As a vegan cook, it’s almost smug-inducing when an omnivore not only enjoys my cooking, but is genuinely surprised that it contains no animal products whatsoever. This tofu scramble recipe has seemingly had that effect, I would assume people were just being polite if I hadn’t had to fight to be able to eat some myself.
There are so many reasons to cut eggs out of our diet. The egg industry alone is enough to put a lot of people off – don’t be fooled by the ambiguous ‘free range’ on the supermarket egg cartons, there is a difference between hens in cages and in a barn, but a lot of the time they are kept in cramped unsanitary conditions, jostling for space, not running free in the fields as the term ‘free range’ leads us to believe. I know this doesn’t apply to every egg carton on the shelf, but unfortunately there just isn’t a guarantee when the main priority is to make profit.
A better way of keeping eggs in your diet, if you’re not ready to cut them out altogether is to buy local, from people with open areas for the chickens to run freely; or rescue some hens from a battery farm and give them a chance at a better life while giving yourself an instant supply of fresh eggs! This is a cleaner way to eat animal products, if you can provide care and love for the animals. It’s important to remember that we consume everything that animal has gone through when we eat its meat and eggs or drink its milk; all the fear, pain, exhaustion, grief, trauma. Ask yourself if these are things you really want you and your family consuming, because that is the stark reality of the animal agriculture industry, these experiences the animals go through are very often unpleasant at best, and we directly ingest that energy. For a cleaner world, we need to be thinking cleanly and to think cleanly we need to consume cleanly, not just with food, with everything we do, but food is a great place to start.
So with this in mind, and the fact that I don’t have the space to keep my own chickens, I opted for tofu scramble instead of egg scramble with my fry up. Vegan cooking is a great way of discovering new combinations of ingredients and experimenting with taste, especially with something that can be challenging, like egg replacement; but tofu scramble is so easy to make, fun to play around with and versatile. It can be added to a vegan fry up, with salad or added to a stir fry. In this version I’ve added condiments and spring onion to make an egg mayonnaise replacement, enjoy on toast or with some rocket as the perfect sandwich filling!
Ingredients
- 1 block of Cauldron Tofu
- 1 – 2 tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp garlic salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 2-3 sprigs of spring onion
- 1-2 tbsp vegan mayonnaise
- ¼ tsp English mustard
Method
- Mash the tofu with a fork until you have a crumbly consistency.
- Add the spices and mix together until blended. If you’d like a more orange colour to your scramble, add more turmeric.
- Fry until slightly browned then allow to cool before adding the mayonnaise and mustard. Chop the spring onion widthways and add to the mixture.
Health Benefits
Tofu contains all of the essential amino acids that the body needs to build protein, as well as manganese and calcium, which help maintain bone and heart health.
Turmeric and black pepper is a powerful combination, containing anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties, reducing pain and aiding in digestion. Turmeric’s main active ingredient is curcumin, which has been used in India for centuries as a healing herb. When combined with the piperine, a bioactive compound found in black pepper, the body is better able to absorb the healing properties of both ingredients.
Spring onions are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C, A, B6, calcium, manganese and iron, helping maintain a healthy immune system, blood and bone function.
Tofu Travels 