VeganMofo 20: Tofu Scramble

I'd never made a tofu scramble before. Maybe that's not true. It's possible I tried it once in high school and the result was so abysmal that I swore it off. But yesterday was a banner day. A few months ago, I signed up for the couchsurfing project. I have no idea where I heard about it, but it seemed like a cool idea: if someone is traveling through town, help them out by hosting and letting them crash on your couch. Since my house has a huge couch, a twin hide-a-bed, a futon, and a big air mattress for overflow, I figured it was ideal. Thursday afternoon I got my first couch surfing request, from a girl named April, her boyfriend Jonah, and their two dogs. He had a dj gig at a club downtown, and they were going to come in late Friday night and leave fairly early the next morning. My roommate John expressed apprehension about the dogs, but in the end his desire for good karma via unconditional hospitality won over.

As it turns out, April is vegan. We had already planned to make a big breakfast for them before they headed out, but it was extra special because there are few things a road-weary vegan appreciates more than a hearty vegan breakfast. Mostly because they're so hard to come by.

The other great thing about the cooking experience was that my two roommates and I cooked three things in the kitchen, all at the same time, sort of tandem cooking all the dishes together. My kitchen isn't huge, but we worked amazingly well together, like a well-oiled breakfast machine, and had a great time. We made biscuits and gravy, tofu scramble, and home fries.

The tofu scramble was easier than I'd imagined. I sauteed some onions, peppers, and garlic in smart balance, crumbled in some extra-firm tofu and let it cook until it had some chewy toasty brown spots on it. I also added cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper. John taught me the method of patting it down and letting it cook for a while, then stirring it and patting it down again. When it got close to done, we added some diced tomato. Both the tomato and the tofu were contributed by our lovely house guests, who said we should go ahead and use them before they go bad. It was really delicious and much easier than I anticipated. I'll be making it again.