weekend english breakfast, vegan style

Cor! This is just what you need on a lazy weekend. Especially if you may have gone out the previous night, and danced around your handbag one too many times.

Bottom left is the saviour of any egg-fans - scrambled tofu. It's so yummy! I used to be a huge egg fan, and would regularly have scrambled eggs every weekend. I absolutely don't miss that now, because scrambled tofu is such a revelation.  This recipe is loosely based on a recipe by Isa Chandra on Post Punk Kitchen, which is excellent. I have 2 of her cookbooks. 

So tuck into this, and sit back and read the papers. Listen to the radio. Maybe have a little snooze, it's the weekend!

Serves 2

For the scrambled tofu:

1 block of firm tofu
1 small onion
A glug of olive oil for frying
A sprinkle of the following:
- tumeric
- cumin
- orgegano
-paprika
-salt and Pepper
-nutritional Yeast Flakes 

For everything else:

4 Linda McCartney sausages
1 tin of baked beans 
2 large tomatoes 
6 mushrooms
1 clove garlic
4 slices of brown bread

For this recipe, you'll need a big frying pan and a smaller frying pan. If you can, it's easier to heat the the baked beans in the microwave. Once you've made this once, you will want to make it again and again!

1. Add some olive oil to the larger frying pan, and put on a medium heat. Chop an onion into smallish bits, and add to the pan. Crumble a block of tofu in your fingers into the pan too. Leave some bigger chunks as you will like picking these out to munch on the plate. 

2. Cook the tofu and onions until the onions have gone a bit see through and the tofu is a nice golden colour. Don't worry if you still have some white patches.

3.. Pop the sausages under the grill or in the oven, whichever is easiest for you. Don't fry them, you want to live to see your grandchildren. 

4. Turn the heat down to low, and add the herbs, spices and nutritional yeast flakes. Add a shake of each. Tumeric is great for the colour (it will all go yellow!), cumin is a lovely earthy spicy taste. Paprika is also earthy, but in a less spicy way. Oregano is a classic strong herb and nutritional yeast flakes give a cheesy/nutty taste. Depending on how I'm feeling (and what I have in the cupboard) I regularly change up the herbs and spices, and the quantities  So taste as you go, and see what you think! 

4. Make sure to mix the herbs and spices into the tofu and onions properly. Let them warm through on the low heat. 

5. Check your sausages are still ok. Chop up the mushrooms, and smush a garlic clove with the flat of your knife (gets the peel off) and then chop as small as you can. Chop the tomatoes down the middle, so you're left with 4 juicy halves. Add the tomatoes to the frying pan, juicy half down. Add the mushrooms to the side, with the garlic. You should be able to squeeze it all in!

6. Pop the beans in the microwave, or in a small pan, and pop the bread in the toaster.

7. Give everything a little poke and a jiggle until it seems cooked. The garlic mushrooms will go nice and juicy, the scrambled tofu will be smelling heavenly. 

8. In an ideal world, everything will be ready at the exact same time! Now you run around like a headless chicken for approximately 60 seconds getting everything onto plates, which is a pretty satisfying experience. 

Don't worry if it doesn't quite work out like that, as whoever you're cooking for should be grateful that you're making them such a big delicious breakfast anyway! 

What do you do at the weekend? I try to get to the gym if I can, or go for a walk on the beach. I also do all my clothes washing and tidying, I call it sorting my life out time!