I love tofu. It’s just so versatile, and the fact that you can do an abundance of things with it, including easily turn it into a mock egg salad, is pretty awesome if you ask me!
This is a very basic recipe which you can add whatever you want to (similar to my Chickpea No-Tuna Salad). Although it’s not necessary, I really like the addition of Kala namak – if you don’t have this in your kitchen, I definitely recommend you get it! Kala namak (also called Himalayan black salt) is a salt that contains sulfur, which gives it a distinct “eggy” smell and flavor.
I love this salad on sandwiches, bagels and wraps, and it’s also great on crackers as a nice snack. When I put it on a sandwich or bagel I’ll usually add lettuce, tomatoes and vegan bacon (anytime I can add bacon to a sandwich I’ll do it!).
This simple tofu recipe replicates traditional egg salad and is quick and easy to prepare.
Prep Time15minutes
Total Time15minutes
Servings4
AuthorBlooming Vegan
Ingredients
114 oz.block of firm tofu
½cupvegan mayo
⅓cupdijon mustard
1tsp.tumeric
½tsp.garlic powder
½tsp.paprika
½tsp.black pepper
½tsp.Kala namack(optional)
Instructions
Press the tofu and break into pieces by hand. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
Enjoy immediately or chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
Recipe Notes
You can add veggies to this as well; I like the addition of green onions and sometimes celery which adds a nice crunch. Red or green bell peppers would be great in this too.
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You can never really go wrong with bean salad. It’s easy to make, inexpensive, and quite good for you – full of protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals. It’s perfect to make in advance as it keeps well in the refrigerator for several days. Plus it’s just so colorful and pretty!
Richard started experimenting with bean salad dishes during the weekends, and this recipe is one of his creations. He makes a big batch of it so we can bring it to work as lunches, or have on the side with dinner (some days we do both!). This also works great as a snack with some pita chips. It’s a nice light dish, which makes it perfect for summertime barbecues, potlucks and picnics.
This recipe is readily customizable – you can add more or less Italian dressing or parsley as desired, and can even omit the salt and pepper (which we often do) and still have it turn out delicious. I recommend blanching the green beans; it not only softens them up a bit, but brightens their color as well.
I’ve always wanted to go to Tahiti, and in January of 2017 I was lucky enough to have the chance!
On our way back from our trip to Australia, Richard and I took a detour and spent three days in Tahiti. Neither of us had ever been there before and we were excited to go to such a beautiful place. We stayed at the Intercontinental Resort and Spa, a beautiful getaway with infinity pools, swim up bars and over-water bungalows. Although we didn’t stay in a bungalow, we had a nice-sized room with a balcony facing the ocean.
The view from our balcony at night
We flew Air Tahiti Nui, from Australia to Tahiti (and then later from Tahiti to LAX), which allowed Richard to specify vegan meals for us. They provided steamed vegetables with tomato sauce, bread and non-dairy butter, and hash browns served with rice and spinach, which was our favorite – it sounds like a weird combination but it was surprisingly good.
Richard had emailed the resort in advance to mention our dietary restrictions and to request information on what options would be available. He also asked if it was possible to get a toaster oven and/or a microwave added to our room. They replied promptly and advised that the chef at “The Tiare” restaurant would be able to provide vegan meals, and they also kindly granted our requests for both a microwave and toaster!
As we sometimes do when traveling, we brought some items with us from Australia. One of those was Susan’s homemade bread – she baked a whole loaf for us to bring, perfect for sandwiches! On our first day at the resort we walked to one of the local supermarkets to get some fresh items. It wasn’t too far of a hike, but it was hot and we were happy to get into air-conditioning. We bought lettuce, tomato and onions for sandwiches, and alcohol (we were on vacation after all!).
View of the main pool from the upstairs bar area
We made lunch in our room the first day and ate it while sitting on the balcony watching the birds fly around, and being watched ourselves by adorable tiny lizards called Indo-Pacific geckos. They were everywhere! They climb all over the walls and ceilings and just hang out. A really cool fact about these lizards is that they are parthenogenic, meaning they’re all female, so their eggs don’t require fertilization.
