How to Make Perfect Tofu Scramble

Today I'm going to show you how to make the perfect tofu scramble that's rich, creamy, and actually tastes like scrambled eggs. Plus I'll show you a couple variations, including the special version I make for my extremely picky parents. There's some flavor in it that I cannot make out. If I'm being perfectly honest, most tofu scrambles are underwhelming, shall I say. That's because they lack the right moisture level, flavor, or richness. So that's where we're going to focus our attention today, so we can make an actually good tofu scramble. First, moisture level. It's really easy to get this part wrong when making tofu scramble, because if you're not paying attention to it, you can end up with a hot, wet mess on the one hand, or something that resembles a dry, rubbery tire on the other hand. To avoid these tragic fates, we first need to pick the right kind of tofu, and then treat it properly. So I'm using firm tofu. And unlike the more commonly used extra firm tofu, it's actually soft enough to mimic the texture of scrambled eggs, which are soft, but it's not so soft that it's going to fall apart in the pan. However, firm tofu does have a slightly higher water content than we'd ideally like, so we are going to press the tofu for 10-15 minutes to get out some of that excess water. All you need to do is wrap your tofu in a clean dish towel or several paper towels, and weight it down with your heaviest cookbook. You can also add some cans of beans or tomatoes to evenly distribute the weight. All right, while the tofu is being pressed over there, we'll get started on our seasonings. Tofu. I love tofu. I really do. But on its own, it's super bland. It's just water. So we need to give it a lot of love, and that is where our spice blend comes in. First, we're going to do a quarter teaspoon of turmeric. It's going to give it that nice golden color you associate with scrambled eggs. You don't want too much though, because turmeric is a pretty strong spice, and if you add a lot, you'll kind of taste it, which you don't want to do. We're also going to do a quarter teaspoon of paprika. Also going to add a nice color to this tofu scramble. And then a half teaspoon each of garlic and onion powder. And you can always find the full measurements for all of my recipes that you'll see in videos on my blog, and I always link them in the description box below, which is right below the video. And finally, a half teaspoon of some smoked chipotle, chipotle chili flakes. This is going to add a subtle heat. It's not going to taste spicy, but it'll be there a little bit in the background. If you don't have this, you could use red pepper flakes instead. And instead of using your standard sea salt or kosher salt, we are going to use Indian black salt. It's also called Kala Namak. This is a game-changing superstar ingredient. It is the secret that makes this tofu scramble legitimately taste like scrambled eggs. It's got this remarkable eggy quality. Smells a little funky out of the bottle, I will not lie. But I promise you, it makes a huge difference. You can find Kala Namak at Indian grocery stores or online, spice shops. I'll link to the one here in the description box below. It's from my favorite spice company, Burlap and Barrel, and we need a half teaspoon. And we'll also add some nutritional yeast. This is going to add those savory umami notes that are naturally found in eggs but not in tofu. And we need two tablespoons of this. Most tofu scramble recipes will leave it here. You've got your tofu, you've got your seasonings, that's it, right? But if we want an actually convincing alternative to scrambled eggs, we've got to add in some richness. That's because scrambled eggs are rich and creamy thanks to the high fat content in eggs. They're often cooked in butter, mixed with milk or heavy cream, so they've got a velvety luxurious mouthfeel. Tofu on the other hand is pretty low in fat, so to add in some rich creaminess, we're going to rely on two more secret ingredients. Full fat oat milk and tahini. Sounds a little unconventional, I know, but again, I promise these are going to level up your tofu scramble. First, we're going to add our tahini to the spice blend. About a generous heaping tablespoon. Make sure it's not like the crusty bottom part of the tahini jar. You want it to be like the liquid smooth stuff. And we'll whisk this until it kind of turns into a paste. And now we'll just pour in our oat milk and whisk until we've got a nice sauce. If you can't find full fat oat milk, just make sure you're using a plant-based milk that has a good amount of fat in it and has like a creamy rich texture. Your standard kind of cereal almond milk that you might put in a smoothie or cereal is not really ideal, so look for something that has more creaminess to it. All right, this is looking nice and smooth, so I'm going to set this aside and tidy up a bit. All right, now that our tofu is pressed, we're just going to crumble it into chunks. First, let me just show you how much thinner our tofu block is now that it's been pressed. Like you can see, it's quite thin compared to before. That's so much water coming out, this whole towel is drenched. So this is why we press the tofu because we don't need all the water that's in here. And we're just going to tear the tofu up into chunks with our hands. We don't want them to be too small because then they'll just kind of turn into a crumbly mess in the pan. And if any of these chunks are really large right now, don't worry because you'll be able to break them up further when you're cooking them in the pan. All right, everything is ready, so let's make the tofu scramble. You're going to heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add