The Recipe: Scrambled Tofu

from Vegan With A Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped into ½ inch chunks
2 cups thinly sliced cremini mushrooms (or broccoli, zucchini, red pepper, and cauliflower are all great options as well)
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound extra-firm tofu, drained
¼ cup nutritional yeast (optional*)
Juice of ½ lemon
1 carrot, peeled (optional, mostly for color)

FOR SPICE BLEND
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed with your fingers (or oregano, if you don't like thyme)
1 teaspoon ground paprika
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the onions for 3 minutes, until softened; add the mushrooms, sauté for 5 minutes; add the garlic, sauté for 2 minutes. Add the spice blend and mix up for 15 seconds or so. Add ¼ cup water to deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom to get all the garlic and spices.

Crumble in the tofu and mix well. Don’t crush the tofu. Just kind of lift it and mix it around. You want it to remain chunky. Let cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding splashes of water if necessary to keep it from sticking too much. Lower the heat a bit if you find that the tofu is sticking. Add the lemon juice. Add the nutritional yeast and mix it up. If the mixture is sticking to the pan, add splashes of water. The moistness really depends on how much water the tofu was retaining before you added it.

Grate the carrot into the tofu mixture and fold.

Serve as is or folded in wraps.

VARIATIONS
Tofu Rancheros: Add 1 cup of Salsa at the end, cook for 1 minute extra.
Asian-Style Scrambled Tofu: Add 2 tablespoons of minced ginger with the garlic, use peanut oil instead of olive oil, substitute shiitake mushroom, and omit the thyme and nutritional yeast. Mix in 1 cup of thinly sliced scallions at the very end.

* If you don’t have nutritional yeast on hand you can still make this recipe; just don’t add any water when cooking.