This salad is a lovely and much healthier alternative to traditional egg salad. Why that is so you will be able to read below the recipe.
Delicious on wholemeal bread, wholemeal toast or multigrain crackers.
A mild and protein-rich sandwich filling
Ingredients:
- 200 to 250 g firm tofu
- 250 to 350 g silken tofu
- a bunch of spring onions or a small yellow or red onion
- 5 to 6 pickled gherkins, from a jar
- 2 up to 3 stalks of green or white celery
- a teaspoon of turmeric
- onion powder or onion flakes, one teaspoon
- a teaspoon of garlic powder
- half to a full teaspoon of kala namak salt or herb salt
- a generous amount of black pepper to taste
- a teaspoon of mustard
- one to two teaspoons of cider vinegar
- fresh green herbs such as dill or parsley, if desired
Here is how you fix this:
This salad is really quick to make.
- Finely chop the spring onion, celery, gherkins and fresh herbs.
- Break up or mash the firm tofu with a fork, then mix it with the silken tofu.
- Add all the spices, salt and pepper to the tofu and mix well.
- Add the chopped vegetables and fresh herbs and mix well.
- Transfer to one or more sealable glass containers.
And that’s it!
Tip: You can also simply use iodised sea salt, herb salt or Himalayan salt instead of kala namak. Kala namak is a mineral salt from Asia that has a sulphurous aroma strongly reminiscent of the taste of boiled eggs. This light, protein-rich and healthy salad will keep for up to a week in the fridge in a sealed container. It tastes exceptionally delicious and refreshing during the warmer months.
The typical lunch in many companies
In Belgium, many people who are at work during the day eat a lunch of filled rolls.
Even when companies organise lunch meetings, rolls or sandwiches are often provided. These rolls or sandwiches are traditionally filled with one of the following:
- ham
- cheese
- ham and cheese
- américain (strongly spiced raw beef)
- mayonnaise-based salads, such as: fish salad, tuna salad, egg salad, meat salad, chicken salad and so on
What exactly is wrong with these salads?
The mayonnaise-based salads available in shops and in the catering sector leave a great deal to be desired in terms of quality and health. To cut costs, it is mainly salted and seasoned mayonnaise that is served, whilst the other ingredients of animal origin are kept to a minimum. So you often find yourself faced with a sea of mayonnaise with the odd piece of meat, fish or egg floating here and there. Mayonnaise is made from eggs and vegetable oil. As a result, it is very high in calories and cholesterol, whilst being low in nutrients with real nutritional value.
Why eat fewer eggs?
When I myself made the transition from omnivore to a fully plant-based diet, eggs were pretty much the last thing I cut out of my diet. I did enjoy omelettes and fried eggs, but I was far less keen on (hard) boiled eggs. Eggs seemed completely harmless to me, because you don’t have to kill an animal for them. Until I started to look into the matter in more depth, including taking a peek behind the scenes of the egg industry.
We take it for granted that a hen will lay about one egg a day in 2026. Yet hens have been selectively bred for this purpose for a century. Because around 1915, a hen laid an average of only about 25 eggs … per year! And that’s understandable. No female animal reproduces non-stop throughout her entire life. It simply follows the seasons, with long periods during which the organism rests.
An exhausting feat of strength
It’s just that we humans have, as it were, ‘converted’ the laying hen and bred it into an egg-laying machine. If you consider the nutritional value and the raw materials that make up a chicken’s egg, it is an enormous, exhausting feat of strength for such a frail bird to produce one every day. Just think of the large amount of proteins, fats and minerals (such as the calcium in the eggshell) that make up an egg.
If only we, as humans, could at least show – let alone feel – a modicum of gratitude for the gift of such an egg … But no. The average laying hen – or rather, ‘egg-laying machine’ – spends her miserable existence in the hell of an intensive poultry farm (a battery cage).
Ethically and ecologically irresponsible
There she sits, crammed together with her fellow sufferers in a tiny space, amidst the stench of droppings and the noise, whilst the artificial light never goes out. She has no freedom or space whatsoever to display normal chicken behaviour, such as spreading her wings or taking dust baths in sand.
After about a year and a half, she is inexorably sent to the abattoir, where her life is brutally cut short. And this despite the fact that a hen can normally live for up to 18 years. That is, ethically speaking, totally wrong. A living creature reduced to less than a production machine.
Who fancies an egg now? I certainly don’t anymore.
Even those who focus solely on figures will still have to admit that the environmental impact of chicken farming is still considerably greater than that of producing plant-based protein sources. Take beans, for example.
Fork Ranger and the hard data
What is true, however, is that the ecological footprint (water consumption, energy consumption, CO₂ emissions) of chicken farming is much lower than that of cattle farming. So, for those who don’t want to give up meat but are considering cutting down on it: put that beef aside and opt for chicken instead of beef or other ruminant mammals such as sheep, buffalo or goat.
An interesting source of information on the environmental impact of reducing meat and other animal products can be found at Fork Ranger. They have a website, an app and a number of multilingual publications, such as a cookbook and a seasonal calendar. However, these guys and girls couldn’t care less about animal welfare. They’re just cool number-crunchers. Still, they help put certain things into perspective and debunk false myths. As a result, their approach also helps to convince people and thus reduce meat consumption. Every little bit helps.