Just because her diet is plant-based, that doesn’t mean hot for food blog’s Lauren Toyota eschews comfort food. In fact, she couldn’t live without it.
For Chatelaine’s video series, Vegan It! with Lauren Toyota, the former MuchMusic VJ and current YouTube star and cookbook author demonstrates how to create vegan versions of everyone’s favourite comfort classics — like grilled cheese and caesar salad — without elaborate recipes or compromising on taste.
Vegan Mac And Cheese! How To Make The Classic Comfort Food Without Any Dairy
In this Vegan It! episode:
Lauren whips up a fluffy, filling and eggy omelette. Here are her tricks for:
Finding an egg substitute
When making vegan comfort food, Toyota replicates the flavours and textures of meat, egg and dairy-filled recipes. But her dishes also have to look like their conventional counterparts. To replace eggs in her omelette, Toyota uses chickpea flour (which also adds additional protein), nutritional yeast and turmeric for their bright yellow colour — these powders also act as flavour enhancers.
Making the vegan omelette fluffy
Instead of whisking or beating eggs, Toyota mixes together vegan pantry staples, such as medium firm tofu, non-dairy milk, nutritional yeast, tapioca starch (as a binder) and a bunch of spices in a high-speed blender. This gives her batter an airy consistency so it has a similar texture to eggs when cooked.
Plain omelettes are fine, but nothing beats one that's stuffed with veggies and cheese. Toyota fills hers with sauteed mushrooms and green onions as well as vegan cheddar cheese, but says you can get creative with your toppings — as long as they're plant-based.
MAKES: 2 large omelettes
PREP TIME: 20 minutes
COOK TIME: 35 minutes
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