A Vegan Omelette made with just 2 ingredients. Chickpea flour and aquafaba. It's really puffy, light and fluffy, a bit like a souffle omelette, and so delicious. Budget-friendly too!
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Hello. I'm happy to report that you can make a simple and budget-friendly Vegan Omelette with just 2 ingredients!
This naturally gluten-free aquafaba omelette is made souffle style so is thick, with a fluffy and light texture. Whip it up and stuff full of fillings of choice for breakfast, lunch or dinner!
In this post - Everything you need to make a perfect vegan omelette:
Ingredients
To make this Vegan Omelette recipe you will need chickpea flour and aquafaba. That's it, apart from a little seasoning and the oil you need to fry the omelette in.
Chef's Tip - For eggy flavour add an optional sprinkle of kala namak (Himalayan black salt) over the omelette after flipping, just as its finished setting (not before).
Filling Ideas
Fill your vegan omelette with whatever goodies you like. Some ideas include:
- fresh or sautéed veggies like onions, tomato, mushrooms and asparagus
- green leafy vegetables like arugula and baby spinach
- avocado
- vegan cheese or cream cheese
- pesto
- cashew cheese sauce
- fresh herbs like parsley, cilantro and basil ( I have a year round supply thanks to my Click & Grow!).
- diced or thinly sliced vegan deli meats (you can use my vegan beef, roast, ham or chicken for this)
If the fillings need to be cooked this must be done ahead of time. You can keep them warm on very low while you cook your omelette.
How To Make A Vegan Omelette
For your fluffy vegan chickpea flour omelette, first you need to whip up the aquafaba with an electric mixer. Then it's as simple as folding in the chickpea flour very gently, then cooking in a good non-stick frying pan. Be sure it's cooked through well because raw chickpea flour isn't the best.
Necessary equipment - For this recipe you need an electric mixer, either hand held or a stand mixer. Beating aquafaba by hand doesn't work as well. You will also need a really good non-stick pan with gently angled sides. It must be perfectly non-stick.
Serving Suggestions
Serve your vegan omelette with:
- a crisp green salad or steamed veggies
- vegan sausages
- golden breakfast potatoes or hash browns
- vegan scrambled eggs or tofu scramble
- grilled tomatoes
- baked beans
- hot sauce, salsa or ketchup
- toast spread with vegan butter
More Eggy Vegan Recipes
Recipe FAQs
Aquafaba is the liquid from canned chickpeas. Just pour the chicpeas out of the can into a sieve and catch what runs out!
You can but there is some prep work involved. Once your chickpeas are cooked drain the liquid. Then you want to put that liquid back into the pan and reduce it by about half. And then you need to refrigerate it overnight. Do that and you'll end up with the thick, gloppy, aquafaba that is like the canned stuff.
The pan. Using a really great nonstick pan is important to prevent sticking. One so good that when you cook something like a pancake, it will slide around in the pan very freely.
Fat. it is also really important to use oil. It's a misconception that using a nonstick pan means you don't need to add fat. With something like an omelette oil is really important.
Heat. A pan that is too hot will cause your omelette to stick.
Recipe
Vegan Omelette
Author:Ingredients
- ½ cup (46 grams) chickpea flour , also known as garbanzo flour or besan
- 1 generous pinch freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup (120 mls) aquafaba , liquid from canned chickpeas
- oil for frying
OPTIONAL
- kala namak , for eggy flavour
INSTRUCTIONS
- Add the pepper to the chickpea flour, mix together, then set aside.
- In a scrupulously clean bowl, with an electric mixer, whisk the aquafaba until stiffish peaks form. It won't be as stiff as you need for meringue, just white, fluffy and airy and it should form gentle mounds.
- Put a large and very good non stick shallow frying pan or omelette/crepe pan over a medium heat and brush with oil.
- Gently and gradually sieve about ¼ of the chickpea flour into the aquafaba and fold in with a metal spoon (don't use wood or plastic) until just combined. Don't mix or beat it in.
- Repeat until all flour is incorporated. the aquafaba will lose some of its volume but should still stay quite fluffy if you're very gentle.
- Gently help the batter into the frying pan to conserve as much air as possible, so it's about ½ an inch thick, and level the top gently with a spatula.
- Turn to medium low heat and leave well alone until it starts to solidify a bit and the top isn't wet anymore.
- Now you can either turn your omelette over very carefully and continue cooking for another 3 - 4 minutes or put it under the broiler on low keeping a close eye on it until it's cooked through. Make surre it is cooked through thoroughly because raw chickpea flour does not taste good. It's now you should add kala namak for eggy flavour. Sprinkle a tiny bit over the top once you've flipped it. Only a tiny bit though because aquafaba is already salted. Don't do this before it's almost set as all of your fluffiness could collapse.
