Our vegan tortang talong (Filipino eggplant omelette) is your new brunch craving! You’ll need only five ingredients to make this hearty, wholesome, easy-to-make dish.
If you are on the fence about eggplants, tortang talong will make you a believer! 🍆 ❤️ We fell in love with this Filipino eggplant omelette when we visited the mountainous Philippine Banaue province to see rice patties for the first time. We stayed at a bed and breakfast that served tortang talong as big as our heads!
Back stateside, my mom showed us how to prepare these simple but delicious omelettes. We were elated to find out how easy they were to whip up. You’ll need only five ingredients to make them yourself at home, and we can’t wait to share the recipe with you!
Jump to:
🇵🇭 WHAT IS TORTANG TALONG?
Tortang talong is essentially an eggplant omelette. The name derives from a suffixed form of torta (“omelette” in Tagalog—i.e. the national language of the Philippines) and talong (“eggplant” in Tagalog). After the eggplant is roasted and peeled, it’s dipped into egg and pan fried. There’s also a stuffed version of this dish, called rellenong talong, which is filled with ingredients like meat or vegetables.
We veganized my mom’s recipe for tortang talong by trading egg for a vegan liquid egg substitute, which worked beautifully. Also, the eggplants are traditionally roasted over an open flame, but since we do not have a gas oven at home, we broiled our eggplants in the oven instead.
📝 INGREDIENTS
- Asian eggplants (also known as Japanese or Chinese eggplants): These are the stars of our recipe! They are longer, thinner and quicker cooking than bigger, fatter globe eggplants.
- Vegan liquid egg substitute (such as JUST Egg): You can’t make omelettes without an egg substitute!
- Salt and freshly cracked black pepper: to season our eggplant omelettes.
- Neutral oil: the fat used to cook our omelettes.
🔪 STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS
***Check out the recipe video we made below!***
- Arrange the eggplants on a baking sheet and poke holes all over them using a fork. Broil for 15 minutes, flipping once.
- Cover the sheet pan with foil and allow eggplants to steam for 10 minutes. Peel the eggplants and discard the peels. Then use a fork to flatten the flesh. Season with salt and pepper on both sides of each eggplant.
- Whisk vegan liquid egg replacer with salt and pepper in a bowl. Dip each eggplant into “egg” mixture.
- Cook in a large pan over medium heat for 3-5 minutes on each side. Serve with steamed jasmine rice and sriracha or banana ketchup. Enjoy!
❤️ YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE BECAUSE IT’S:
- Simply egg-cellent!
- Hearty
- Easy to make
💡 RECIPE TIPS
- Use Asian eggplants (also known as Japanese or Chinese eggplants). These longer, thinner variety are quicker cooking and therefore better suited for broiling than bigger, fatter globe eggplants.
- Get out your fork! Prick holes all over the surface of the eggplants before broiling them. This will prevent a most unfortunate eggplant explosion in your oven.
- Cover eggplants after broiling. Cover your baking sheet with foil after broiling the eggplant. This will trap in moisture and steam the eggplant, making the skin easier to peel away. Trust when we say we learned the hard way! Skipping this step will meal large chunks of eggplant flesh getting peeled away with the skin.
Enjoy!
—Val
DID YOU MAKE OUR VEGAN TORTANG TALONG (FILIPINO EGGPLANT OMELETTE)?
Did you make this recipe? We’d love to hear about it! Please comment and leave a 5-star🌟 rating below. Share your dish with us on Instagram and tag us @plantbased.passport. We would love to seeing your delicious creations! Still hungry? Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest for more global vegan recipes and travel tips!🍴✈️
💕 MORE FILIPINO RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE:
👩🏽🍳 RECIPE
VEGAN TORTANG TALONG (FILIPINO EGGPLANT OMELETTE)
Ingredients
- 4 Asian eggplants
- ¾ cup vegan liquid egg substitute such as JUST Egg
- Kosher salt
- Freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 tablespoon neutral oil such as vegetable oil
To serve:
- steamed jasmine rice
- Sriracha or banana ketchup
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to broil on high. Arrange the eggplants in a single layer on a baking sheet. Poke holes all over the eggplants using a fork. Broil eggplants 15 minutes, flipping once, until they have softened and their skin has blackened. (Alternatively, if you have a gas stove, you can cook the eggplants over a burner on medium-high heat, turning them with tongs).
- Remove the sheet pan from the oven, and cover it with foil. Allow eggplants to steam for 10 minutes, to make them easier to peel. Then peel the eggplants and throw away the skins. Use a fork to gently flatten the flesh of an eggplant, seasoning each side with salt and pepper. Repeat with remaining eggplants.
- Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat. Whisk egg substitute with salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Dip an eggplant into the “egg” mixture, letting it soak for a couple of seconds. Flip to coat the other side and season with salt and pepper. Repeat with remaining eggplants.
- Cook eggplants 3-5 minutes on each side, or until nicely browned. Serve with steamed jasmine rice and Sriracha or banana ketchup. Enjoy!
Notes
- Use Asian eggplants (also known as Japanese or Chinese eggplants). These longer, thinner variety are quicker cooking and therefore better suited for broiling than bigger, fatter globe eggplants.
- Break out your fork! Prick holes all over the surface of the eggplants before broiling them. This will prevent a most unfortunate eggplant explosion in your oven.
- Cover eggplants after broiling. Cover your baking sheet with foil after broiling the eggplant. This will trap in moisture and steam the eggplant, making the skin easier to peel away. Trust when we say we learned the hard way! Skipping this step will meal large chunks of eggplant flesh getting peeled away with the skin.
Hell yeah, I had been looking for a good tortang talong recipe that was veganized. Thanks for sharing the oven option.
My new favorite breakpas, lol. Thank you.
This one is definitely going into my brunch rotation.