Flax eggis an egg substitute, made from ground flaxseeds (also called linseeds) and water. It’s suitable for egg-free, vegan, gluten-free, paleo and low-carb cooking. Flaxseeds are healthy, high in fibre, protein and Omega-3 fatty acids. They help with digestion too. When mixed with liquid, ground flaxseeds become a very good binding agent, similar to egg.

How to make Flax egg

You’ll just need ground flaxseed and lukewarm water. This is the recipe for one Flax egg:

1. Grind some flax seeds in coffee grinder, then measure out 1 Tbsp.
2. In a small bowl mix the ground flaxseed with 3 Tbsp of lukewarm water, then rest for about 10-15 minutes to thicken. When you get a thick, slimy paste, it’s ready to use it as a substitute for one egg.

If the recipe needs more eggs, then double, triple and so on the amount of the ground flaxseed and water!

Tips

• Flaxseeds have a slight nutty taste, if you don’t like that, use chia seeds instead, which work just as well and milder (but much more expensive).
• Flax seeds come in two colours – light or dark brown. Both are suitable for flax egg, the darker ones taste a bit more nutty and obviously make the food darker.
• It’s important to make your flax-egg fresh, even the flaxseed grinding. Try not to use shop-bought ground flaxseed (called flax meal). If you grind flax seeds in advance or you have some leftover – always keep it in an airtight container in the fridge, and use it up in a couple of days because the fatty acid in the ground seeds quickly deteriorates. Also, flaxseed contains cyanogenic glycosides which release toxic hydrogen cyanide in the presence of water –  but you’ll need to eat a lot of it to develop either acute or chronic cyanide toxicity. Read more>>
• Flax egg works very well in waffles, pancakes, muffins, certain cakes, fritters, brownies, cookies, burgers, meatballs, scones etc.
• Flax egg can work in gluten-free recipes too, combined with ground almond, oatmeal, chickpea flour, rice flour and some gluten-free flour mixture.
• Always combine flax egg with the other ingredients using a wooden spoon not a mixer.
• Flax egg cannot be used as an egg substitute in everything. For example you cannot use it in omelette, frittata, custard or flourless cakes. It cannot be whipped like egg whites either, so it’s not suitable for sponge cakes, soufflé and so on. Try aquafaba for replacing egg whites.

Recipes with flax egg

• Healthy banana bread
• Spiced spelt cookies
• Baked pork meatballs
• Vegan almond pancakes
• Vegan and gluten-free waffle
• Vegan oat and almond waffles
• Black bean falafels
• Authentic falafel
• Vegan gluten-free carrot cake
• Vegan peach puff tarts
• Spiced jackfruit patties
• Vegan jackfruit and courgette burger
• Jackfruit and spinach burger
• Zesty jackfruit fishcakes
• Vegan pumpkin cookies
• Vegan black bean and roasted pepper burger
• Vegan upside blood orange and walnut cake
• Vegan xmas banana bread
• Vegan orange and almond pancake