Tofu scramble
Soft, savory crumbles of tofu cooked with onion, peppers and spinach and turned sunny yellow with turmeric, a breakfast-for-dinner plate on the table in 25 minutes.
- 25 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 2
- About $2.43 a serving
- 290 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 25 minutes.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 1 package firm tofu, drained
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- ½ red bell pepper, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 cup baby spinach
- 1 avocado, sliced (optional)
- 1 tsp hot sauce (optional)
- 2 slices whole wheat bread, toasted (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ¼ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp water
Each serving has about 290 calories, 23 g protein, 14 g carbs and 17 g fat, and costs about $2.43 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No avocados? Guacamole works.
- No hot sauce? Sriracha works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the tofu and it dry with paper towels. It doesn’t need pressing for a scramble.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Heat the oil in a large nonstick over medium heat. Add the onion and pepper and cook, stirring now and then, about 5 minutes, until soft.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Add the garlic and cook 30 seconds, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heat
the tofu into the pan with your hands, some pieces big and some small, like scrambled eggs.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: Uneven pieces look and feel more like eggs than tiny, even crumbs.Sprinkle over the nutritional yeast, turmeric, salt and pepper, add the water, and stir until every piece is yellow.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: Nutritional yeast is what makes it taste savory and a little cheesy. Look for it in a shaker near the spices.Cook 5 minutes, stirring only now and then, until the tofu is hot and a few pieces are at the edges.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Food safety: Tofu is safe to eat straight from the package; cooking is only for texture and flavor.
Add the spinach and stir about 1 minute, just until it .
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min
Taste and add salt if it needs it, then serve with sliced avocado, a few shakes of hot sauce and toast.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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