Scrambled tofu is probably one of the most mundane vegan recipes there is. Go ahead and roll your eyes when you open a cookbook and see the obligatory entry, I know I do, even at my own. But for a new vegan it’s one of the most important dishes to learn. And for me, even though my inaugural tofu was scrambled 20 years ago, it’s still a staple.

It’s one of those things that changes with you, kind of like a culinary mood ring. My scramble used to feel incomplete without mushrooms, but lately I prefer a simpler texture, even onions aren’t a necessity anymore. I went through a broccoli era, and used to take a hardline anti-red pepper stance, but lately the cruciferous is out and nightshades are in.

But you don’t have to stop at breakfast, or limit yourself to a plate of scramble and hashbrowns. Look at scrambled tofu with fresh eyes! Here’s a few ways to spruce up your scramble, or use up your leftovers.

Serve in a squash bowl: Serve in half a baked squash (acorn or carnival would work perfectly.) Caramelized onions would be nice, too.
Breakfast burritos: Wrap up with potatoes, fresh salsa and guacamole.
Add to mac and cheese: Use up leftover scramble (or make some scramble just for the occasion!) by adding it to your favorite vegan mac and cheese recipe.
Lettuce wraps: Tuck scramble into lettuce, serve with fresh tomatoes and drizzle with vinaigrette
Make a sandwich: Not the most ingenious idea, but one of my favorites! A scramble sandwich with avocado, red onion and sprouts.
Make a knish: Make potato knishes and add a layer of scramble
Stuff peppers: Mix with a can of black beans and some salsa. Stuff into red peppers, bake and top with a little vegan cheese at the end.
Crepe filling: Serve in a crepe, with a vegan hollandaise sauce.

And in case you don’t have enough scrambled tofu recipes in your repertoire, here’s another for good measure (from Vegan Brunch.)

Basic Scrambled Tofu
Serves 4
For me, a basic scramble should have nice big pieces in it. It’s crumbled, yes, but not completely in crumbles. Just kind of torn apart and then broken up a bit when cooking in the pan. The flavor should be lip smacking and just a bit salty, but not overly so. Garlic, some cumin, a little thyme - that is the base. From there you can do countless variations using whatever is in your fridge that morning.

So this is my basic recipe. When you want a trustworthy and easy to modify standard scramble, this makes a great go-to.

Spice blend:
2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed with your fingers

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced (or more, to taste)

1 pound extra-firm tofu, drained

1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Fresh black pepper to taste

First stir the spice blend together in a small cup. Add water and mix. Set aside.

Preheat a large, heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat. Saute the garlic in olive oil for about a minute. Break the tofu apart into bite sized pieces and saute for about 10 minutes, using a spatula to stir often. Get under the tofu when you are stirring, scrape the bottom and don’t let it stick to the pan, that is where the good, crispy stuff is. Use a thin metal spatula to get the job done, a wooden or plastic one won’t really cut it. The tofu should get browned on at least one side, but you don’t need to be too precise about it. The water should cook out of it and not collect too much at the bottom of the ban. If that is happening, turn the heat up and let the water evaporate.

Add the spice blend and mix to incorporate. Add the nutritional yeast and fresh black pepper. Cook for about 5 more minutes. Serve warm.

You can include these additions to your scramble by themselves or in combination with one another.

Broccoli - Cut about one cup into small florettes, thinly slice the stems. Add along with the tofu.
Onion - Finely chop one small onion. Add along with the garlic, and cook for about 5 minutes, until translucent. Proceed with recipe.
Red Peppers - Remove stem and seed, finely chop one red pepper. Add along with the garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Proceed with recipe.
Mushrooms - Thinly slice about a cup of mushrooms. Add along with the tofu.
Olives - Chop about 1/3 a cup of sliced olives. Add towards the end of cooking, after mixing in the nutritional yeast.
Spinach - Add about 1 cup of chopped spinach towards the end of cooking, after mixing in the nutritional yeast. Cook until completely wilted.
Carrots - Grate half of an average sized carrot into the scramble towards the end of cooking. This is a great way to add color to the scramble.
Avocado - I almost always have avocado with my scramble. Just peel and slice it and serve on top.

You may or may not know that I’m working on a low fat cookbook. I was deeply concerned that this meant goodbye to some of my favorite dishes but with a few tricks, a lot of creativity and many hours searching thriftstores for 80s diet cookbooks, I’ve been able to keep myself satisfied and I don’t feel like I’m sacrificing much.

For instance, no one should suffer a life without pesto, but a pesto without pinenuts or walnuts seems lifeless. So what’s a girl to do? Once again, it’s soybeans to the rescue! Edamame has just enough fat and texture to make a lighter healthier pesto work. It also makes the pesto at once bulky and creamy. It’s a miracle, really. Oh, little soybean, what can’t you do?

