Vegan Eggs Benedict
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The iconic brunch dish gets a VEGAN MAKEOVER! In 30 minutes you can have a rich and decadent hollandaise sauce, a runny “egg” yolk, and can enjoy this comfort food classic in style!
Eggs Benedict was one of my favorite breakfasts of all time. In fact, it was my go-to order anytime I went out for brunch or breakfast on the weekends. There’s a place in LA called Nick’s Cafe, and every weekend they served up a bunch of different kinds of benedicts, and I absolutely LOVED them!
why you’ll love vegan eggs benedict
I like this vegan eggs benedict just as much as the ones I used to eat. If only for the fact that when I’m done eating it, I don’t feel like I just shoveled a bunch of bricks into my stomach. As delicious as those bennys were, they were a gut punch.
I usually needed a nap afterward! But with this vegan eggs benedict that isn’t an issue! In fact I went on a nice Sunday stroll after eating one of these!
This vegan version is A LOT easier to make than a traditional one. We don’t need to worry about poaching eggs, or making the very delicate hollandaise sauce either!
And for me, the best part of this Vegan Eggs Benedict is the runny YOLK SAUCE! Something that’s usually missing in these recipes.
ingredients for vegan eggs benedict
the tofu egg
For the “egg” I’m using our good buddy tofu. I wanted to keep this simple, and tofu works out great for that.
the hollandaise
For the Hollandaise, we’ll be employing a cashew based sauce that is way easier to make than a traditional hollandaise sauce, and it’s just as rich and decadent!
We’ll also use the usual suspects like nutritional yeast, lemon juice, vegan butter, and cayenne. If you can get it, I highly recommend buying some lactic acid! It’s one of my favorite ingredients for anything savory or tangy and it does a fantastic job in the hollandaise.
We’ll also employ some black salt (kala namak). This will give the sauce a slight eggy flavor. It’s not super necessary in the hollandaise, but I do recommend using it in the egg yolk sauce for sure.
the vegan egg yolk
This sauce for this recipe was inspired by THIS ONE by my friend Jonathan at Ticho’s Table. He uses ketchup and mustard in his, which sounds odd. But a lot of vegan egg yolk recipes use tomato for it’s color and umami flavor. And mustard adds some nice flavor as well as some emulsion.
But this Vegan Yolk Sauce is super easy to whip up and you can use it in my Fried Egg or Huevos Rancheros as well!
the ham & english muffins
Most store-bought English muffins are accidentally plant based! Just check the ingredients and you should be good.
For the ham, I was lazy and just used some store-bought stuff by Yves. You can use whatever you have access to, or make some from scratch. My friend Mike at Bold Flavor Vegan has some recipes for vegan ham as well.
You can also use my Rice Paper Bacon recipe. It’s super easy, and in fact, I think I liked it better in this scenario. You can make a West Coast Benedict like the one below!
how to make vegan eggs benedict
There are a few components to this, but they are all pretty simple to put together.
The Hollandaise sauce is unbelievably easy to make! All we need to do is soak some cashews in boiling water for about 15 minutes. Then we’ll simply blend them up with some plant-milk and seasonings! That’s it! No double boiler or worrying about the perfect emulsion.
If you have any leftover hollandaise, just store it in the fridge. It will thicken up a lot. I don’t recommend microwaving it to reheat as this can cause it to get lumpy. Instead, just gently reheat it in a saucepan over medium low heat and whisk.
You might want to add a little plant milk if it’s still too thick. But once it’s heated up it will return to its former silky glory!
Speaking of emulsion, that’s exactly what we need to do with the yolk sauce. It’s mostly water and oil, and then a bunch of seasonings. I like to use my immersion blender to mix it up. You can use a normal blender, but you’ll need to drizzle the oil in slowly to emulsify it.
We’re also adding some cornstarch to thicken it. Once it’s blended, simply heat it over medium low just until it thickens. Then remove it from the heat and add some black salt for eggy flavor.
If your emulsion does break, don’t sweat it! Simply add it back to a blender and blend until smooth again. For leftovers, just gently reheat it again in a saucepan. Be careful not to overheat as this is what causes the emulsion to break.
Next for the vegan egg, get a block of tofu. I prefer super firm (which needs no pressing) or extra firm that’s been pressed for 30 minutes. Then slice it into about 3/4″ slices. You should be able to get 2-3 slices per block.
Next we’ll cut out a cylinder using a cookie cutter. We’ll then take a smaller cookie cutter and cut out the middle. This will create a tofu donut (or tonut as I call it).
You will have a lot of tofu scraps, but that’s okay! You can crumble them up and use them in a Tofu Scramble or some Tofu Ground Beef!
If you want to cook and season your tofu, I suggest doing that before you cut out the hole in the middle. The tonut can be a little fragile, and moving it around too much might cause it to fall apart.
