Vegan Scotch eggs 🥚 with soft 'yolk'!
A beautiful vegan scotch egg looming out of the darkness. Served with piccalilli.
Vegan Scotch eggs
Scotch eggs are a traditional British snack, although their origin is debated. For those unfamiliar with them, the conventional recipe is a hard- or soft-boiled egg rolled in seasoned meat (usually pig flesh) that is breaded and fried. They are typically sold at pubs or pre-packed in supermarkets.
I must admit that as a child I scoffed quite a few of the supermarket variety. So for nostalgic reasons I decided to veganise the recipe after I discovered that the white from my Vegan Fried Egg recipe can also be adapted to make a hard-boiled vegan egg.
‘Soft-boiled’ vegan eggs
Rather than boiling the vegan egg we actually steam it in a silicone mould, as there is of course no shell. I use a silicone ice sphere mould (4.5 cm diameter spheres) for this, which has the added benefit of being useful beyond this one recipe, to make ice spheres.
In terms of ingredients, the only difference between the egg white in this recipe and that of the vegan fried egg recipe is a slight reduction in the amount of cornstarch used.
The yolk is once again based on my Vegan Yolk Sauce recipe. For this application I decided to add some pureed sweet potato to the sauce. This thickens the sauce to a soft-boiled yolk texture. Still slightly runny, but doesn’t leak out when you slice or bite into the Scotch egg.
Handle with care
Assembling the vegan eggs at the heart of this dish is truly an exercise in gentleness and dexterity. You must be careful when removing them from the mould, when slicing them in half, when scooping out a cavity for the yolk, when coating them and when frying them. The end product is relatively robust, though.
Vegan Scotch egg with a fool-proof runny yolk.
Recipe: Vegan Scotch eggs 🥚 with runny yolk
Makes 6 vegan Scotch eggs, with yolk sauce left over for dipping or making more vegan Scotch eggs or Vegan fried eggs.
The process is fun and simple enough but it does take time: total prep and cooking time is approx. 2 hours.
All measurements are level, using standardised measuring spoons and cups. Be precise!
Requirements
A silicone ice sphere mould with a 4.5 cm sphere diameter, see my recipe notes below for details. Usually comes with a little funnel to help with filling.
10 foldback clips (32mm) to keep the mould firmly sealed. Don’t use plastic clips as they will melt 😆
A steamer insert, ideally; other steaming devices may be trickier to use for this. Should be large enough to place the mould in.
A melon baller is ideal, not essential
Ingredients
YOLK
1 batch of vegan yolk sauce, we won’t use all of it
1 sweet potato
WHITE
⅔ cup soy cream, such as Alpro (not the light version)
+ more for brushing, see “other” ingredients below. One small carton (250ml) is enough for the whole recipe.
4 tsp neutral-tasting veg oil, such as groundnut oil
½ cup water, cold or room temperature
½ cup corn starch, AKA corn flour in the UK
4 tsp tapioca starch, AKA tapioca flour
SAUSAGE COATING
400g (2 packs) vegan minced meat from the brand Greenway
(This product is perfect as it has a sausage-meat flavour in line with the traditional recipe. Those outside of Belgium can use 400g vegan sausages with the casings removed.)
1 tsp finely chopped fresh sage (about 6 leaves)
1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme, stalks discarded
¼ tsp onion powder
a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper
BREADING AND FRYING
120 g dried breadcrumbs
⅓ cup soy cream, should be the amount left over from your 250 ml carton
vegetable oil, for frying
Instructions
Prepare the whites:
1. Add three cups of water to the pot you’ll use for steaming. Bring the water to the boil.
2. While you wait, whisk together the ingredients for the whites.
Ensure your mould is fully sealed and use foldback clips to keep it secured. Place the mould in your steamer insert and pour the mix into your six spheres using the funnel that came with your mould (or a kitchen syringe if you happen to have one).
Once the steam is billowing at full strength (please be careful not to burn yourself 🙈), add your steamer insert to the pot with the mould inside and place the lid on top. Wait 15 minutes before removing the steamer tray from the heat. Remove the lid and allow the steam to disperse fully.
Don’t open the mould yet.
When the mould is cool enough to touch, place in the freezer for about an hour to cool it down fully.
