Redroaster launches their Tofaux vegan egg

Tofaux egg and avocado toast at Redroaster

With plant-based alternatives on the rise, Nick Mosley headed to Brighton’s Redroaster café to sample their new vegan ‘egg’.

The numbers don’t lie. According to official statistics annual meat consumption per head in the UK is at its lowest since records began in the 1970s. That’s not just people converting to vegetarian or vegan diets; we’re all more aware of the not only the health implications of excessive meat and dairy in our diets but also the cost and animal welfare ethics.

You only have to look at the shelves of your local supermarket to see the huge range of vegan food alternatives. Some vegetarians dismiss these imitation sausages, burgers and ‘cheese’ alternatives, but for many they are convenient stand-ins for familiar foods.

I reviewed Redroaster’s brunch offering a couple of weeks ago and at the time I noted that the menu featured a significant number of vegan dishes. Now I’m sure Brighton being Brighton that we have considerably more vegetarians and vegans than elsewhere in the UK – after all we’ve been home to the likes of Terre à Terre and Food for Friends for decades – but I think nowadays most of us wouldn’t think twice about choosing a plant-based meal.

So I was intrigued when Redroaster’s owner Di Palmer invited me to the launch of their new ‘Tofaux’ egg – a vegan egg substitute made from, as the name suggests, tofu. Created by Di and her kitchen team, its a very unique new product.

I was the only meat-eater at a table of otherwise vegetarian and vegan influencer guests, so to be honest I probably wasn’t the target market but in the interests of professional research – and sheer personal intrigue – I couldn’t wait to get stuck in.

As our brunches were rustled up by the kitchen, we had a short presentation from Compassion in World Farming about the intensive poultry farming that threw up some pretty disturbing facts that have put me off my chicken tikka for the foreseeable future.

A factory farmed chicken raised for meat is typically slaughtered in just over a month – its rapid growth fed by protein rich feed and the use of antibiotics to minimise disease; they actually grow four times faster than an organic chicken putting immense strain on their hearts and joints. And those strands of white in your chicken meat are actually muscle tissue that has died whilst the bird was still alive, which isn’t a particularly pleasant thought.

Egg layers have a somewhat longer life but when farmed intensively its not a particularly nice one. Free range and organic chickens have a considerably longer life but that pales in comparison compared to the natural lifespan of a chicken which can be anywhere between five to ten years.

I should hasten to add that Compassion for World Farming isn’t against meat and dairy consumption per se. Their aim is to educate and campaign for better farming practices and the eradication of cruel intensive meat and dairy production. The mantra being around making conscious choices and choosing better.

A closer look at the Tofaux egg at Redroaster

Our dishes arrived – loaded plates of avocado toast, shakshuka and the like – all topped with the eagerly anticipated vegan egg, which I guess was best described as poached although technically it was moulded and heated.

To my mind, the Tofaux vegan egg that I sampled was a valiant effort at replicating the look and – to a degree – texture of a poached egg however the flavour was a little lacking. Redroaster’s Di explained that it was still somewhat of a work-in-progress so she was keen for input from the invited guests.

If you think about it, its actually quite hard to describe what an egg tastes like; we just take it for granted. I guess the white of an egg tastes of very little – it is 90% water after all – but a good protein rich egg yolk should have a mildly savoury, perhaps buttery, flavour profile. Eggs are pretty smooth, and I did note that consistency of the vegan egg was a little lumpy but then again its been created by moulding tofu.

In terms of flavouring, there is a secret ingredient that all the vegans around the table were familiar with but if I’m honest I’d never heard of. Black salt – a type of rock salt with a distinctive sulfurous aroma – mimics the flavour of egg so the general consensus was a bit more of that and perhaps a little more yeast. I live and learn.

I don’t think I’d be ordering a vegan egg but equally if one found its way onto my plate then I’d happily eat it. My preference would still be for Redroaster’s high welfare organic hens eggs from local farms that I think are exceptional, as I reflected in my recent review. However, there is definitely a place for this kind of product and I think we’ll be seeing further similar substitutes over the coming months and years.

The Redroaster team are trialling their Tofaux egg at their café on St James Street throughout March as part of B Corp month. If you’re intrigued then pop in for breakfast or brunch and try for yourself.

Redroaster, 1d St James Street, Brighton BN2 1RE

01273 000 202 • www.redroaster.co.uk