Lazy Sunday Brunch: Tofu Scramble & Vegan Links

Things I miss the most when I'm on the 6-week challenge:

• raw fish, poke
• scrambled eggs or spinach omelets on Sunday morning

Tofu scramble is our lazy Sunday answer and it makes the egg cravings go away. Look up tofu scramble and there's tons of recipes, so experiment and use leftovers. Serve it over brown rice, serve it on whole wheat toast or bagel thins, eat it with a side salad. I like mine with avocado slices. Big Spazz likes his with salsa. Pono likes his with a side of vegetarian breakfast links.

Tofu Scramble Basics


1 lb. container tofu drained and pressed

1 teaspoon dried thyme (I didn't have it, so I used dried oregano)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric (gives the tofu its scrambled egg color)
1 teaspoon salt (optional)

2 teaspoons ground cumin

3 tablespoons water

Stir the spices together in a small cup. Add water and mix. Set aside. I find that this is a more effective way of adding the spice than to just put it in separately. When it's separate, the spices don't incorporate into the tofu as nicely.

3 cloves garlic, minced (or more, to taste)

1/2 - 1/4 of a red pepper (diced)

1/2 an onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

Fresh black pepper to taste

Saute garlic, onion and red pepper in a nonstick heavy pan. There should be enough liquid from the pepper that you don't need oil. If not, sauté in some water. Cook until the onion is translucent. Add the tofu by crumbling and ripping the tofu into bite-sized pieces right in the pan. Sauté and break up the tofu until it is warm all the way through, stirring often so tofu doesn't burn on bottom of pan.

Our fresh tofu is really wet, so if there's too much liquid at the bottom of the pan, keep the heat up and let it evaporate. Add the spice blend and stir it into the tofu. If there are large pieces of tofu, break it up enough that the spices are incorporated.

Stir in the nutritional yeast and black pepper. Cook another few minutes or so, making sure that everything is incorporated. While it's cooking, I heat up some vegetarian breakfast sausage for Pono and done.

Other add-ins:

Spinach - add about a cup of spinach at the end with the nutritional yeast and cook until the spinach is wilted
Broccoli - add about a cup of florets and sliced stems along with the tofu
Mushrooms - add about a cup of thinly sliced mushrooms along with the tofu
Avocado - peel and slice it to go on the finished scramble
Olives - chop up about 1/3 cup and add it at the end with nutritional yeast