In the meantime, make the yolk:
3. Steam or boil 1 peeled, cubed sweet potato. Puree it in a mixing bowl using your immersion blender and set aside.
4. Make a batch of vegan yolk sauce following this quick and simple recipe.
5. Add to the mixing bowl containing the pureed sweet potato the same volume of vegan yolk sauce. Whisk to combine and add salt to taste. This mixture will be used to fill the egg whites.
You can use the remaining yolk sauce as a dip or dressing, or to make Vegan Fried Eggs, Vegan Egg Salad or more Vegan Scotch eggs.
Assemble the eggs:
6. After an hour in the freezer, the whites should have cooled all the way though. SLOWLY and carefully peel off the top part of the mould. Then run a thin knife around the circumference of each sphere. Carefully demould the spheres onto a plate, being careful not to push straight in the middle. Rather, stretch the mould around each sphere and apply even pressure across the entire sphere to release the egg white.
7. With a very sharp knife, cut each egg in half. Rinse the knife after each cut. Keep track of which halves belong together.
Using a ¼ tsp-sized measuring spoon or (ideally) a melon baller, scoop out a hemispherical hole from the middle of the flat side of each egg half. Fill each hole with vegan yolk and draw a flat knife over the hole to remove any excess sauce. Then put the two halves of each vegan egg back together.
Make the sausage coating:
8. In a mixing bowl, combine all the coating ingredients using your clean hands.
9. Divide the mixture into 6 equal balls. Take one ball at a time and flatten it evenly in the palm of your hand. Shape it into a tea-cup shape and place an egg in the centre. Close the coating around it without squeezing too hard, ensuring the egg is fully and evenly encapsulated. Smooth over any cracks. Do the same for all the eggs.
10. Add the remaining soy cream to a bowl with a pinch of salt. Then grab a plate and dump the breadcrumbs onto it.
Put one of the eggs in the bowl and coat it in cream (with the aid of a silicone brush if you have one). Then transfer it to the plate of breadcrumbs and heap the breadcrumbs all over it. Cup the breaded egg gently in your hands to make sure the breadcrumbs adhere properly. Then repeat the process to create two layers of breadcrumbs. Do the same for all the eggs.
11. If (like me) you don’t have a deep fryer, fill a tall, narrow saucepot with vegetable oil about as deep as your Scotch eggs are tall. If you don’t fill it high enough, the breadcrumb layer is more likely to crack due to the temperature difference. Get the oil very hot (a breadcrumb should fizzle excitedly when dropped in) before slowly lowering each Scotch egg into the pot with a slotted spoon. Fry only one or two at a time.
Fry until golden-brown. Place on a plate lined with a clean kitchen cloth or kitchen paper.
Serve hot or cold with a salad and/or piccalilli. I personally prefer them cold. Perfect picnic food!
Tips 💡
Demoulding disaster? Don’t despair!
If you are unfortunate enough to break one or more of the whites when demoulding them, don’t despair! You can still make vegan egg salad out of them: simply chop them up and add a tsp of yolk sauce per egg white.
Cheat mode: activated
You can even make bite-size scotch eggs with the egg salad; grab a small ball of the ‘sausage’ mixture, make an indent in it with your thumb, then fill it with egg salad and close it over. Then finish it the same way you would a full-sized one! This approach is a lot more forgiving and perfect for party snacks.
Notes 📒
Sphere size
Spheres should be 4.5 to 5 cm in diameter. I used a 4.5 cm diameter ice sphere mould, so you may have to steam the whites a minute or two longer if using a 5 cm mould.
Type of mould
The most common type of ice sphere mould is in the form of a tray, with a top part and a bottom part. However, the seal between the top and bottom is usually not strong enough, so some of the mixture inevitably leaks into the middle – no matter how you fill it – leaving empty space inside the spheres. I improved the situation by clipping the mould shut like this, but it’s still not perfect. A mould like this might work better, but I haven’t tried it.
Vegan minced meat
The vegan ‘pork’ minced meat you use should be the kind that is malleable, not the dry crumbly kind. I used a product from the Belgian brand Greenway. For those outside of Belgium, you can simply remove the casing from 400 g of vegan sausages.
Excess yolk sauce
Keep the remaining yolk sauce to make Vegan egg salad, more vegan Scotch eggs or my Vegan Fried Egg recipe. Alternatively you can use it as a dressing or dipping sauce.