The best tofu scramble recipe!

On Monday, the Pensacola Vegan Association put together a workshop at the Bear Levin Studer Family YMCA to answer any questions that people might have about going plant-based or practicing a vegan lifestyle.  First of all, I have never been in the YMCA and it is crazy!  There's a water slide! Second, we had a great turnout of like sixty people.  Perhaps they were lured in by our free food, but I talked to a pretty decent amount of people about vegan cooking and how you really don't need ANYTHING derived from an animal to make delicious food.  

One of the food items that I brought was my tofu scramble, which I have perfected over the course of a few years, trying out every tofu scramble recipe that I could find online and in cookbooks.  This is the result!  I hope you like it!

Ingredients: 

1 block of extra firm tofu

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 yellow or red onion, diced 

1/2 bell pepper, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced 

2 cremini mushroom, diced 

1/2 cup baby spinach, chopped

paprika, cumin, chili powder

2 tbsp hummus 

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp soy sauce 

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

1/4 tsp kala namak (black salt with a sulfuric flavor) 

1/4 tsp turmeric (anti-inflammatory and yellow color!)

Salt 

Press the tofu really well!  I have a tofu press, and I wrap the tofu in paper towels or a dishcloth, and press it down as far as it can go.  Usually when you are pressing tofu, you want to make sure it kind of stays together, but since you are crumbling this up anyways, it doesn't really matter.  If you don't have a tofu press, you can put it on a plate and stack other plates on top or some heavy books.  This part is really important to get the right texture, so if you think it's done, just keep pressing it for another five minutes or so.  

In the mean time, heat the oil in a large pan over medium-heat.  Add the onions and a pinch of salt and sauté until translucent.  Then add the garlic and sauté for another minute.  It should smell really good.  I usually add a little bit of salt as I go.  Then add the peppers and mushrooms.  If you like spicy stuff, you can always add a jalapeño pepper at this stage as well.  While the veggies are cooking, add a good pinch each of cumin, paprika, chili powder, and black pepper.  

Mix the ingredients from hummus until turmeric in a mug.  I know it sounds kind of weird, but just trust me.  Depending on how thick your hummus is, you might want to add a little water, because you want it to pour easily.  

Push the cooked veggies to the side of the pan.  Once the tofu is done pressing, you can crumble it with your hands straight into the pan.  Turn up the heat a little bit and cook the tofu for about three minutes, then mix it up (but not the veggies yet) and cook another three minutes, mix it up.  It should get a little brown.  Pour the hummus mixture over the tofu, mix it up and let it cook for about another three minutes.  Finally, you can mix up the whole pan!  Lower the heat a little and let the mixture cook until some of the liquid has evaporated it looks drier than it was.  Mix in the baby spinach and serve when it has wilted! 

Don't forget to salt and taste as you go!  You can add in whatever veggies you have on hand.  Sometimes I add some chopped seitan in as well.  Goes really well in a burrito with some hash browns!

Here are some bonus pics of the workshop!  We had a section on cruelty-free beauty, baking, the environment, factory farming.  Kris Howell was there as our resident vegan health coach, spreading that nutritional knowledge! It was seriously such a wealth of information and I loved being able to share it with the community.  I think we are going to plan another one, so if you missed the first one, come to the second! 

I finally got a chance to show off my cookbook collection

Courtney Northington seriously laid down the cruelty-free beauty knowledge

Vegan queen

Thanks for reading!  Let me know if you try my recipe! Ciao ciao :)