Wednesday Food Blogging: Mushrooms and Crumbled Tofu with Potatoes

Tofu. It's what's for breakfast.

I'm not much for savory breakfasts, but the other morning I was all out of cake, so to the frying pan I went. No eggs for me (think smothered baby chicks) and I was tired of veggie sausage, so I decided to scramble some tofu and potatoes.

I made the "sour cream" first, which is a pretty decent substitute for dairy sour cream (and convenient, too, if you're all out). Then I got to work, dicing, crumbling, and scrambling. I warmed a couple of flour tortillas for the family, who don't mind Tex Mex that early in the morning, but I prefer proper breakfast food, toast, with mine.

The ingredients make two hearty portions,(we even saved a bit extra for the teenager) and are based on the 250g package of British tofu (Cauldron) I buy. American tofu packages are larger, as I recall, so adjust the other ingredients upward by about one quarter, and I imagine you can feed three or four. (If anyone has a package of American-bought tofu and can do the maths, I'd love to know if there's a size difference. No puns, please.)

The result? So good I almost forgot it wasn't cake.

Mushroom and Crumbled Tofu with Potatoes

non-hydrogenated margarine, or olive oil, for frying
1 potato, diced into 1/4 - 1/2 inch pieces
3  button mushrooms, halved and sliced
1 bunch spring onions, chopped, including some of the green portion
1 small green pepper, diced,
1 package (250g) firm Chinese-style tofu, crumbled
dash of turmeric, optional
1/4 teaspoon paprika
chives
salsa, optional,
salt and pepper

Optional: flour tortillas

In a non-stick skillet, fry potato in margarine for 7 minutes over low-medium low heat, until crisp and golden brown. (You may have to turn up the heat after they've softened.) Sprinkle salt over potatoes and set aside, under inverted plates (fresh out of a hot dishwasher, if possible!). Toss another chunk of margarine into the pan, and add the sliced mushrooms. Saute until they begin to turn golden brown, about 4 minutes. Add sliced green onions and green pepper; saute 3 more minutes. If needed, add more margarine to prevent sticking. (Or spray a good splash of non-stick cooking spray.)

Add crumbled tofu, paprika, and a dash of turmeric, a scant 1/4 teaspoon. Cook another 5 minutes or so, and add reserved potatoes. (Or you may prefer to serve them on the side.) Add salt and pepper to taste. Cut up chives and sprinkle on top, reserving some chives for a nice little bow.

If desired, wrap in flour tortillas and serve with sour cream and/or salsa.

Notes on ingredients:

I use Smart Balance non-hydrogenated margarine (similar to Earth Balance, but with a small amount of dairy ingredients). You could use olive oil, but I prefer margarine for a more "breakfasty" taste. There are also other margarine brands that claim to be healthy. I'm sure they are, relatively, but the ones available in the States are different from the ones over here, so I can't make any judgments. Just avoid the hydrogenated stuff. (Smart Balance Lite is vegan, at least it used to be, if that's an issue.)

Use firm or even soft Chinese-style water packed tofu. (Soft tofu would be more like the texture of soft-cooked scrambled eggs.) The turmeric is added simply for yellow color. Ignore it if you don't like turmeric.

I make "sour cream" by combining 1/4 cup Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese (available in most HFS, except the haughtier-than-thou Whole Foods), up to 1 tablespoon soy milk, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Mix until smooth and refrigerate until needed.

Comments

[Diane]

I buy fresh local yard eggs. It would seem that you, in the UK, would have access to them, yes?

[KathyF]

Actually, I just discovered a place around the corner that has yard eggs. Trouble is, I'm so used to doing without now, it's hardly worth the effort.

And Waitrose only sells free range eggs, which I buy for the other Flakes.

[Iconochron]

You know, this makes eating vegetarian seem so EASY. I fell off the wagon and am trying to get back on. Bacon is a gateway drug. I'm seriously considering trying this. We'll see what kind of ingredients I can find down here in SoCal. :)

Aurora

[KathyF]

We make BLT's with Morningstar veggie "bacon" all the time. I really like it, and there's something called veggie "rashers" here.

[Iconochron]

Does it come out relatively crispy? For a while, we were making biscuit sandwiches with the Morninstar Sausage, but got burned out on it after a while.

[KathyF]

It's crunchy, as long as you cook it long enough. Sometimes it's limp, but if you cook it longer, it's fine.

[Imperatrix]

We made this on Saturday, and it was delicous! Added a sweet potato to the mix, since we had one in the basket.

Thanks for the recipe.

[KathyF]

I'm glad you liked it. I don't have a lot of breakfast recipes, I'm a cereal and soymilk gal myself. But I do like to go wild some mornings.