Home Grown Tomatoes presents: Tofu Scramble

Let's talk about a staple breakfast in the Bucci household... tofu scramble. Hands down, it gets consumed about once a week, if not more. I am all about big, homemade breakfasts, particularly on Sunday mornings. I've made this meal for just about everyone I know and so far it's been well received by all. I consider it a perfect breakfast, but truly, you could make it for a dinner as well. Basically what I'm getting at...it's damn tasty any time of the day.

Servings: 4 hungry bellies

4 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Tbs. Bragg's Liquid Aminos

1 small yellow onion

1 block of extra firm tofu

3 c. fresh broccoli (chopped into small florets)

1 yellow squash (diced into small cubes)

4 Tbs. ketchup (any organic brands that I have come across do not contain high fructose corn syrup)

2 celery stalks (chopped)

2 handfuls of fresh spinach

Black pepper to taste

1 Tbs. onion powder

Dash of lemon pepper

Begin by sauteing the onion on med/high heat in oil and Bragg's until onion is translucent. Once the onion is cooked through, drain the tofu (I usually do this by squeezing it a bit over the sink) and crumble (again using your hands) into the pan. Let the onion and tofu cook together for about 10 minutes, stirring intermittently. The idea being: getting the tofu in nice and early allows time for it to firm up a bit (while cooking off some of the moisture).

After about 10 minutes, go ahead and add the broccoli, cook until somewhat tender (I prefer mine a bit on the al dente side, it's completely up to your taste buds). Add the ketchup, celery and then squash. Let all of these veggies cook and flavors blend together. After I've let the veggies cook through, I turn down the heat a bit to medium or medium/low. Finally, with the heat lowered, add the spinach and let it wilt away... I use two good size handfuls of spinach, because obviously, it shrinks considerably in size. Top off the scramble with the black pepper, onion powder and dash of lemon pepper.

Essentially this "scramble" is a stir fry - and you can use any vegetables that you have or prefer; mushrooms, zucchini, pepper...the kitchen sink, etc. The final kicker is the avocado, Tofutti sour cream and salsa that I use to top off this little delight. Most often I serve the scramble with some tempeh bacon and hash browns (or some potato concoction).

For all of you veggies out there who are trying to cook for yourself and your carnivore counterparts, this is a great 'introduction to tofu' meal to help convince the haters that tofu can, in fact, be consumed AND enjoyed by humans. The texture is palatable and there are so many other flavors bouncing around that the tofu is hardly the focus. This allows you a good opportunity to give that tempeh bacon a whirl too. Not to mention this scramble recipe can easily be done with eggs instead of tofu. Also, if you're not vegan, regardless of whether you are using eggs or tofu, feel free to throw some cheddar cheese in the mix - that can't hurt anything :) Indulge and enjoy - please email me and let me know how your scram turns out or if you have any questions: giovaninabucci@yahoo.com.

Home Grown Tomatoes is a weekly Vegan/Vegetarian column by Giovanina Bucci