Vegan Egg Salad made with tofu and a creamy dijon mustard dressing is a simple and quick lunch that tastes like the real thing!
The key to making this vegan egg salad recipe is to use dijon mustard paired with vinegar, and turmeric. The dijon mustard and vinegar give this salad a distinct eggy flavor, while the turmeric provides a bright yellow color.
This simple recipe is great to make when you’re doing your meal prep! Put it between two slices of bread for a sandwich, or toss it on top of your salad for a boost of protein and flavor.
You can also make simple no yeast flatbreads to create a wrap sandwich!
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👩🍳 Why This Recipe Works
- Simple Ingredients
- Vegan and Gluten-Free (without the bread)
- Whole Food Plant-Based
- Quick and Easy Recipe
- Tastes like the real thing!
- Makes a great pack and go lunch!
- Perfect for picnics!
🥘 Ingredients and Notes
Extra Firm Tofu: Be sure to use extra-firm tofu, not silken tofu. It’s also a good idea to press your tofu before cutting it into small cubes so that the vegan egg salad doesn’t get wet and soggy.
Raw Cashews: Soaking the cashews and blending them with the other ingredients creates a creamy dairy-free base for this dressing.
Aquafaba: Aquafaba is the liquid from canned chickpeas. If you do not have a can of chickpeas to drain in order to get the aquafaba, you can substitute the aquafaba for water. So instead, of a ¼ cup of water use a ½ cup of water.
Turmeric: Gives the dressing for this salad its yellow hue to resemble egg yolks.
📖 Variations and Substitutions
More Crunch: There are many different flavor combinations or other elements of crunch you can add to your egg salad such as chopped celery or red onion for more crunch.
Add Fresh Herbs: Add fresh dill, chopped chives, or green onions for an herbal flavor.
Sub the Cashews: If you don’t have cashews, you can use a vegan mayo to achieve the creamy dressing texture.
More Spices: Then add kala namak otherwise known as black salt (which is actually pink in color) for flavors that are distinctly eggy.
📋 Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: Soak the cashews in water overnight. If you don’t have time to soak overnight, place the raw cashews in a saucepan and cover them with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 10 minutes.
*Note: If you do not have a high-speed blender you can instead grind your cashews using a coffee grinder. In this case, you do not need to soak the cashews before grinding them.
Step 2: While cashews are simmering, press your tofu using a tofu press, or place the tofu between paper towels, and place a heavy pot with books or cand to make it heavier.
Step 3: While tofu is pressing, make the dressing. Drain cashews from boiling water. Add to a high-speed blender. Add lemon juice, white vinegar, dijon mustard, aquafaba, water, a pinch of salt, a ¼ teaspoon of pepper, and turmeric. Blend until completely smooth.
Step 4: Dice onion. Remove tofu from the press, and chop the tofu into small cubes.
Step 5: Add chopped tofu to the mixing bowl. Press a dry paper towel over top to soak up any remaining water. Add chopped onions, and pour dressing over top. Gently fold the dressing into the tofu. Careful not to stir too vigorously and break up the tofu chunks.
Step 6: Serve on two pieces of whole wheat bread or bread of choice. Top with spinach, lettuce, and/or tomatoes. Slice in half and enjoy! This recipe makes 4 whole sandwiches.
❓ Recipe FAQS
The dressing is made with a combination of dijon mustard, vinegar, aquafaba (liquid from a can of chickpeas), soaked cashews, turmeric, salt, and pepper.
This vegan egg salad will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days. Store in an airtight container.
There are many ways you can serve this vegan egg salad. Choose your favorite toppings such as tomato, lettuce, pickles, sliced cucumbers, capers, or olives.
1. Between two slices of bread
2. Make into a wrap with flour or corn tortillas.
3. Serve with large leaves of lettuce for a low-carb lettuce wrap.
4. Place a scoop on top of your favorite salad!
There are only 190 calories, 12 grams of fat, and 12 grams of protein, and 202 mg of sodium. To reduce the overall sodium, cut the amount of salt you use in half. I recommend using cashews, not vegan mayonnaise, as they are a natural way to add creaminess to the dressing without the need for oil.