That night we had dinner at “The Tiare” restaurant. We told our server of our dietary requirements, and he helpfully recommended items that would work for us. We both had the cold cucumber soup appetizer with a dollop of coconut cream on top. Neither of us normally likes cold soup, so we were pleasantly surprised by how delicious it was! I also got a stir fry with vegetables and tofu, and Richard had pasta with marinara sauce and basil. Both dishes were excellent, and like the soup even better than we anticipated. Of course we got some fancy drinks as well (isn’t that a requirement when you go to a tropical island?).
Cucumber soupVeggie stir frySimple but delicious pasta dishOur fancy drinks! 🙂
We went back for lunch the next day, where we shared a veggie pizza, which was really good – the sauce was great and the veggies and crust were cooked perfectly.
Veggie pizza
We had one final meal at the restaurant, on our last night there. Richard got the veggies and tofu stir fry that I had ordered previously, and I got a panini with tofu, tomatoes and a side of french fries. The panini was the least exciting thing we ate – it was pretty bland as it only had some olive oil on it, and the tofu wasn’t very seasoned. The fries were great though. 🙂
Tofu panini with fries
The weather in January was hot and humid, and it did rain a lot. We got caught in the rain a few times while sitting by the pool, but it was kind of nice because it was less crowded – at one point we even had the pool to ourselves!
This felt like our own private pool!Twilight by the pool
Tahiti is a beautiful, lovely place, and I highly recommend going there. It’s definitely a bit far to travel to from the States, but well worth the journey. I’m hopeful that one day we can go back and stay longer than we did on this trip, partake in some activities and really explore the island.
The Beyond Burger is another awesome vegan product by Beyond Meat. Initially it was only available at select Whole Foods around the country, but it’s now stocked at all of them, as well as many other supermarkets. Our local health food store Wild By Nature carries it now too, and we even saw it in Stop & Shop recently. (You can see the full list of retailers here.)
When we saw these burgers in the package we were amazed by how much they look like meat. Then we took them out and saw they even have the smell and feel of it too (so weird!).
We weren’t surprised to find they also smell like hamburgers while they cook – as people who haven’t cooked meat in a long time, it was almost a little unsettling! My mom even came upstairs in disbelief to ask “Is that real meat?”
But let me tell you – they are delicious. To me, the taste and texture is identical to a real hamburger – but obviously so much better, since they’re not only a lot healthier but also cruelty-free. Interestingly, they contain a lot more iron than a hamburger made from animals, and a tad more protein as well.
These burgers can be cooked in a pan or on the grill – we prefer to grill them but of course the weather in New York doesn’t always cooperate with us!
Another thing I like about these burgers is that you can form them into smaller patties, since they’re basically identical in texture to ground meat – I love to eat sliders, so they’re perfect for that.
The only downside if you cook it indoors is that your house will definitely smell like cooked meat for a while afterwards! I should also mention that it’s so similar to meat that some long-time vegans may find it too real and be uncomfortable with the taste and/or texture of it. For us, we just thought they tasted amazing, and love the fact that Beyond Meat has made a vegan burger that is so meat-like it may convince even the staunchest omnivores to try it.
The Beyond Burger is an amazing product that we were seriously impressed with. It’s perfect for vegans craving a “meatier” burger and something more substantial than your average veggie patty, as well as a wonderful ethically-sound alternative for meat eaters who hopefully will be curious enough to give it a try.
Veganism is really taking off in Australia – it’s currently the third fastest-growing vegan market in the world, and Melbourne is exploding with vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants. Recently Domino’s launched vegan pizza there (hopefully it will come to the US soon too). Australians also google “vegan” more than anyone else in the world!
Since Richard is Australian, we try to go there to visit friends and family when we can. Our most recent trip was in January of 2017, the perfect time to escape the cold of New York. We were in the air on New Year’s, a first for me – unfortunately they did not offer us champagne (boo!).
We had traveled Down Under together twice before this, and drove all over to see as many people as possible. This time we took a more relaxed approach, and stayed mostly in Ballarat, about an hour and a half from Melbourne. We spent a lot of time with my Mother-in-Law and Sister-in-Law, and their four adorable little dogs. ♡
Mount Buninyong in Ballarat
My Mother-in-Law is an excellent cook and made delicious vegan meals for us. She’s also amazing at making breads – she made several loaves during the week, which smelled so good while baking I had to eat some right out of the oven! At my request she also made Chickpea No-Tuna Salad (I had a craving!), which she says she makes fairly often for herself as well.
