A global economic meltdown seems to be the only event that can cause people to cut back on meat. In the years that followed the 2007 Great Recession, the average American’s annual meat consumption fell by almost 9 percent. Milk purchases fell too.

But through it all, egg consumption remained relatively stable and kept climbing, reaching around 280 eggs per person on average in 2022.

That number could fall this year, not because people have soured on eggs, but because there aren’t enough to meet demand. Just in the last two months, 27 million egg-laying hens — 9 percent of the nation’s egg-laying hen flock — have been (brutally) killed to slow the spread of H5N1, a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu.

Shortages have doubled the cost of eggs, and inspired at least two egg heists. Despite grand promises from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to bring down the price of eggs, his own agriculture department now says their cost will continue to surge this year.

This has some shoppers — maybe you — turning to egg alternatives.

While most grocery stores now offer a wide variety of plant-based milk and meat products, there are fewer egg alternatives on the market. But there’s still plenty you can do with the plant-based egg alternatives likely available at your local grocery store, and even with more traditional kitchen ingredients, when you have fewer eggs than usual, or none.

1. Just Egg

Just Egg, a plant-based liquid egg launched by San Francisco-based startup Eat Just in 2018, is made from an ingredient that’s foreign to most Americans — mung beans — but it scrambles and functions like the real thing. The taste may not fool you, as it’s not quite as eggy (as in, stinky) and is less fatty than chicken eggs. But eggs usually aren’t eaten alone — cooking Just Egg with olive oil, garlic, onion, tomato, and a vegetable or two of your choice makes for a tasty breakfast that comes close to an egg scramble. And it has a similar amount of protein as liquid eggs from chickens per serving.

I’ve also had delicious quiches and frittatas made with Just Egg, and it can even be used to replace eggs in baking (more on this later). The company also sells pre-cooked frozen egg patties for breakfast sandwiches, and breakfast burritos.

However, Just Egg costs around $7.50 for a 16-ounce bottle, which is much more than liquid chicken eggs in part because, as I’ve written about, animal agriculture has benefited — and continues to benefit — from decades of government support that helps keep prices low.

Just Egg is by far the most popular plant-based egg: Eat Just’s CEO, Josh Tetrick, told me that in the........

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