In this dish I’ve sauteed some mushrooms for meatiness and red onions for a little tinge of sweetness. But you can use edamame pesto as a dip or as a topping for a baked potatoes, or as a filling for lasagna, or anywhere else that pesto would be appropriate. It’s really easy and versatile, too. It may not taste exactly like the super oily pesto we all know and love, but it tastes pretty darn good and it’s got a fraction of the fat so it won’t leave you feeling like you’re about to give birth to a pesto baby. Did I just ruin your appetite forever?

Spinach Linguine With Edamame Pesto
Serves 4

For the edamame pesto:
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup packed basil leaves
Handful (1/4 cup or so) fresh cilantro
14 oz package shelled edamame, thawed
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
optional: 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

For the pasta:
10 oz spinach linguine or other pasta

1 teaspoon olive oil
Small red onion, in thinly sliced half moons
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
Extra basil for garnish

Cooking spray

Put on a pot of salted water to boil. Then prepare the pesto:

Place garlic and basil in food processor and pulse a few times to get it chopped up. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until relatively smooth, scraping down the sides with a spatula to make sure you get everything. Add a little more vegetable broth if it seems too stiff. Set aside until ready to use.

Preheat a large pan over medium heat. At this point your pasta water should be ready, so add the linguine.

Saute onion in oil for about 5 minutes. Use a little cooking spray as needed, or a splash of water if you prefer. Mix in mushrooms, garlic, thyme and salt. Cover pot and cook 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

The pasta should be ready now, so drain it.

When the mushrooms have cooked down, add pasta to the pan, along with the pesto. Use a pasta spoon to stir and coat the linguine. Get everything good and mixed and the pesto heated through, about 3 minutes. The pesto should be relatively thick, but if it’s too thick (not spreading out and coating the pasta) add a few tablespoons of water. Taste for salt.

Serve immediately, garnished with a little fresh chopped basil.

Once the leaves start changing I’m jonesing for earthy, comforting flavors. Luckily, the farmer’s markets are spilling over with all manner of funny shaped, tantalizing mushrooms. The biggest crime in the world is throwing them into a stew, where they’ll get hopelessly lost.

My favorite way to enjoy fresh mushrooms, like chanterelle, porcini or trumpet, is super simple: sauteed in olive oil with lots of garlic, a little salt and pepper, fresh thyme and a splash of white wine. Finish it off with a squeeze of lemon juice. I like to serve them with a farmer’s market plate; some roasted squash, grilled peppers and some mashed root veggies. You don’t need to employ the entire spice rack when you’re cooking with farm fresh ingredients, it’s much more important to learn the simple cooking methods that coax the most flavor out of them. I’m going to cover a few of those methods through out the month. Won’t you join me?

White Wine Garlic Chanterelles

Serves 2 as a side, or 4 as a garnish

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

6 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 pound chantrelles, stems sliced 1/4 inch thick, tops 1/2 inch thick (you can use any fancy shmancy mushroom here)

big pinch salt

several dashes fresh black pepper

1/3 cup dry white wine

1 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme

1/2 a lemon

Preheat a large, heavy bottomed pan over medium heat (cast iron is awesome.) Saute the garlic in the olive oil for about a minute. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The moisture should release from the mushrooms and they should be tender but still firm.

Add white wine and turn the heat up. Cook for about 3 more minutes, stirring often. Add the thyme and squeeze the lemon juice in. Taste for salt and serve warm.

When we do favors we do them out of the kindness of our heart and shouldn’t really expect much in return, but wouldn’t a thank you be so much more heartfelt if you could eat it? Cookies show that you really mean it. Mean it enough to spend a half hour in the kitchen whipping up a batch.

I’ve been trying to make it a point to thank people more often, which means baking more often. This week I had two people to thank but I didn’t really have anything fancy to pack the cookies in. Yes, a plastic baggy full of cookies is a wonderful gift, but I wanted something a little more impressive. Turns out that empty tea boxes are the perfect vehicle for cookies and they’re the kind of thing everyone has around the house. And if they’re not empty, pull out a couple of bags and voila!

To make them even cuter, and also to provide a little padding, line the bottom with a few extra tea packets that you think will go well with the cookies. Here I’ve chosen some cranberry tea to go with cranberry white chocolate cookies. You can’t see them because they’re hidden but I promise they are there! You can use the inside of the box as your card. This one was for the guy at the bike shop that put my seat on after it had been stolen. He also put on my lights, which is very cool because usually trying to figure out those light straps ends with me and a roll of duct tape and a lot of cursing. But the reason I really wanted to thank him was that if you’ve ever been an idiot in a bike shop, you’ll notice that the employees pretty much treat you like an idiot in a bike shop. But this guy was really nice about it, so he gets cookies!

Some glittery kitty cat stickers would have been cute, too.

On this, the first evening of VeganMoFo, how about figuring out who you could thank? Even if it’s for some silly reason. Hint: No one has ever baked me cookies!