We checked out several stores and supermarkets to see what vegan items they had. At both Coles and Woolworths, we found Quorn Vegan Nuggets and Schnitzels, and some frozen items by a company called Vegie Delights. Like Quorn, Vegie Delights also has vegetarian items, but we did see their Lentil Patties, Sausages and Chick’n Style Tenders which are all vegan. We also bought Bio Cheese made by MyLife, a company that specializes in vegan cheeses and butter. We were super impressed with both the taste of this cheese and how well it melted – I wish we could get it in the States!
We also went to IGA and found lots of Gardein products (including a huge bag of the Fishless Filets!).
During two of our trips into Melbourne we went to Loving Hut, one of my all time favorite vegan restaurants. Everything there is amazing but I absolutely love the Malaysian Curry Laksa – one of us gets it every time we go! We also got the Tom Kha Soup and the Green Curry.
Loving Hut’s LaksaGreen CurryThe Tom Kha Soup
One night we went to a vegan-friendly pizza place called Pizza Meine Liebe. The online menu doesn’t show it, but they carry the Bio Cheese and will substitute it for regular cheese on any of their pizzas. We ordered the “Straight Up” pizza with Bio Cheese, capers and red onion and it was so good I wanted another!
We stayed in Melbourne one weekend and got to spend time with Richard’s friends while we were there. On a Friday evening we had a really nice get together with them, where they had prepared us a whole vegan spread, including a delicious dessert! Later on we went to the beach, which was quite busy (and very entertaining!) since it was a weekend. We had so much fun and it was a great night.
Not the beach we went to, but Broadbeach in Queensland – this pic is from our previous trip in 2015 (on our honeymoon)
That same weekend we got takeaway from vegan sandwich shop Smith & Deli (they also have a restaurant location called Smith & Daughters). It’s your typical deli/sandwich place that also sells vegan grocery items. The sandwiches all have cute names like “Anaphylaxis of Evil” and “The Eggs-orcist”. Richard got the “Little Havana”, a Cuban-style sandwich with mock ham, roast turk’y, pickles, mozzarella and cheddar cheeze, and I got the “Foghorn Legless” which was chick’n schnitzel, vegan bacon, lettuce, tomato and ranch. I also got a side of chick’n salad. Although I didn’t take any pictures (I will next time!), if you go here you can see their menu and lots of customer images.
We also had brunch at the all vegan Matcha Mylk Bar, where they make their own trademarked vegan egg. Per the menu, these eggs “have the same protein, look and texture as a traditional egg, however, they are made from completely plant based ingredients.” They even add “the taste is sweeter but more compassionate.” We ordered it (of course!), and the eggs were very close to being a regular egg shape, just a bit rounder and thicker. I really enjoyed it, and I love that they offer such a unique and realistic alternative. The only thing I wasn’t thrilled with was the blasting music – it made it hard to have a conversation, and didn’t help our post-party hangovers!
Another picture from 2015 – this was at Mount Wellington in TasmaniaThis is also in Tassie – Richmond Bridge, the oldest bridge still in use in Australia
Oh and if you’re wondering, Vegemite is indeed vegan. It’s also a great source of B vitamins. It’s also…weird tasting. Richard loves it, but I don’t like it at all. Our local Fairway carries it, interestingly enough. If you can find it near you and want to give it a try, apparently the trick is to spread it very thinly – a good way to have it would be on toast with vegan butter and a little bit of Vegemite on top.
Since I was still on a blogging hiatus at the time of our visit I didn’t take as many pictures of food and the available vegan items as I would now, so I’ll be sure to do that when we go back! Hopefully we can get there again sometime soon. I’d also like to go to Sydney, since I haven’t been there yet, so we’re adding that to our travel list as well. 🙂
I have to be honest: I used to love KFC popcorn chicken. I thought they were little bites of deliciousness, and ate them way more than I probably should have! So I was very excited to try creating a vegan version when I saw a recipe for tofu popcorn chick’n by Shae from Happy Healing.
When I initially made this, I was really happy with how it turned out – it was yummy and definitely satisfied my craving. However I decided to experiment a little and adapted it with some adjustments.
