30 days of vegan: my favorite vegan eggs

Recently I posted my musings on my favorite breakfast food- the burrito. In it, I blithely said go forth and find one of the many, many copycat recipes on the web that rely on kala namak and turmeric to impart eggy color and flavor. 

But that was lazy of me. And a bit disingenuous. When I first endeavored to go vegan, I knew meat would not be a problem for me. I've never been a meat fan, even in childhood. I always went for the most processed meats: sausages, hot dogs, things that didn't seem like meat. A slab of flesh always freaked me out. One encounters weird flavors, textures, chewy, slimy, stringy bits. Gross.

I always thought cheese would be the really hard thing. I've had love affairs with whole branches of cheese. In the fake cheese realm, varieties such as Swiss do not translate nearly as well as cheeses like Cheddar. Parmagiano and Romano are struggles, too. The substitute recipes often have Italian herbs or spices, as if to say, we know this isn't going to work, the best we can do is remind you of a food with real cheese in it. 

But I got over cheese (thanks in no small part to nutritional yeast). It turns out the very hardest thing for me to abandon was the humble chicken egg.

I have always loved eggs. As a kid, while my classmates sat at tray tables watching cartoons and guzzling down sugar bomb cereals, I was feasting on fried eggs and bacon, scrambled eggs and toast, omelets stuffed with ham and cheese, or my beloved creamed eggs. I come from farmer stock. I spent a lot of days and nights sleeping under the roof of my maternal grandparents. They raised chickens and ate a lot of eggs. So really, eggs are my soul food.  The prospect of giving them up was, ultimately, the most difficult choice. The heavy-handed treatments that are the gold standard for vegan eggs in the online cooking sphere- heavy with garlic and onion powder, turmeric, soy sauce or liquid aminos- while not unappetizing, scream "I am not eggs" to this egg lover. And so a suitable egg substitute has been my philosopher's stone.

I've settled on tofu as a base, just like the most popular variants out there. But I forgo the firm and extra-firm refrigerated packs for the silken tofu-based shelf-stable aseptic packs. All of the aseptic grades you find are based on silken tofu, though you can find soft, firm and extra-firm varieties. My favorite for this dish is firm.

Of all the common flavorings used for tofu eggs, I have found only black salt, nooch and butter to be indispensible. I don't like turmeric for the coloring agent; in terms of flavor, I prefer annato or saffron. Both impart delicate color and flavor- exactly the mood I want to strike with simple scrambled eggs.

There are different ways to achieve the flavor and texture of butter. Cooking the tofu in coconut oil mixed with nutritional yeast works nicely. But I find using a plant-based butter-like spread to be perfectly fine.

I prefer a healthy grinding of black pepper, but that's a personal choice.

So, here's how you make my delicate, simple take on classic scrambled eggs.

Ingredients

• 1 brick of aseptic pack tofu- any grade is fine, but firm is probably best
• 1 tsp black salt
• 1 tbl plant based butter, or 1 tbl coconut oil
• 1/2 cup plant milk- I prefer organic, unsweetened soy milk with no fillers
• 1 tsp all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/4 tsp annato or a healthy pinch of saffron
• 2 tbl nutritional yeast
  

Method

1. If using saffron- heat the plant milk in the microwave for 15 seconds. Add the saffron to the milk and set aside to bloom.
2. Put the tofu, salt, flour, baking powder, nutritional yeast and milk in a blender or food processor and process until smooth.
3. At this point, you can add any veggie additions. Some ideas are sliced green onion, diced roasted red pepper or tomato, precooked broccoli florets cut small, or thinly sliced cooked mushrooms.
   
4. Heat a non-stick skillet to medium. add the butter or oil. use a brush to coat the pan entirely.
5. pour in the mix. This will lower the temp of the pan. Give the mix two minutes to cook. Turn heat to medium low.
   
6. This is when you can decide if you want it omelet or sandwich style, or scrambled. If scrambled- break the disc up into large pieces and start tossing them gently. Break them up a second time if you want the pieces smaller. They should be starting to brown, but not completely set. If going for an omelet, begin checking the edges. the flour and baking powder give them a little structure, so you should be able to flip as one whole disc. But be careful to not overcook, this is why we've turned the heat down. The top should be lightly browned. Give the bottom another minute to do the same.
   
7. Remove from the pan to a bowl or plate covered with a lid until ready to serve. If you are melting vegan cheese on top for sandwiches, put it on now and cover.
8. Enjoy!
   

... MOSTLY Vegan...

