People always want to know what I eat for breakfast. I mean without eggs, or milk sloshing over a sugary cereal (lots of commercial breakfast cereals are accidentally vegan, by the way, even Cocoa Puffs) what the heck do I eat, right?

Well here is the short list:

smoothies

overnight oats

french toast

pancakes

tofu scramble.

Tofu what?! Oh, that’s just nonsense you say? Guess what? It’s the exact opposite of nonsense. Tofu scramble is nutrient-packed with vitamins, fiber and protein. And it’s not hard at all to make. The ingredients are simple and I promise, no weird tofu-pressing rituals either! (*See below)

Here is how I throw together my tofu scramble a couple of mornings each week. You can also have most of this prepped up the night before, drain the beans, chop up the veggies, store in the fridge. You can buy tofu already cubed or you can just crumble it into your pan.

You can also wilt some spinach into this, or switch up the veggies and spices. Sometimes I do an Italian-style scramble. Use sundried tomatoes, fresh basil and white beans. This recipe is a compilation of many recipes I’ve eaten in restaurants or have seen in cookbooks. This one in particular is inspired by the tofu scrambles of my favorite vegan cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz. (Buy all of her cookbooks, she makes cooking vegan easy and her recipes are never-fail.)

Tofu Scramble

1/2 a large onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp tumeric

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp cumin

1 package extra firm tofu, diced into cubes (or crumbled)

1/3 cup water

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

salt and pepper

10 or so grape tomatoes, sliced

scallions

Spray a non-stick skillet with cooking spray, and cook onion and red pepper over medium high heat until slightly softened. Add garlic and spices, cook one minute more. Add water and tofu.

Cook a few minutes and reduce heat to medium. Cook for about 10 more minutes, then add nutritional yeast (if not using the nutritional yeast, you can use reduce water to a tablespoon or two, you just want to de-glaze the pan a bit and make sure it doesn’t get dry.)

Mix everything together, add the beans, and cook for another 5 minutes. Toss in tomatoes and add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with sliced scallions.

*Always use extra firm tofu in your tofu scrambles. When removing from the package, drain the water out and pick up the block of tofu and give it a light squeeze between your palms. Don’t squeeze hard enough to break it. You can also buy extra firm tofu already cubed and all you have to do is drain it out in a colander.

Aspiring to be vegan, but tofu isn’t your thing? Stay tuned for next Friday’s Food for Thought post, when I introduce The Vegan Egg!

