Recipe: My Favorite Tofu Scramble

I recently watched a documentary called What the Health, which encourages Americans to migrate toward a plant-based diet, not only as a sustainable and humane choice, but also as a choice for their health.  The film explores the health effects of eating processed meat, the causes of diabetes, as well as the effects of a diet high in eggs and dairy, using a combination of expert (doctors') opinions and research on industry regulations. Kip Anderson, the filmmaker of What the Health, goes into detail about the health effects of eggs in the film, a section which caught my eye as someone who follows a (very loosely) vegan diet with the exception of some eggs.  I had known that cows produce high levels of the potent greenhouse gas, methane, and that I could have a complete and healthy diet with the absence of dairy and red meat.  I also knew that eggs were high in cholesterol, but I knew little about the environmental impact of the egg industry, which is the main reason I choose to follow my current diet.  I came across PBS's Lexicon of Sustainability, which had an informative six minute video clearly defining the misleading terms such as "cage free" and "free range" Americans often blindly trust.  The term "cage free" does not imply any safe, sustainable, or humane regulations except that the chickens were not raised in cages.  Similarly, "free range" does not imply chickens spend their days outside, but rather that there is a small outdoor area with a small door just outside the warehouse chickens are kept in which these chickens may never enter.  Sonja Huang, of the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, also visited one of my classes, and told us that egg farms also produce a massive amount of organic waste, which is often deposited into large cesspools near farms, easily leaking large amounts of organic pollution into groundwater supplies and causing ecological problems such as eutrophication.

I know many people want to make more plant-based food choices but are unsure how to make tofu and other plant-proteins taste good, so I wanted to provide you with a recipe for my tofu scramble, easily adaptable to whatever veggies are in season and whatever spices you like! so here it is:

MY FAVORITE TOFU SCRAMBLE (serves two or a very hungry one with leftovers)

INGREDIENTS

1 clove garlic, chopped as finely as possible

about 1/3 of a medium onion (diced small)

1 cup potatoes (diced)

1 cup broccoli, chopped in big, flat pieces (mine's local and in season!)

1/2 cup cherry tomatoes (halved), or a squirt of tomato paste is also yummy

any other (cooked or uncooked) veggies you have in your fridge, I used leftover roasted carrots and fennel: it's best to choose hearty vegetables, such as carrots, beans, mushrooms, etc.

1/2 block of firm tofu

1/2 tsp cumin

Sriracha or your hot sauce of choice, to taste (and color).

INSTRUCTIONS

heat up a large pan on medium heat, adding a few tablespoons of your choice of cooking oil to the pan.  Then, add the garlic followed by the onions, sautée until onions are soft.

Add the potatoes to the pan, turn down the heat and cover. cook until potatoes are soft enough to eat, then add broccoli to pan, adding more oil if necessary. sautée until the broccoli turns bright green and is easily pierced with a fork. Add any other uncooked veggies of your choice (you may need to add these earlier, depending on the vegetable and how long it needs to cook)

Pat tofu with a paper towel to remove excess water, and then take a butter knife and press it down flat on the top of tofu all the way across, crushing and breaking up tofu to look like scrambled eggs. 

Add tofu and tomatoes to pan, return to medium heat and stir as you cook.  add cumin, Sriracha, and salt to taste and cook until tofu is hot.  I chose to serve it over some leftover brown rice, but it's great all alone!

Other Seasoning Choices (sans the tomato paste/cumin/sriracha):

-Thai curry paste

-Chopped fresh basil

-Turmeric and black salt (really makes it look & taste like eggs)

-Your favorite spice blend