Either way, we’ll fill the hole up with our egg yolk sauce. Then using some of the tonut hole (the smaller cylinder we are cutting out to create space for the yolk), slice off a little bit and put that on top of the egg yolk.
This is to protect the yolk from spilling out when we top it with the hollandaise sauce. I gotta say, having the runny yolk along with the hollandaise sauce really sold me on this recipe! It was the one thing missing in my past attempts.
Top it with some chives and cayenne and dig in!
variations
The classic benedict is great, but there’s a bunch of variations out there! Like the West Coast pictured here. It features tomato, avocado and some vegan bacon. There’s also a Florentine which is sauteed spinach (and sometimes tomato too). Honestly, you can top it with anything, so get creative and have fun.
storage & reheating
Simply store any leftover sauces in the fridge. Gently reheat them in a saucepan on low heat. Do not microwave them as they can get clumpy and lose their emulsion. Use within 3-4 days.
handy dandy video here!
other recipes you’ll dig
Vegan Eggs Benedict
Ingredients
- English Muffins
- Vegan Ham
- Paprika & Chives (for garnish)
Tofu Egg
- 2 blocks of Super or Extra Firm Tofu
Yolk Sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup neutral flavored oil
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 Tbsp ketchup
- 1 Tbsp yellow mustard
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 - 2 tsp MSG
- Salt to taste
- 1/4 tsp black salt (or to taste)
Hollandaise Sauce
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 3/4 - 1 cup unsweetened plant milk
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 - 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/2 cup vegan butter (melted)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp ground mustard powder
- 1/4 tsp lactic acid (or more lemon juice)
- Dash of cayenne
- 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
- 1/4 tsp black salt (or to taste)
Instructions
Hollandaise Sauce
- Soak the cashews in boiling water for about 15 minutes. While they soak, add the rest of the ingredients to a high speed blender. Once cashews have soaked, drain them and add them to the blender. Blend until smooth. Add more plant milk if it's too thick, but just add a tablespoon or 2 at a time so you don't thin it out too much. Taste and adjust for seasoning, that's it!
Yolk Sauce
- Add all the ingredients but the black salt to an immersion blender cup. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth and emulsified. Alternatively you can use a regular blender. But slowly stream in the oil as the blender runs to create the emulsion.
- Add the sauce to a saucepan and gently heat over medium low until the cornstarch is activated and thickens the sauce. Remove from heat and add in the black salt. Taste and adjust for seasoning. If your emulsion breaks you can simply blend it up again.
Tofu Egg
- If using extra firm tofu, press it for 30 minutes.
- Slice each block of tofu into 3/4" slices. You should be able to slice it into 2 - 3 slices.
- Using a cookie cutter, cut out as many egg sized sections as possible. Save the scraps for another recipe. If cooking tofu, do so now and season to taste. Then using a smaller cookie cutter, cut out a hole in the center of each tofu egg. This is where our yolk sauce will go when we assemble the benedict. Your tofu should look like donuts now. Take the donut "holes" and slice off a small disc. We'll use this on top of the yolk sauce to seal it inside the tofu egg so it doesn't spill out when we add the hollandaise sauce.
Eggs Benedict
- Toast or grill your english muffins and vegan ham to desired browning. Then top each muffin with vegan ham, and then a tofu egg. Drizzle in about 1-2 Tbsp of the yolk sauce into the tofu egg hole. Then top the sauce with the little tofu discs you cut out from the tofu holes.
- Pour over as much hollandaise sauce as you'd like. Then top with paprika or cayenne and some chopped chives or parsley and ENJOY!
Skip to Recipe
This recipe is THE DUPE. DUUUPEEE!!
Eggs Benny has been my vegan Moby Dick— so many places/blogs get it wrong, it’s THE breakfast food I’ve missed the most, and the creamy, tangy hollandaise sauce impossible to replicate… UNTIL NOW!
This is a legit review. I’ve made this 5 times already. It’s so good. I omit black salt cause I don’t want my food to taste/smell like farts but trust me. This IS the Benny you’ve been looking for.
Haha, yes my wife hates black salt too! Glad you found a benny recipe that hits the notes!! Appreciate the feedback!
Will it still work/taste good without the message my family members don’t like using it?
MSG? Yes will still be good!
This is one of my house hold’s favorite weekend breakfasts! I usually don’t bother cutting out an egg shape from the tofu, but just pan frying a rectangle of medium firm tofu (my preference for egg texture) on one side, adding a blob of the “yolk” and then the hollandaise. It’s not as egg-sthetic, but it gets it on the table faster!
I’m not much of a recipe user, but this is one of the few I follow to a T!
Awesome, I love this one too! Glad you like it and that it’s in the rotation!