Recently my husband and I went to a friend’s house for brunch where she made these amazing sticky buns from the Minimalist Baker and I brought over tofu scramble. I’ve been making tofu scramble for years now so when she asked for a recipe, I couldn’t provide her one. It’s just one of those dishes where you know how to make it. I told her I’d put something together for her, which I’ve provided at the bottom of this post.
I do this a lot, I just throw together a dish and don’t know the exact recipe to share with others. I was recounting to my friend all the times my mom has done the same to me when I’ve asked for recipes. Then, I remembered a blog post I wrote 7 years ago. Even though I haven’t been blogging at Running on Vegan for that long, I had other blogs back in the day. The blog post from 2011 still rings true to this day, so I decided to share it below.
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I’m turning into my mother. Every daughter goes through this realization at some point in their life. I’ve noticed it more often now, especially when I talk about cooking.
My co-worker asked me if I knew any good breakfast recipes for her vegan visitors. This was my response:
“You should make tofu scramble! Oh my God, it’s so easy. All you do is take a pack of tofu – make sure it’s extra firm otherwise it’s not gonna cook right. Then you hold the block of tofu over an oiled pan and crumble it so it looks like eggs. Cut up some of your favorite veggies, like zucchini, squash…oh, broccoli is really good…and throw them in the skillet with the tofu. Bell peppers – mmm, those are good, too. Saute the ingredients all together for about 5-10 minutes and then add turmeric. It’s spelled t-u-r-m-e-r-i-c. Don’t use too much, otherwise it’ll be too gritty. Maybe use 2 teaspoons…I don’t know, just shake it on the tofu and veggies until it looks like the color of eggs. So easy. They’ll love it, absolutely love it.”
My co-worker was writing furiously on post-it notes to capture this magnificent new recipe. I went back to my office and then realized, I just pulled a “Joan.”
I’ll call my mom and she’ll tell me about this new recipe she just “threw together” and I’m listening, scribbling the ingredients and directions as fast as I can. A few phone calls later I’m still asking questions like “did you say olive oil or vegetable oil? I only wrote down ‘oil’” and I have somewhat recreated my mom’s masterpiece of a dish.
Sometimes it’s too late to find a pen and paper and I’m forced to memorize my mom’s creation. Times like those, I wind up with half a recipe that says she used vegetarian baked beans to make chili. Who does that?
My ma (as we say in the North) does and that’s why she’s such a fabulous cook – someone I definitely aspire to become, especially in the kitchen!
If you’d like a recipe of the tofu scramble that includes exact measurements, visit this site.
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And this is the tofu scramble recipe I shared with my friend after our brunch:
Ingredients:
Steps:
Sometimes I’ll add shredded Daiya cheese to the pan at the end and mix in, which makes it creamier. Also, those are the veggies I used for our brunch date, but you can totally swap them out for other ones, like broccoli. When we serve it, sometimes we’ll put a slice of avocado and hot sauce on top.
I’d love to know, since there are so many tofu scramble recipes out there, what’s your favorite?
