Kimchi Fried Egg with shredded spinach on sourdough toast, garnished with a dollop of local Greek yogurt and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. Carl D. Walsh/staff photographer

My two cents on soaring egg prices spurred on by the avian flu?

1) Use only one when in the past you’d have used two.

2) Buy them from a trustworthy local farmer instead of at the supermarket. After all, if you are going to drop $7 on one dozen eggs, why not head to the farmers market and keep that cash circulating in the Maine food economy?

Eggs secured, it’s time to learn to use them in the kitchen more judiciously.

Disciplined egg use in the kitchen falls into two baskets (or possibly cartons): eggs served as a center-of-the-plate protein (such as over easy, poached, or scrambled) and eggs mixed into a finished product (like cookies, cake, or pudding) to provide structure.

Of course, many recipes use just one egg in the first place. Recipes for wonderful one-egg treats published in this newspaper recently include banana bread, blueberry crumble bars, date nut bread, and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

But in baked goods calling for two eggs, a baker can tap several substitutes for one of them and get similar results. In “Food Substitution Bible,” David Joachim writes that if what your baking gets its rise from two eggs, you can use one egg mixed with a teaspoon of baking soda and a tablespoon of vinegar instead. In cake, sweet bread, or brownie recipes where egg yolks add a pleasingly dense, moist texture, he suggests replacing one egg with 2-3 tablespoons of mayonnaise or 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil mixed with 1 tablespoon water. You can also replace one egg in such recipes with 1/4 cup of any of the following: applesauce, yogurt, buttermilk, whipped silken tofu or mashed banana.

Vegan bakers use flax or chia seeds to give egg-free baked goods body. For best results with these, though, don’t swap; use recipes specifically formulated for those ingredients.

If eggs continue to vanish from store shelves, consider egg replacement products. Milwaukee-based Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods makes an egg replacement product from potato starch, tapioca flour, baking soda and psyllium husk fiber. Each ingredient plays a role in mimicking the function of eggs in baked goods, explained Sarena Shasteen, a culinary content specialist at the company. The potato starch and tapioca flour help bind ingredients together and provide structure, she said, while the psyllium husk fiber helps retain moisture and stability.

Shasteen says Red Mills’ egg replacement product works best in recipes where eggs primarily bind ingredients, not help them rise. She cautioned against using it in recipes with lots of lemon juice or vinegar because the acid interferes with it working properly. The company also recommends replacing no more than two eggs in any recipe.

And while customers have not in the past combined the egg replacer with real eggs in a recipe, “Given the current situation … (it’s) a perfect way to use it,” Shasteen said. “As a baker, I have set out to bake something at home only to find out someone has eaten most of the eggs I planned to use. I have always kept the egg replacer on hand for these instances.” She has successfully made pancakes, waffles, muffins, quick breads and cookies with a half egg, half egg replacer split.

What she doesn’t do, though, is try to scramble up Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer for a meal. “It’s fantastic, but it’s not magic!” she cautioned.

And that brings us to tricks for making one lone egg satisfy as a center-of-the-plate protein. The idea of starting each day with eggs goes way back. An English cookbook published in 1669 suggested eating two eggs each morning. The 2025 egg crisis requires a few culinary tricks to stretch one egg to do the same job. The internet suggests scrambling 2 tablespoons of cottage cheese with an egg for extra protein. Try that if you like, but personally, I don’t like the texture of that combination.

For a one-egg meal – whether eaten morning, noon, or night — I prefer to tap Asian, Middle Eastern and European recipes that pile up other flavorful foods and use a single egg as the dish’s crowning glory. Think of an egg simmered in tomatoey shakshuka sauce from Northern Africa, a poached egg perched atop a frisee and lardon salad in France, a 6-minute soy sauce egg in the center of a bowl of Japanese ramen, or this recipe for a kimchi fried egg on toast. Trust me, you won’t miss the other egg.

Kimchi Fried Egg on Toast is underway. The pan contains enough for two servings. If you bulk up and highly season the items you serve with eggs, you’ll be satiated with just one per person. Carl D. Walsh

Kimchi Fried Eggs on Toast

Kimchi is a spicy fermented cabbage condiment from Korea. If you want to learn everything about it, and find some great products from Maine or further afield, visit Onggi on Washington Street in Portland, a charming shop with an attached cafe that specializes in a range of fermented foods and drinks.

Serves 2

1/2 cup chopped kimchi
1/2 cup chopped raw spinach
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 pieces of thick bread, toasted
2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon roughly chopped ginger
1 tablespoon chopped chives or spring onions
Toasted sesame seeds, to serve

Combine the kimchi and spinach in a small bowl.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat in a medium-sized frying pan. Crack the eggs into the pan and cook for one minute. Cover and cook them to just shy of how you like them (2 minutes for a runny yolk). Spread the kimchi and spinach mixture around the eggs and warm through for about 1 minute. Cooking the kimchi longer will kill all the good gut-friendly bacteria in it.

Place one piece of toast, one egg, half of the kimchi, and a dollop of yogurt on each of two plates.

Add the remaining teaspoon of oil, and the ginger and green onions to the now empty frying pan. Sauté until fragrant, 1-2 minutes. Spoon this mixture over the eggs. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and serve.

Local foods advocate Christine Burns Rudalevige is the former editor of Edible Maine magazine and the author of “Green Plate Special,” both a column about eating sustainably in the Portland Press Herald and the name of her 2017 cookbook. She can be contacted at: cburns1227@gmail.com.