them with other egg salad ingredients. A little pinch of black salt helps with that eggy flavor. Another option is to mix chopped hearts of palm with mashed white beans or chickpeas. This may give you a more convincingly eggy texture than hearts of palm alone. Plus, the protein from the legumes will make it a more filling meal.

Smashed peas are a great egg salad alternative for anyone looking for something a bit different. When you make smashed pea salad, you're not going to be replicating the flavor of eggs. Rather, you're making a flavorful, protein-packed salad to serve in a sandwich or on lettuce or arugula. Don't see it as a like-for-like egg salad sub, but more as an alternative that fills the same void with a very different flavor profile.

To make a smashed pea mixture, you just need to take fresh or defrosted peas and blend them until they're mostly pureed but with a bit of texture remaining. You can mix them with mayonnaise, like you would classic egg salad, or just season them with salt, pepper, and herbs. The sweetness of the peas is particularly nice when balanced with an acidic ingredient, such as lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Smashed peas also makes a nice toast topping, and could be a more affordable alternative to avocado toast for breakfast or brunch. It's great topped off with some salty feta cheese and pickled red onions.

Did you know you can use gram flour to make egg-free omelets? This is another potential option for replacing egg in an egg salad. But, first, you might want to know more about gram flour, which is also known as chickpea flour or besan flour. If you're wondering what chickpea flour is, it's what it sounds like: a flour made out of chickpeas. It's used in traditional flatbreads, such as farinata from Northern Italy and socca from Southern France. However, more recently, people have been using it to make chickpea omelets.

These are made by mixing gram flour and water, along with basic seasonings like salt (or black salt). This mixture is then cooked on both sides in a skillet and what you're left with is an omelet alternative. But, how do you make this into egg salad? Well, once it has cooled, chop it or tear it into rough pieces. Mix these pieces with mayonnaise, mustard, and your pick of other add-ins and you have yourself an egg salad alternative. Just make sure to serve it right away because the dressing can absorb into the omelet if left to sit too long, making it soggy.

Butternut squash and other winter squash make a delicious sandwich filling and you can use this to your advantage. Mixed with vegan mayonnaise, mustard, and whatever extras you like, it's delicious stuffed in sandwiches or tossed with salad leaves. Does it taste anything like egg? Absolutely not. But it's tasty and filling, making it a good alternative for people who aren't in search of a direct replica. You can cube some of the squash and mash the rest to get a texture that's more similar to a classic egg salad. While steaming or boiling the squash will do the trick, you'll get the best flavor from roasting it.

Some people combine egg salad with winter squash in sandwiches. Obviously, this isn't particularly helpful if you're looking for an egg-free sandwich. However, it does open up your options. You could make a more realistic egg salad — such as one made with tofu, chickpeas, or Just Egg — and mix it with some chunks of roasted squash. The sweetness of the squash nicely balances the richness of the egg salad, and it makes a delicious autumnal meal.