Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

I was lucky enough to be sent some of the new Crackd to try, it’s a vegan egg replacer than can be used to replace eggs in recipes, and can be cooked like egg too. So you can use it in your baking for cakes or cookies, or in savoury foods like Yorkshire puddings. It can also be used to make scrambled eggs, omelettes, frittatas, quiches and more. I really enjoyed cooking with it, so I wanted to share some of the things I’ve been making

I used recipes on the Crackd website to create these, so if you want to check those out you can click HERE . You can buy Crackd online from The Vegan Kind Supermarket HERE or from selected M&S branches as of next week

First Up, Vegan Scrambled “Eggs”

For one large serving you’ll need;

1. 180g Crackd
2. A couple of teaspoons of oil
3. Black salt, black pepper and smoked paprika to taste

Method;

• Start by heating the oil in a frying pan over a high heat. Pour the Crackd into the pan, it should start to bubble
• Keep stirring and you should see it start to come together and look more like scrambled “eggs”
• At this point you can turn the heat down to medium, and keep stirring as it cooks
• Once the “egg” has firmed up it’s ready to serve
• To add an extra eggy flavour I seasoned with black salt (aka kala namak) instead of table salt, along with black pepper and smoked paprika

The “eggs” were so good! They’re soft and the texture is just like egg. I’ve tried making scrambled “eggs” with a few different egg replacers, but this is by far the best I’ve tried

I also halved what I used above to have the “eggs” as part of a cooked breakfast. You can serve the “egg” along with mock meats (I made some fried seitan) beans, fried mushrooms, etc. Anything you fancy

Next, Quiches

Again I started with the quiche recipe from the Crackd website, and amended it slightly to account for my quiche tin being larger than the one stated in their recipe. Check out their recipe HERE

I went for a quiche Lorraine to start with, which worked really well. The recipe calls for Mediterranean vegetables, which I swapped for plant based bacon and sautéed onions

For the next quiche I went with a Mediterranean vegetable quiche

For this you’ll need;

1. 375g ready rolled shortcrust pastry
2. 400g Crackd
3. 130ml vegan cream
4. 300g cooked Mediterranean vegetables, I used a mix of courgette, yellow pepper, garlic, red onion and mushroom
5. Half a teaspoon of both dried basil and dried oregano
6. Salt and black pepper to taste
7. Three thinly sliced spring onions

Method;

• Start by cooking your vegetables. You can roast, grill or fry them. I opted for frying them in a teaspoon of oil over a medium heat, until they were soft. Then you can set them aside
• Now move on to the quiche. Start by lining an 11 inch quiche tin with the pastry. Mine was non-stick, but if yours isn’t you may want to grease it
• Place some greaseproof paper onto the pastry, pour over a layer of either baking beans, dried chickpeas or dried beans
• Blind bake the pastry at 200°C/180°C fan assisted for 20 minutes. Once it’s baked carefully remove the baking paper and beads/chickpeas/beans
• Add the Crackd, cream, cooked vegetables and herbs into a mixing bowl. Season with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Pour the mix into the pastry and sprinkle over the spring onion
• Bake the quiche at 180°C/160°C fan assisted for 40-45 minutes

Again, the texture is just perfect. The quiches were lovely hot or cold, and made for a lovely lunch

Finally, Vegan Egg & Cheese Toastie

To make one sandwich you’ll need;

1. One teaspoon of oil
2. 120ml Crackd
3. Black pepper and smoked paprika to taste (optional)
4. Two pieces of bread
5. A little dairy spread
6. Two slices (around 50g) of vegan cheese

Method;

• Start by cooking the Crackd, in the same way as I mentioned above for the scrambled “eggs”. Once you’ve cooked it, take a food container (that’s roughly the same shape as the bread you’re using) and brush a little oil on the inside of it
• Pop the cooked Crackd into the container, and press it down so it’s in an even layer, like you’re making an “egg” patty. Put it in the fridge while you prepare the sandwich
• Next take the bread and butter the outsides with the spread, these are the sides that will come into contact with the pan
• Place one piece of bread, spread side down, into a frying pan over a medium heat. Top the bread with once slice of cheese, then take the egg out of the container (if you use a spatula it should slide out easily). Top the cheese with the “egg”, top the “egg” with black pepper and smoked paprika if using. Finally top the “egg” with the final piece of cheese, and the other piece of bread, spread side up
• Leave the sandwich and allow the bread underneath to toast, and the cheese to melt. After four or five minutes it should be ready to flip. If the sandwich releases from the frying pan easily, it’s ready to flip
• Flip the sandwich and give it another three or four minutes for the other side to toast
• Once the bread is nicely toasted, and the cheese has melted it’s ready to serve. I ate mine with some ketchup

Crackd worked so well as a breakfast sandwich! I’ve made these sorts of sandwiches with tofu as the “egg” but this absolutely blows them away. It’s much more similar to egg than tofu is, and once it’s paired with melted dairy free cheese between toasted bread it’s just perfect

Disclaimer – I was sent Crackd for free, but I am under no obligations to post and all opinions expressed are my own