How to Make Chia Seed Eggs

February 27, 2018 The Provident Princess 0 Comments

Not only do you get the omega 3 fatty acids in a chia egg like you would in a pasture-raised egg, but there is also about 85 mg of calcium, 3 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber! I love to use these because they are so cheap and really help keep down the budget. A pasture-raised egg runs about .50 cents an egg which is a lot to me to just throw in a recipe and not even notice there is an egg in there. We only eat our pasture-raised or organic eggs when you can tell that's what they are. Scrambled or over-easy mostly. Anytime I am cooking and it calls for an egg, I reach for my chia seeds. I usually buy chia seeds when they are on sale for around $1.99/lb. That turns out to be about 45 'eggs'! That's a lot of savings over a year.

Chia seeds are amazing. They can soak up to 6 times their weight in water! Once they soak up the water, they form a gel that will bind food together just like chicken eggs do.

The actual 'recipe' is as simple as can be.


 Measure 1 Tablespoon of chia seeds. You can use whole or ground. These are ground. I just use my coffee/spice grinder.

Add 3 Tablespoons of water.

Stir and let sit for a few minutes. As the chia seeds soak up the water, it will start to gel.

When your chia 'egg' looks like this, thick and sticking to the spoon, it is ready to be used in a quick bread recipe like muffins, cakes, pancakes, waffles. I even used them to make yeast rolls to take to my husbands family for Thanksgiving and they came out perfectly. Everyone loved them and no one suspected a thing.

NOTE---I will say that in that recipe and any other where I thought the black seeds might be too noticeable, I will grind the seeds first. If I do it like that, I will just add the ground chia seeds to my dry ingredients and mix them together really well, then I will add the wet ingredients and add those extra Tablespoons of water. If you try to incorporate a ground chia seed 'egg' that has already gelled it is hard to equally distribute into the rest of a dough or batter. 

You can also use this same technique with flaxseeds although I like chia seed eggs better. They seem to have a neutral taste whereas flaxseeds are more noticeable to me although I do use them if I want the colors to blend better.

This really is one of my favorite tricks in the kitchen. Leave a comment below to let me know what clever things you do to save money but not sacrifice nutrition.