Every Sunday, my amazing husband makes me a tofu scramble. This past Sunday, I watched and took notes so I could tell you how he does it.
Ingredients
1 lb. extra firm tofu, drained
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms
1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
1/2 cup nutritional yeast*
A few tablespoons Low sodium vegetable broth
1 teaspoon Kala Garam Black Salt**
1/2 teaspoon turmeric (or more, to taste)
Pepper to taste
Method
Drain the tofu by placing it atop layers of clean towels on a flat surface, with more towels on top, and a baking sheet with something heavy on top of those. The weight will squeeze the liquid out. After 15 minutes, remove the wet towels and replace with dry ones. Repeat until the liquid stops soaking the towels.
Oil-free sauté the vegetables. Heat a good non-stick skillet until water dripped onto it beads and dances. Dump in the vegetables, and stir, stir, stir. When the brown sticky stuff begins to form and the onions get translucent, add a tablespoon or two of vegetable broth to deglaze the yummy browning from the pan and continue cooking and stirring until veggies are tender.
Crumble in the tofu by holding the block in one hand, and pinching bits of to off with the other. Just keep pinching little pieces off around the edges until you pinched the entire thing into the pan. Adjust the heat to medium and continue cooking and stirring.
Add the seasonings a little at a time, mixing them in and tasting after each addition. The turmeric has the added benefit of making your tofu yellow.
Cook until the tofu gets firm and takes on a scramble egg consistency. It shouldn’t take too long. Just cook and stir, cook and stir.
Pour onto a plate, or onto toasted Ezekiel Bread, add a little fruit on the side, and you have breakfast.
If you indulge in plant-based sausage, this recipe benefits greatly from its addition. Cook the sausage in a non-stick pan without oil or spray on medium heat for about two minutes on each side. Remove from the pan to a cutting board, and dice it into tiny bits, then sprinkle them into the scramble.
I don’t want to eat that stuff anymore, so I might experiment with adding sausage seasonings — what are they, sage and fennel? — into the scramble, to get the flavor without the high oil content of most plant-based meat substitutes. The spices and herbs are what you taste anyway.
*Nutritional Yeast needs a better name. It’s made from molasses, and it contains the elusive vitamin B12 in great abundance. It tastes like a mild version of cheese curl powder, and is an excellent substitute for cheese in tons of recipes. Here’s a link to buy some from Amazon.
**The Kala Naram Black Salt has a slightly sulphur edge, which make your tofu taste more like actual eggs. You can buy it from Amazon here:
Tofu is an excellent source of protein, and contains all the amino acids your body requires. It’s high calorie, though and has its own fat, so don’t use it every day. It is a processed food, even though only very mildly processed. It’s not a whole food.
You can add any vegetables you like. Also, half of this recipe is way more than I can eat, but just enough for hubby.