The first change I made was to freeze the tofu, which I did after pressing and then breaking it into nugget-sized pieces. I put the tofu chunks in a plastic bag to freeze overnight; in the morning I moved them to the fridge to thaw for later. (Another way to freeze tofu is to put the whole unopened package in the freezer, remove it the next day to thaw and then press it.)
Freezing tofu gives it a firmer, denser texture that is a bit chewier and more “meat-like”. If you do decide to freeze your tofu, don’t be alarmed if it turns yellow while still frozen! This is totally normal and doesn’t affect the flavor at all; it will return to white once it’s thawed.
The other changes I made were using regular all purpose flour instead of chickpea flour, omitting the mustard, and adding garlic powder. I used Old Bay as the all purpose seasoning – although Old Bay is traditionally used for seafood, it added a nice flavor to this which reminded me of fried chicken.
My favorite ways to eat these are with a little dipping sauce on the side (in the pictures I used my Easy Vegan Ranch Dressing), or thrown into a salad. Yum!
An adaptation of Shae's recipe from Happy Healing, these tofu bites are crispy and delicious.
Prep Time15minutes
Cook Time25minutes
Total Time40minutes
Servings4
AuthorBlooming Vegan
Ingredients
114 oz.block of firm tofu
2tsp.Old Bay seasoning
¼tsp.garlic powder
⅓cupall purpose flour
¼cupnutritional yeast
1tsp.salt
½tsp.pepper
⅔cupwater
2-3Tbsp.extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
Press the tofu and use your hands to break into bite-sized chunks. (At this point you can freeze it or just proceed to the next steps.)
In a mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients, then gradually whisk in the water until you’ve achieved pancake batter consistency.
Add the tofu chunks and mix well.
Add the olive oil to a pan and heat on medium.
Add the tofu to the pan, spreading it out so it will be heated equally. Cook pieces on both sides until they are browned and crispy; you may need to add a bit more oil so keep an eye on them (and watch out for splatters from the hot oil!).
When they’re done, place on a paper towel-covered plate to absorb any excess oil.
Enjoy plain, with dipping sauce, or any way you like!
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Do you miss egg yolk as a vegan (or fear it’s something you will miss)? Good news – you don’t have to!
When I went vegan in 2011, I thought I was giving up egg yolk for good. Although I didn’t eat eggs that often, whenever I did they were usually over-easy so I could dip my buttered toast in the runny yolk. I was honestly a little bummed about never being able to do that again.
Enter The Vegg Vegan Egg Yolk! The Vegg is a powder that you mix with water to create the egg yolk; to make one yolk, you blend 1/8 cup of water with a teaspoon of The Vegg. It has to be blended (for about 30 seconds) – you can’t whisk it or mix it by hand because it won’t form the right consistency.
The first thing you notice after blending it up is that it smells just like eggs! This is due to the Kala namak (aka Black Salt) included in the ingredients. After it’s been blended, you’ll see that the appearance and consistency is akin to regular egg yolk.
The first way I ate it was to heat it up so it got nice and hot, then I dipped my Earth Balance buttered toast in it. I was really surprised by how good it was – to me, it tasted almost exactly the same as regular yolk. Just like that, I had egg yolks back!
The way we use this most often now is with tofu scramble – we add the pressed and crumbled tofu to a pan with sesame oil, cook it a bit, then add The Vegg and mix it through, cooking a little while longer until it’s hot and absorbed. (We also like to add a few splashes of soy sauce.) It turns out great, and it’s awesome because you can use as much or as little as you like, depending on whether you like your scramble on the runny side or prefer it a bit drier.
We find that one canister lasts a long time, especially since we tend to use it on the weekends only. I honestly prefer this to regular eggs – when I used to eat scrambled or over-easy eggs in the past, they actually grossed me out once they were no longer steaming hot; however if The Vegg cools down it doesn’t bother me at all for some reason.
I highly recommend The Vegg Vegan Egg Yolk. Not only does it taste good, but it’s high in B12 too (and obviously has no cholesterol!). It’s an amazing way to eat egg yolk that is sustainable, healthier and of course, completely devoid of harm. 🙂
This post is not sponsored but does contain Affiliate Links; please read our Affiliates Disclosure for more information.
