Dairy-Free Egg Bites (No Cottage Cheese!)

dairy free egg bites with italian sausage stacked on a dark plate.

Dairy-Free Egg Bites (No Cottage Cheese!)

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: dairy-free egg bites, egg bites without cottage cheese

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 35

Total Time: 45

Servings:

Calories: 231kcal

Author: Megan Gilmore

If you've tried making dairy-free egg bites, you may already know how rubbery they can turn out. That's why I'm so glad I figured out the secret to giving them a velvety texture. (Hint: It's canned pumpkin!) Compared to everything else I've tried, using pumpkin makes these egg bites feel like they were made with cottage cheese, but they're entirely dairy-free and ready to bake in about 10 minutes, depending on the filling you use.

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Ingredients

½ batch Italian Turkey Sausage (or filling of choice)
1 cup baby spinach , chopped
8 large eggs
½ cup pumpkin puree
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a 12-cup muffin pan with silicone liners. Use a heaping tablespoon to add the ground Italian turkey sausage to each cup. Then divide the chopped spinach among the muffin cups. Each cup should be about halfway full.

For a vegetarian egg muffin, use the black bean filling from my high-protein breakfast scramble. The flavor is much better if you start with a seasoned filling, rather than plain beans or roasted red peppers. (I also tried this in the photos.)

In a high-speed blender, add the eggs, pumpkin, and salt. Secure the lid and blend until smooth, for about 30 seconds. The more you blend, the foamier it can get, so I prefer to stop as soon as it looks well mixed.
Pour the egg mixture over the fillings in the muffin pan. Each cup should be relatively full! For the best results, create a water bath for your muffin pan: add 2 cups of water to a rimmed half sheet pan (13 by 18 inches), then place the muffin pan directly in this pan of water.
Carefully transfer the set of pans to the oven and bake at 350ºF for 35 minutes, or until the muffins feel firm to the touch in the center. Carefully remove the pans from the oven (don't slosh the hot water) and let the egg bites cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes. I find they are easier to remove from the liners once they've cooled.
The egg muffins should pop out easily from the silicone liners and be ready to serve. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Notes

Nutrition information is for 3 egg bites, assuming you use a half pound of ground turkey as the filling. This is automatically calculated using an online ingredient database, so it's just an estimate, not a guarantee. (For example, I have no idea how much sodium or fat is in the ground turkey used for this calculation.) Use the label on your ingredients at home for the most accurate results.

Freezer Note: I've tried freezing my cottage cheese egg bites, and the results were very unappealing. After thawing, the egg bites are watery and have a slightly weird texture. Therefore, I don't think these dairy-free egg bites will freeze well either. It's fine if you're just serving yourself (I can deal with watery egg bites), but I wouldn't serve them to guests.

Nutrition