The more time I spend in the kitchen, the more I realize how much I love adapting recipes. And, if there’s one person who has experience with adapting to special diets, it’s me. Therefore, today I’m going to show you how to make a cornerstone of vegan and gluten-free recipe adaptations: the flax tapioca egg.

When I was in grad school and became vegan, a lot of my friends wondered why I would subject myself to adapting recipes for both gluten-free (by necessity) and vegan (by choice) diets. I pondered this for a while. And it’s true. Most people don’t have the time to figure out how to adapt traditional recipes for special diets, and this provides a huge barrier to entry for those who, like me, absolutely need to alter their diet for health reasons, or even for those who just want to experiment for fun.

If I only achieve one thing as a result of this blog, I hope I can help remove some of those barriers for you all and make it possible for you to eat widely without drastically altering your day-to-day culinary routine.

Today’s flax tapioca egg recipe:

So, today we’re going to talk about the flax egg, which is a huge vegan hack for an egg replacer. Most vegans will recognize the flax egg. It’s been around for a while and has been widely used, but it’s honestly an imperfect replacement.

Real eggs provide a lot of different things for your food. First, they act as a binder for all the ingredients in your recipe. You honestly can’t find a better binder than an egg. They can also act as a kind of leavening agent, adding some puff and texture to your dishes.

When you soak flaxseed meal in water, the seeds will expand (to provide the puffiness) and start to form a gel-like consistency that will actually remind you of an egg. However, flaxseed and water just don’t have the stickability of an egg on their own.

Enter tapioca starch…

I was introduced to tapioca starch back when I first became gluten free. You’ll find it in a lot of GF recipes. It helps create a spongey, glutinous texture where there is no gluten. It can also be very sticky, thus making it a good binding ingredient.

I’d been using regular flax eggs in my recipes (with just the flax and water) for years, noticing that they worked well as an egg replacer in some recipes but not in others. Then, I thought of tapioca starch. Maybe the combined sticking powers of flax and tapioca would yield a better result.

Guess what? They did! I’ve had great success using this flax tapioca egg in everything from veggie burgers, vegan meatloaf, sweet treats, and even pastas! They’re a lifesaver and they just take five minutes to whip together. Pro Tip: Bob’s Red Mill makes the best and most affordable natural grains, in my opinion.

See the quick recipe below and check out the video to learn this no-fail tool for your vegan and GF kitchen arsenal.

I’d absolutely love to know what you make with your tapioca flax eggs, so be sure to leave a comment or rating below. 🙂

Happy cooking/baking/experimenting!