Vegan with a Vengeance

teaspoon dried thyme, crushed with your fingers
    1 teaspoon ground paprika
    Â½ teaspoon ground turmeric
    1 teaspoon salt
    Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the onions for 3 minutes, until softened; add the mushrooms, sauté for 5 minutes; add the garlic, sauté for 2 minutes. Add the spice blend and mix it up for 15 seconds or so. Add ¼ cup water to deglaze the pan, scraping the bottom to get all the garlic and spices.
    Crumble in the tofu and mix well. Don’t crush the tofu, just kind of lift it and mix it around. You want it to remain chunky. Let cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding splashes of water if necessary to keep it from sticking too much. Lower the heat a bit if you find that the tofu is sticking. Add the lemon juice. Add the nutritional yeast and mix it up. If the mixture is sticking to the pan, add splashes of water. The moistness really depends on how much water the tofu was retaining before you added it.
    Grate the carrot into the tofu mixture and fold. Serve with guacamole and salsa and potatoes and toast and tempeh bacon.

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    VARIATIONS
    Tofu Rancheros: Add 1 cup of Salsa at the end, cook for 1 minute extra.
    Asian-Style Scrambled Tofu: Add 2 tablespoons of minced ginger with the garlic, use peanut oil instead of olive oil, substitute shiitake mushrooms, and omit the thyme and nutritional yeast. Mix in 1 cup of thinly sliced scallions at the very end.
    PUNK POINTS
    If you don’t have nutritional yeast on hand you can still make this recipe; just don’t add any water when cooking.
    Fizzle says:
    Use a cast-iron pan so that you don’t have to worry about scratching the pan to get all the good burnt bits.

Asparagus and Sun-dried Tomato Frittata
    SERVES 4
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    A frittata is an open-faced, baked omelet. I love the combo of asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes for its colors as well as taste and texture, but you can get creative with your vegetable choices or use some of my variations below. No need to press the tofu,just drain it and give it a squeeze over the sink—that oughta do it.
    1 pound extra-firm tofu
    1 tablespoon soy sauce
    1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (yellow will work fine if you like that better)
    Â¼ cup nutritional yeast
    2 teaspoons olive oil
    Â½ cup onion (1 small), cut into ¼-inch dice
    3 stalks asparagus, rough ends discarded, cut into bite-size pieces
    Â¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, finely chopped
    2 cloves garlic, minced
    1 teaspoon dried thyme
    Â¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
    Juice of ½ lemon
    Â¼ cup fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces
    Preheat oven to 400°F.
    In a mixing bowl, crumble the tofu and squeeze through your fingers until it resembles ricotta cheese. This should take about a minute. Mix in the soy sauce and mustard. Add the nutritional yeast and combine well. Set aside.
    In a small (8-inch) skillet, sauté the onions in the olive oil for 2 minutes. Add asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes, sauté for about 3 more minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and turmeric, sauté for 1 more minute. Add the lemon juice to deglaze the pan; turn off the heat. Transfer the onion mixture to the tofu mixture and combine well. Fold in the basil leaves. Transfer back to the skillet and press the mixture firmly in place. Cook in the oven at 400°F for 20 minutes. Transfer to the broiler to brown the top, about 2 minutes (keep a close eye on it so as not to burn it). Let the frittata sit for 10 minutes before serving. Cut into four slices and lift each piece out with a pie server to prevent the frittata from falling apart. If it does crumble a bit, don’t fret, just put it back into shape.

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    VARIATIONS
    Broccoli and Olive Frittata: Replace the asparagus with ½ cup chopped broccoli florettes. Replace the sundried-tomatoes with sliced black olives.
    Indian Frittata: Replace the asparagus with ½ cup chopped cauliflower florettes. Replace the sun-dried tomatoes with ¼ cup cooked chickpeas. Omit the thyme and basil, add 1 teaspoon curry powder and one teaspoon cumin.
    Mushroom Frittata: Saute 1 cup of sliced cremini mushrooms along with the onions. Omit the asparagus, use ¼ cup of sliced black olives or sun-dried tomatoes. Serve with Mushroom Sauce (page 89).
    PUNK POINTS
    If you don’t have an 8-inch skillet then employ a pie plate when baking the fritatta.

    Start Your Own Brunch Café
    As a vegan, the hardest part about not eating eggs is going out with friends for