Tofu Scramble with Jalapeño and Cilantro

This delicious scrambled eggs-without-the eggs recipe works well for breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night, any time you’re in the mood. Feel free to change up any vegetables with what’s fresh at your local farmers market. Recipe and photo contributed by Ellen Kanner, who contributes Meatless Monday Musings to VegKitchen. If you’d like to serve this with the delicious slightly sweet quick bread depicted, here’s the recipe for Vegan Fig and Walnut Bread.

Serves: 2 to 3

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion or 3 scallions, chopped
• 1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 small zucchini or yellow squash, chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast*
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 12 ounces (about 3/4 of a 1-pound package) firm organic tofu,
  drained and squeezed to get rid of excess water
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped fine
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add chopped onion, jalapeño, red pepper and zucchini.  Stir and continue to cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or until vegetables soften and turn golden and fragrant.

Stir in cumin and turmeric and nutritional yeast, coating vegetables well. Add chopped tomato and mix well.

And now, the fun part. Crumble tofu in the skillet. You may mash it with a wooden spoon or enjoy the wonderfully tactile sensation of smooshing it between your fingers (a nice aggression release).

Scramble everything together in merry fashion, breaking up any odd tofu clumps.  Season generously with sea salt and ground pepper and continue cooking for about 3 minutes, until heated through.

Mix in chopped cilantro and serve. Enjoy fresh, hot and at once. Recipe doubles easily.

* A fabulous dairy-free cheesy-tasting golden powder available in the baking section of many natural food stores. Vegan bonus — several brands are B-12 fortified.

• Click here for more vegan breakfast recipes.
• Click here for lots more easy tofu recipes.

Ellen Kanner is the Huffington Post’s Meatless Monday blogger, the syndicated columnist The Edgy Veggie, and contributor  to publications including Culinate, Bon Appetit, and Every Day With Rachael Ray as well as her own blog.