- Once it's cooked, gently slide out of the pan. Cover one side with fillings of choice then flip the other half over the top. If you're using vegan cheese, you can sprinkle it on then pop it under the broiler to melt. Otherwise make sure fillings are pre-cooked.
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NUTRITION
Swen says
Everyone loved this, Mel! My friends were teasing me for taking much time to whisk the chickpea liquid, and sieve the chickpea flour (they're more used to traditional Asian cooking so all of the above was just too strange for them)... but in the end they were very surprised and happy with the end result. Fluffy, remarkably tasty though it's just aquafaba, salt, pepper and chickpea flour.
I think I'll pre-sift the chickpea flour the night before, to save time next i attempt this recipe again. Chickpea flour also seems to be harder to sieve than regular flour. I had to use the back of a big spoon to rub the chickpea flour against the sieve to work faster.
Is there any way to whisk the aquafaba more quickly, though? maybe my electric mixer was too slow...
thank you, Mel!
Melanie McDonald says
So pleased you all enjoyed it! As for whipping the aquafaba, it does take longer than egg white. I find my KitchenAid stand mixer whips it way quicker than my electric hand mixer, probably because the balloon whisk is bigger and faster. Plus I can leave it to it and do something else while it works!
Hannetjie says
I tried several recipes for a vegan omelette, and this one, the simplest of all, is the best by far.
Lisa says
Would this work as a quiche egg filling if the other ingredients were already in the pie dish?
Melanie McDonald says
Personally I wouldn't. It doesn't have an eggy texture. You'd be much better of making my vegan quiche recipe. It's so good and has a really realistic "eggy" quiche texture. https://avirtualvegan.com/vegan-quiche/
Wayne says
Hello,
I made this recipe, but tweaked it.
I had made aquafaba from navy beans last week and this morning I made flour from a cup of navy beans.
I also added in 2 tsps of baking powder, 3 TBSP's of sunflower seed oil, and 228g/1cup of homemade split pea milk.
The batter was rather thick and dry, so I decided to waffle-ise the recipe.
It worked out a treat. However, the waffles were a bit bland. An easy fix in future.
In future iterations, I'll tweak it for better flavour.
Evelyn says
This recipe is great. The details for folding in the dry ingredients were very helpful, since I do not have a flour sifter. The omelette cooking on skillet is very un forgive and a really challenge for a nervous cook like me. Thanks for tip on how to know when to flip over and doneness.
Eleanor says
Thanks for the recipe! Am so glad to have found another use for aquafaba; being a thrifty vegan you end up with loads of the stuff and there are only so many pancakes you can tolerate per week. This recipe is very similar to a traditional dish from Genoa, Italy called 'la farinata' which is made with water instead of faba. If only they'd known! Haha
Denise says
Made this for breakfast. Halved the recipe because that’s all the aquafaba I had and just used black salt for that eggy taste, some black pepper and after flipping added some vegan cheese to melt on top whilst the bottom cooked, then folded. Definitely making this again by far the best vegan omelette recipe I have come across. Might give it a try as a Spanish tortilla.
Miima says
Okay so I did this a few days ago. Batter was very fluffy, like meringue, and tasty. Pan ready. I poured in my batter, but got no time to smooth it out as it started boiling away, left a crisp bottom with a runny boiling surface. Pan too hot or? I'll try again another day...
A Virtual Vegan says
It certainly shouldn't have been boiling. It sounds like you had the pan way too hot.
Ruth Andrade says
I had cooked some chickpeas for making tempeh and had lots of aquafaba left.
I absolutely loved this recipe! It's super easy. I whisked the aquafaba by hand, ok maybe that part is not so easy, until I had stiff peaks then gently whisked the chickpea flour in. I made one "omelette" with just the two ingredients, then another adding salt and dill, then a third adding caramelised onions to the dill and salt mix. The fluffiness stayed all the day. Amazing, fluffy, soufflé-like omelette. Tomorrow I'll try to make proper Spanish tortilla. Let's see how it goes. Thanks.
Lisa says
Mine turned out good except I didn't use enough oil and it did stick to the pan on parts of it. It kind of reminded me of a cross between a souffle and flatbread. I liked the crisp outside and soft inside. For those that talk about the bitter taste of chickpea flour, that happens when you don't cook it all the way through. I cook with chickpea flour all the time and I made that mistake twice and never again lol...it's disgusting! Thanks for the recipe!
A Virtual Vegan says
You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it. And I totally get what you mean about raw chickpea flour! It's amazing how cooking transforms it so much!
