Food Blogging

Okay, so if I'm gonna blog about food, then I'm gonna blog about food.  There used to be a Troy Aikmen commercial for GMC (which, my ex-wife's advertising agency did) where he said, "Three steps back, throw.  Three steps back, throw.  I do one thing; I do it well."  And then they tied it into GMC making trucks and doing it well.  

Anyway, I cook well.  I bake adequately.  I fix bikes pretty well.  I ride a bike. . . well, that's it.  I ride a bike.  

These are the breakfast burritos that I make pretty frequently.  They're delicious.  If we had a microwave, I would pre-make and reheat them, daily.  As it is, I make them probably once a week.  The hyperlink in the ingredients link to my preferred choice, just in case someone is new to vegan cooking.  

Breakfast Burritos Almost Just Like Mom Made

1   12 or 16 oz block of extra firm tofu, drained, pressed and crumbled (Nigari Extra Firm or Firm Tofu)

1/2 medium sized yellow onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed

1/2 bell pepper, diced

2-3 medium sized potatoes 

olive oil

vegetable oil

turmeric 

salt

pepper 

spices to taste

tortillas 

mushrooms, quartered or sliced (optional)

jalapeno, sliced (optional)

  red, yellow peppers, diced (optional) 

  fake sausage/Soyrizo, crumbled (optional) (Field Roast Sausage Mexican Chipotle)

  salsa (optional) 

Directions: 

First things first.  When I went vegan, I loved recipes.  It took me about a year or so before I realized that lots of recipes are designed for you to use as a baseline or guide.  So feel free to use this recipe as it's written here, but it's meant for you to customize, and make your own.  I make these burritos so often, and I can almost guarantee that I've not made it the same way twice.  I don't like exact measurements, so apologies for the lack thereof. 

There are two ways of doing the potatoes.  They are both good, but one seems to require more oil than the other.  Method 2 is how my mom does hers, so I like doing it when I can, but have never quite replicated hers.  

Method 1
 - Preheat oven to 375º Fahrenheit.
 - Chop your potatoes to bite sized or smaller pieces.  
 - Place potatoes in a pan
 - Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Stir around a bit to minimize sticking in pan.  Place in oven for about 20 minutes or until tender. 

Method 2 
 - Chop potatoes to bite sized or smaller pieces 
 - Put enough vegetable oil in a pan to cover the bottom.  
 - Heat over medium to high heat, cover and stir occasionally until tender.  
 - Season with salt and pepper to taste.  

Method 2 usually comes out with much softer potatoes.  The frying and steaming is a great combo for potatoes in breakfast burritos.  

Tofu Scramble 
 - Place 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick or cast iron skillet.  (Laura thinks the teflon will kill us one day, who knows maybe it will.  It makes better scramble I think.)
 - Put in minced or pressed garlic and heat on medium heat.  
 - Put in diced onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, jalapenos, whatever veggies you like.  
 - When the onions are clear put in the tofu.
 - Stir occasionally, and put in just enough turmeric to get a pale yellow color.  (It gives the meal some authenticity, and adds a nice subtle flavor.) 
 - Let the scramble sit in the same position to get a nice brown color on the bottom, then stir.  Do this periodically. 
 - Season with salt, pepper, Spike, crushed red pepper, Italian spices, or others of your favorites. Get creative. 
 - If you're using a sausage product, feel free to crumble it and toss it in here. Most of them are pre-cooked and just need to be heated up. 
 - When these are getting close to done, check on your potatoes (either method) and if they're getting close just toss them in this pan.  

Burritos
 - Ideally, take a clean and seasoned cast iron skillet and place empty over medium heat. 
(I've also heated tortillas directly on the electric burner, but I understand that might not be for everyone.  These are my preferred methods, but in lieu of that, heat tortillas as the package recommends, assuming you've not made your own.)
 - Place a cold flour tortilla in, flipping occasionally until soft and warm.  Flour tortillas should be pliable and not crispy.  
 - Place tortilla on a plate, put a couple of spoonfuls of Tofu Scramble and potatoes and wrap.  

Enjoy. 

These would be really good if you pre-made them and reheated for breakfast or lunch on the go.  We made some for a road trip and just wrapped them each in a paper towel and tossed in a ziploc baggie and they were great several hours later.  

Comments

[ang]

Dude, I remember that commercial! Actually that's the only Aikman commercial I remember because I thought it was so lame

Hey, you going to make some some of those burritos when I come and visit?

[Jake]

Ang, you come to town and I'll make biscuits and gravy, breakfast burritos, pesto pizza, pesto pasta, chili and corn bread, rosemary bread loaves (think Macaroni Grill), vegan enchiladas, AND vegan fideo. Then we'll go out for $1ºº corn dog night.

What up.

[Tú mamá]

I don't cook very well...but I do make good potatoes! :-)--thanks for acknowledging.