The vegan experiment part 3: strange players

Cooking is like staging a play: you have roles than need to be played by actors. After you've produced a while, you realize some actors are more flexible than others; so you use them more. I have always used eggs for a variety of purposes, both savory and sweet. The egg of the vegan world is tofu.

I must admit, it took me years to warm up to tofu. I've had the obligatory negative experiences. Sometimes, I encounter it in restaurants in a less than pleasant way; other times, it was by my own hand that I created an inedible mess out of an innocent block. But after a while, I discovered the best ways to cook with it, and I have enjoyed it, mostly, ever since. Even some of the kids go for a stir fry with tofu triangles fried until golden brown and crispy.
On Monday, I took a stab at a vegan staple- scrambled tofu, designed to remind the consumer of scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs are a favorite of mine (and my youngest son, which is delightful but rather odd for our family), and I was already missing them. I used this basic recipe and, though there's no way it would pass my son's taste test, I found it surprisingly palatable. They weren't much like real scrambled eggs- maybe I can chalk that up to my inexperience- but served with some toast and Morningstar bacon, they fit the role fairly well- kinda like having Peter Cushing play Dracula. It's plausible enough, but he ain't no Christopher Lee.
So the somewhat voluminous leftovers have been sitting in the fridge for a couple of days. Today at lunch, I had a hankering for an egg salad sandwich. It occurred to me this could be a great opportunity to test tofu's versatility. It's a pretty simple recipe and worked quite well.

Tofu "egg" salad

about half a brick's worth of tofu scramble

For the dressing:
1/2 cup of Vegannaise or Grapenaise
1 tsp of red wine vinegar
2 tbl canola oil
1 tsp sugar
1 heaping tbl pickle relish
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
salt, pepper to taste
a couple shakes of paprika

Combine all ingredients for the dressing in a large bowl and whisk. Fold in the tofu scramble and mix gently until incorporated.

It was quite good! Better than I expected, frankly, since I am crazy about egg salad. I hope you egg salad lovers looking for a lighter way to enjoy similar textures and flavors enjoy it too.