Rachael says
Hi! Would it have to be chickpea flour? I have used it in the past, perhaps incorrectly, but it had an extremely bitter and terrible taste, and frankly I am a bit traumatized haha. Would brown rice flour be an appropriate substitute?
Thank you for your time!
Sarah Haynes says
First time I might have been too fast (and I used a metal spoon). This time I made sure the peaks were very stiff, was very slow and gentle, and used a wooden spoon. All good till about half way when it seemed like it collapsed under its own weight... Nice pancakes, but not even vaguely omelette-ish. Suggestions?
A Virtual Vegan says
Do you mean it collapsed when folding the chickpea flour into the whipped aquafaba or when it was cooking? If it was when folding it in that is normal to some extent and I mention it in the notes. You should never use a wooden spoon for aquafaba, in the same way as you shouldn't for whipped egg white. If any trace of oil is on the spoon it will cause the aquafaba to deflate and it is so easy for wooden spoons to soak up residue from whatever they have been used for in the past. They aren't scrupulously clean like a metal spoon is because they are porous. That could have been a factor in the collapsing.
If you fold the flour through (not stir) and treat it gently it will retain some puff and when cooked is kind of like a souffle omelette. It's a vegan 'omelette' alternative and wont taste or have a texture like an egg omelette. That isn't possible unless perhaps you use the vegan egg that you can buy. It is more of a fluffy pancake, cooked in a similar way to a souffle omelette. Hope that helps!
james says
Best vgean omelette recipe I've tried!
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you so much!
Sophia says
Thanks for the recipe.
The aquafaba whipped up easily, but when I added the chickpea flour it all got lumpy. I had to strain it to get out the lumps and so lost all the air in it. I ended up with a flat pancacke in the end.
I think either it's good to sift the flour in, or mix it with water gradually to make a lump-free sauce before adding it into the aquafaba.
A Virtual Vegan says
Hi Sophia. Sorry you had trouble with it. Adding the flour gradually and slowly is really important when mixing with the aquafaba. If you just throw it all in at once it will go very lumpy. If you add it gradually, which is best for preserving the air in the aquafaba as well, lumps will be minimized. It is however normal for the mixture to be a little lumpy. You don't notice them when the omelette is cooked. It's not surprising it ended up very flat if you sieved it before cooking.
Aquafaba is pretty temperamental and I think that if you added water to the flour before mixing it in, you would probably cause the whole thing to deflate very quickly. I haven't personally tried it though so let me know if you do and it works!
Ginny says
What an absolutely beautiful meal. This is going into my regular dinner rotation.
thelazyveganbaker says
Oh my oh my! I am eating this right now and it is so good. Unbelievably light and fluffy! I used a different filling - just odds & ends I had in the fridge and some Chao cheese. I halved the recipe because I'm just one person but I could totally eat two of these! Don't make my mistake - do the whole recipe.
This is awesome and such a cool use for the aquafaba :-).
Deborah says
Ate this, died, went to heaven :-D
It's fab although mine started off very fluffy but ended up quite flat but it still tasted awesome.
Deborah says
It'll have been the high heat that did it coz it was very fluffy when it went in the pan. I might try it again tomorrow. I have heaps of cashew cheese left although I need to make something different with the chickpeas as I have a bowl full of curried houmous in the fridge with today's chickpeas :-D
Becky Skuse says
Hi there, I just tried out your recipe and it's great! I have to admit that I thought it wasn't going to work, but it did! The aquafaba whipped up wonderfully, and mixed well with the chickpea flour. I should've sieved the flour first (I ended up with a few lumps!), but it didn't matter. It cooked up really well and was so soft and fluffy. I think it tastes a bit like airy hummus! I made a different filling, but I think it would be lovely with any filling. Thanks so much for the recipe! Now I'm thinking about vegan soufflé - any ideas?? Becky
Cecily says
This omelette is awesome? I had no one to share with, so just made it thick, and cooked the top under the triller/broiler. I made up my own filling, thanks so much!
Ski says
You whip aquafaba without sugar right? Does it actually whip up into stiff peaks? I've been trying to do it without sugar and i didn't think it worked like that.
A Virtual Vegan says
No don't use sugar in this recipe. Just make sure your bowl and whisks are scrupulously clean and it will happen. I say 'stiffish' in the recipe as it doesn't have to be too stiff so don't worry too much if it doesn't quite get to the very stiff meringue stage. As long as it is whipped up and you are able to kind of form mounds with it the recipe will work. I've made these a number of times now and I've never had a problem with the whisking of the aquafaba so you should be fine. Good luck!