a bit of olive oil and let it get nice and hot before you add the crumbled tofu. You don't want to stir too often because you want the exterior of the tofu to pick up some of that golden color. As you go, use your spatula to break up any of the larger chunks, and this should take five to seven minutes, and then you'll pour in the spiced sauce. This is going to add moisture, flavor, and that creamy richness. If you like your scramble on the wet side, you'll need just 30 to 60 seconds, but if you prefer something a little more firm, you can give it a couple of minutes. Tofu scramble looks so creamy and eggy. It smells really good. At this point, I'm just going to add a couple dashes of kala namak to enhance the eggy flavors. It's really potent at the end. Taste it. If it needs a little salt, add some kosher salt or sea salt, and this tofu scramble is perfect as is, but there are so many different ways you can serve it or mix things up if you want to keep it interesting. For instance, if you want to sneak some greens into your breakfast, you can chop some baby spinach up and fold it into the tofu scramble after you add the sauce. For a delicious, easy weekday breakfast, you could pile this tofu scramble up on some avocado toast. If you have some more time on the weekend, you can try making these epic loaded breakfast burritos with this tofu scramble. I'm actually headed over to my parents' place for brunch tomorrow, and they are very, very picky. They like their food to be super flavorful with lots of spices, so I'm going to make a special Middle Eastern-inspired version of this tofu scramble for them and see what they think. For this version, I'm switching up our spice blend to include paprika, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and nutmeg in addition to our kala namak. Everything else stays the same though, and you'll cook the tofu scramble the exact same way we did before. To serve this tofu scramble, we're going to make a really fun brunch plate. The first thing I'm going to do is make a yogurt sauce, and I'm using a really tangy coconut yogurt that's perfect for savory applications like this. We need about a half cup, though you could easily make a double batch of the sauce because it's really good and versatile. And to flavor it, we're going to grate one garlic clove into here. We're also going to add a few squeezes of lemon juice, maybe two to three teaspoons. It really depends on how tangy and tart your yogurt is, so if it's not that tangy, you might want to add a little more lemon juice. We're also going to add a quarter teaspoon of dried mint and a little bit of sea salt. Let me go get my sea salt. And a quarter teaspoon of sea salt and some black pepper. And we'll just give this a mix. Once it's done, give it a taste. If you need more salt, you need more lemon, more mint, just go ahead and add some. And we're going to take this yogurt sauce over the top by drizzling it with a homemade chili oil. Super easy. All I did was combine some extra virgin olive oil with Aleppo pepper in a small sauce pan, low heat, let that simmer for five minutes, and once it's cooled off a bit, it's ready to use. I've got some pita bread heating up in the oven. In the meantime, I'm going to make a super quick salad. A couple handfuls of salad greens, kind of whatever you like. I've got bibb lettuce. We're going to add a little bit of this reserved chili oil. It's going to be so flavorful. A couple squeezes of lemon juice, some sea salt. That's all you need. To finish off our pita, I've got some za'atar infused olive oil. This is optional. If you don't have za'atar at home, it's fine. Just adds a little extra layer of flavor. We're just going to brush it over the warm pita bread. This Middle Eastern inspired tofu scramble brunch plate took like 30 minutes to make, but it is outstanding. However, my parents are super picky, so we'll head over tomorrow to see if this is good enough to win them over on tofu scramble. Hello everyone! These are my parents. You've probably met them before, but in case you haven't, this is my mom, Neela. Hello. I'm Deepak. This is my dad, Deepak. That's our last name, in case you didn't know. So I've prepared for them the Middle Eastern version of the tofu scramble with all the spices. I've got some salad here, the yogurt sauce with chili oil, some chili oil on the salad itself with lemon juice, and some pita bread. And we're going to have you guys taste it, but before I do, tell me how you feel about tofu scramble. I never liked tofu. I don't think it has any taste. Why don't you guys have a taste? You can have the tofu scramble separately, or you can have it with some of the pita and the yogurt. I'm going to eat it alone. Okay. You see, very soft. It's good. Tasty, and even though I don't like tofu, I liked yours. There's some flavor in it that I cannot make out. Did you put some nutritional yeast or something? A little bit, yeah. I don't think this is an authentic recipe. This makes a lot of difference with this sauce. The yogurt sauce is nice. Yeah, this yogurt sauce is very tasty. And did you get nice little chili oil in there? Nice little spice? Very good. So would you make tofu scramble at home now? Yeah, sure. Now that you know it's not so boring and bland. Right. She won't make it, she'll make me do it. Will you make this then? Oh yeah, I have made I'm not a fan of egg either, so I'd rather go with tofu than egg. All right, everyone, thanks for joining. The recipe for this tofu scramble, and the classic one, and all the other versions can be found in the description box below. Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you in the next video. Bye. Bye-bye. Thank you. Very nice. Thank you. Thank you.