You know the joke from the Princess Bride. As Miracle Max examines a seemingly deceased Wesley, this transpires:

Inigo Montoya: He’s dead. He can’t talk.
Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.
Inigo Montoya: What’s that?
Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.

That sums up my vegan experiment pretty well. No matter how hard I try, I find a part of me that is only mostly vegan. It is not an easy thing to be 100% vegan without a complete readjustment in your senses. Cheese is something I really needed to kick- I've had serious problems with overindulgence. I talked about my difficulty in abandoning it entirely here. After about two weeks of mostly veganism, I can say my cheese habit is nearly dead. I don't crave it anymore. Well, I do crave the slight tang that a good aged parmagiano reggiano imparts to pasta dishes. I don't think I will ever be able to kick that. But all of the other cravings are seemingly gone. I can't afford to lose that momentum.

One of the factors that killed my cheese desire was, ironically, the nasty flavor of most fake cheeses. I struggled in vain to get into Teese and Daiya. I still can't stand them. They taste so obviously artificial; it never blends in with the other flavors. (Although I do kinda like daiya browned in the pan and eaten on its own as a cracker of sorts.) So, in response to this, I have adjusted recipes so they really don't require cheese. And that is how I kicked the habit.

I do have to give a special shout out to Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese, though. It may not be better than cream cheese, but it is remarkably tasty. I use small amounts of it to give pasta dishes just enough creaminess.

Another factor has crept into our meal planning: the high cost of vegan replacements for non-vegan products. (that's the "checking the pockets for loose change" part of the analogy.) We really can only afford to have one or two of them around all of the time. The one dairy replacement that is not expensive at all is nutritional yeast, which is pretty darn cheap if you can get it in bulk. So we keep some meat replacers- mostly Morningstar and Quorn- around, and the Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, and the nutritional yeast. fake cheese we'll get periodically (Abbey finds the taste of Daiya just fine, thank you very much) but I don't think it will make a constant appearance.

Also, tofu, as versatile and genuinely tasty as it is, is a little hard on the budget if you want to use it many times throughout the week. Especially if you buy organic, which I usually try to do. So, for a cheap source of protein, I've decided to morph into what you might call an ovo-vegetarian and eat eggs. For breakfast this morning we had burritos with black beans, salsa, Morningstar sausage, scrambled eggs and green onions. I put some diced green pepper in mine as well. I don't anticipate going overboard with eggs, but I think I will have some periodically to simplify the preparation of some dishes and, as I said, gain a few protein points.

Other dairy issues have been solved for the most part as well. I gave up my much beloved lattes for black coffee and the occasional soy latte, which I discovered is not gross. Soy milk is also great in smoothies and with cereal. Abbey prefers almond milk, which she likes for the same purposes. I can definitely say my desire for milk is gone.

Milk caused us health issues, anyway. After not eating any dairy for a couple of weeks and then having a pasta dish with milk in the sauce, Abbey had some familiar bad feelings in her gut that reminded her a lot of her problems with IBS. Could she have been lactose intolerant all that time? Maybe or maybe not, but it seems she definitely to be now. For me, my sinuses are bothered by milk, so that was an easy choice.

This morning we had a nice treat: a chocolate smoothie made from chocolate syrup, frozen chunks of banana, and soy milk. I added just a splash of vanilla and blended it until smooth. It tasted decadent.

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.

Mike's Second Favorite Breakfast

The honor of first favorite goes to Frijoles Charros and eggs, which I'll save for another post. This is a close #2: Huevos Rancheros. If you're a regular reader, my Mexican food fetish is probably known to you by now. If not... now you know. I could start every morning with eggs, beans and salsa and probably never grow tired of it. I don't think. Anyway, I was captivated by a version I found at Smitten Kitchen, but the task of flipping a tortilla with a raw egg sitting on top of it without making a bloody mess proved to be elusive. So, I made the salsa cruda as instructed on SK- which is devastatingly simple and delicious, just diced fresh tomato, onion (I used a sweet yellow, which I like best for salsa) and raw jalapeno; dismembered several stalks of cilantro; heated up the tortillas in a hot oiled skillet, melted cheese on each; and fried eggs in a separate pan, with the yolks still runny, naturally.SK's devilishly clever take was to use, as a delicious shortcut, Goya Black Bean soup for the bean side dish; I simulated this by spicing the beans with garlic, cumin and chili powder and copious amounts of black pepper, then letting a cup and a half of chicken broth reduce in the pan until the beans were sauced with the reduction. It felt strange trying to recreating canned soup manually, but the results were fantastic, I daresay better in the end for having been made from scratch. I doubt if I'll ever master that egg and tortilla over easy method, but this was mightlily satisfying, regardless.