💭 Expert Tips
- Be sure to press your tofu before chopping. This gives the tofu a nice firm texture. It also keeps your egg salad from becoming too watery. I recommend pressing your tofu for a minimum of 20 minutes.
- Boil or grind your cashews so that they blend easily. If you have a high-speed blender boil cashews for 10 minutes. If you do not have a high-speed blender use a coffee grinder to grind you cashews to a fine powder.
- To easily chop the tofu, cut into think strips along the wide side, flip and cut thin strips along the shorter/thinner side. Then dice into small cubes.
- If dressing is too thick when blended add an additional tablespoon of water or aquafaba until you reach your desired consistency.
- Use a high fiber bread when making your vegan egg salad sandwich to help you stay feeling fuller longer.
🥪 More vegan salad and sandwich recipes!
If you made this recipe, please leave a ⭐️ rating below, and let me know how it turned out! You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for more family-friendly plant-based vegan recipes!
Vegan Egg Salad with Tofu
Ingredients
- 1 block of firm tofu drained and pressed
- ½ cup raw cashews soaked and drained
- 1 white onion small
- ¼ cup aquafaba drained liquid from can of chickpeas
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- 1 cup fresh leaf spinach
- 8 slices whole wheat bread or other bread of choice
Instructions
- Soak the cashews. Place raw cashews in saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 10 minutes. *Note: If you do not have a high speed blender you can instead grind your cashews using a coffee grinder. In this case you do not need to soak the cashews before grinding them.
- While cashews are simmering, press your tofu. Drain water from the tofu packaging. Fold two paper towels and place on a plate. Put tofu on top of paper towels, and then fold two additional paper towels to place on top of the tofu. The tofu block will be sandwiched between the layers of paper towels. Next place a heavy pan on top of the tofu block. Then add a few heavy cans from your pantry to place inside the pan. Allow tofu to press for 20 minutes. If you have a tofu press, you can use that instead of following these steps.
- While tofu is pressing, make the dressing. Drain cashews from boiling water. Add to high speed blender. Add lemon juice, white vinegar, dijon mustard, aquafaba, water, salt, pepper, and turmeric. Blend until smooth and cashew pieces are completely combined. If dressing is too thick add a tablespoon of water or aquafaba until you reach your desired consistency.
- Dice onion and chop pressed tofu. Remove tofu from press. Chop tofu into small pieces. To do this I but the tofu into thin slices, then flip so that the short side of the tofu block is on the cutting board and make thin slices going the other direction. Then chop into small cubes.
- Add chopped tofu to mixing bowl. Press a dry paper towel over top to soak up any remaining water. Add chopped onions, and pour dressing over top. Gently fold the dressing into the tofu. Careful not to stir too vigorously and break up the tofu chunks.
- Serve on two pieces of whole wheat bread or bread of choice. Top with spinach, lettuce, and/or tomatoes. Slice in half and enjoy! This recipe makes 4 whole sandwiches.
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Notes
- Be sure to press your tofu before chopping. This gives the tofu a nice firm texture. It also keeps your egg salad from becoming too watery. I recommend pressing your tofu for a minimum of 20 minutes.
- Boil or grind your cashews so that they blend easily. If you have a high-speed blender boil cashews for 10 minutes. If you do not have a high-speed blender use a coffee grinder to grind your cashews to a fine powder.
- To easily chop the tofu, cut into think strips along the wide side, flip and cut thin strips along the shorter/thinner side. Then dice into small cubes.
- If dressing is too thick when blended add an additional tablespoon of water or aquafaba until you reach your desired consistency.
- Keeps for up to 4 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
My family lives egg sandwich and love this idea coz I always have tofu in my fridge! Definitely making this tommorow.
Such an easy delicious lunch! I love egg salad but I’m intolerant of eggs, so this made me day! Thanks!
I have been trying out new vegan recipes on the family slowly trying to move them to a plant-based lifestyle. I’m glad I found this recipe because the boys love egg salad and if it tastes like to real thing it’s going to be awesome!!! I’m super excited to see how they react to it. It sure does look close to the real thing!
Easy to make meals are a must right now. I could eat a sandwich any time of the day. This looks delicious.
This looks great. So many times there is that never ending question… “what to eat for lunch???”. I will be trying this soon!