Tofu Kale Scramble

The best part about summer is warm, bright mornings, that are the perfect temperature to eat outside. Breakfast on the deck is definitely something I miss when the cooler months prevent us from doing so. 

One of our favourites is a good scrambled tofu on a slow, Sunday morning. Honestly, Sunday mornings are probably only slow because we tend to sleep in a bit most of them and then take forever making a good breakfast, but slow nonetheless.

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We call our Sunday morning (alright, sometimes we don’t even eat until noon!) breakfasts “good breakfast.” and always go all out whether it’s biscuits and gravy, pancakes, or even this recipe. We love pairing this tofu scramble with fresh potato hash (ooooh, maybe I should share that recipe next!) and sometimes we’ll even splurge with vegan sausage. It’s a great time - especially if fresh orange juice is involved. 

Making it as colourful as possible has become almost a game. Using two types of bell peppers when possible adds an extra colour, as well as this fresh kale that really ups the game. Spinach works well too and is just as delicious. Grape tomatoes add a nice read, and you can use red onion instead of yellow too! Really, you can use whatever you have in your refrigerator and it’ll turn out wonderful, promise. Well, as long as you like tofu. We are huge fans of tofu over here!

Tofu Kale Scramble

what you need:

• 1 block extra-firm tofu, drained and pressed as dry as you can get it

• 1 small yellow onion, diced

• 1 bell pepper your choice (I use half red and half orange to get more color)

• 2 cloves garlic

• ½ tsp turmeric 

• ½ tsp paprika

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• ½ tsp sea salt

• 1 TBSP nutritional yeast flakes

• 2 TBSP low sodium soy sauce (or liquid aminos)

• 1 cup fresh kale

• 1 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (plus more for garnish if you like)

• 1 TBSP oil or vegan butter for cooking

• Salt and pepper to taste

What to do:

1. In a pan, heat your oil. When heated, add onion and cook 1-2 minutes, until soft

2. Add bell peppers and cook 1-2 minutes, until soft

3. Add garlic and cook another minute, until fragrant

4. Add sea salt, turmeric, paprika, garlic powder, nutritional yeast flakes, and soy sauce to vegetables and mix well

5. Crumble tofu on top and then mix well with the vegetables, until tofu is coated

6. Add fresh herbs and kale and mix through, cooking another few minutes, until kale is wilted

7. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately (stays good in the fridge for about two days)

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What is your favourite breakfast/brunch food?

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Vegan Tofu Ricotta

What a sad thing: I have gone SO MANY YEARS without trying to make a tofu ricotta. Why has it never crossed my mind? Well, besides the fact that I hardly ever ate ricotta and didn’t know what it was or what it was used for...

Anyway, I finally got around to doing it, and I'm so glad I tried something new!

A few weeks ago I wanted to try my hand at a new vegan lasagna. I’ve been making them for years, but wanted to try something different. I decided to put the tofu into the food processor to make it more ricotta-like instead of just crumbling it finely like I usually do. The result? Well, let’s just say that my cheese-loving husband told me that he never wanted the real stuff ever again. That’s pretty strong. Of course, all the other elements of the lasagna were playing a part, but this ricotta was one of the VIPs.

Turns out this is great for a lot of things - spreading on crackers or bread, and stuffing manicotti noodles with. I’m going to be trying it in some meatballs, so stay tuned for that experiment as well.

Easy Tofu Ricotta

What you need:

• 16 ounces super firm tofu

• 2 TBSP nutritional yeast flakes

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1 TBSP lemon juice

• 1 TBSP basil (dried)

• 2 small cloves garlic (or one large)

What to do:

1) Drain the tofu, getting as much moisture out as possible
2) Add all ingredients to food processor and process until smooth, scraping down the sides as you go.

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What do you use ricotta for?

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Vegan Sour Cream

I love sour cream. Seriously. When I decided to switch to a plant based diet, sour cream was one of those things that was harder to let go. There's nothing like a good dollop of sour cream with a burrito or pierogi. Thankfully, Tofutti exists, and tastes delicious. Unfortunately, I can't always find it, so I had to improvise.

I experimented with a few different ways of making vegan sour cream (including trying with cashews and apple cider vinegar), but this has been by far my favourite. I might tweak and play a bit more with it, but I was quite pleased with this result! It was creamy and had just the right amount of tang.

It is great on tacos, fajitas, or pierogies, or anything else that requires sour cream, really. I fully intend on finding out what else it can do. Stay tuned to see different ways I've found to use it!

Three Ingredient Vegan Sour Cream
Makes about 1.5 cups

What you need:

Block of Firm Tofu (16oz. /454g), drained
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Garlic Salt

What to do:

1) Blend all ingredients together till smooth using blender or food processor.
2) Chill a few minutes and serve.

Store in refrigerator up to one week.

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Have you ever made your own vegan sour cream? Want to tell me about it? 

If you try this one out, let me know how it goes for you! I'll always find you at #MapleAlps :)

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