Egg-free, wheat-free, nut-free (optional: dairy-free)
I almost hesitate to post this recipe, it’s so stupidly simple. But I know that when Sid was first declared egg allergic and all the things he couldn’t eat were racing through my mind, a super-quick substitute for that childhood favourite, scrambled egg on toast, would have been a joy to hear about.
Of course we hadn’t been able to attempt it until recently, given that it’s made with tofu and we weren’t sure if Sid would be allergic to soya. Thankfully he isn’t and this has turned into a really handy, quick and nutritious staple for him.
And despite my reservations at first, it doesn’t taste half bad. I mix it in with tomato, spinach, mushroom and basil but for the full Turkish scrambled egg experience you could add in some peppers or olives or whatever takes your fancy. Or eat it pure and unadorned (actually, with nothing but grated cheddar might be nice…).
If you can eat dairy, it’s best mixed in with a cream cheese to give it a bit of, well, creaminess and depth. I go for Sainsbury’s ‘SO’ Organic full fat soft cheese as it’s nothing but cheese, and has a more crumbly soft texture than Philadelphia.
I remember when I was a child my lovely grandad (known to my sister and me as ‘Ganzie’) Woolf ‘Willy’ White, born in the Jewish East End, would buy proper cream cheese spooned into a tub from the deli counter – so rich it would have an almost yellowish tinge – and spread it in thick peaks on digestive biscuits. In fact, it became known to us all as ‘Ganzie’s cheese’. For some reason it’s virtually impossible to find that sort of cream cheese any more. They used to sell it in our local Safeway but you can’t find it in supermarkets nowadays and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in the average deli, either. Such a shame.
Anyway, that was a tangent – here’s how to make my fake scrambled egg on toast:
Ingredients
Plain tofu (I go for Cauldron Original Tofu as there are no sesame or nut warnings and the ingredients are simply water, soya beans and calcium sulphate).
Handful of fresh leaf spinach
One fresh tomato
Cream cheese (Sainsbury’s SO Organic full fat cream cheese for me)
Fresh basil
One mushroom
Olive oil
Unsalted butter
Wheat-free bread (I use Dietary Specials gluten-free brown loaf)
Method
Slice off a good, thick, two inch wide slice from the tofu and store the rest under water in a sealed Tupperware container in the fridge.
Soak up some of the water from the tofu by pressing with a wad of kitchen towel for a few seconds. Cut into chunks.
Wash and finely chop the spinach, tomato, mushroom and basil.
Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan or saucepan and sauté the mushrooms and tomato. When softened (three or four minutes on a low heat should do it), add in the tofu, spinach and basil and ‘scramble’ the mixture together with a wooden spoon.
Leave to cook for a few minutes on a gentle heat, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, toast the bread and spread with unsalted butter. Then stir a good heaped teaspoon of cream cheese into the tofu and mix until melted.
Serve with the toast, and eat…
FOR each parent of a child with food allergies there is some food, some childhood favourite or adult obsession, that in more maudlin moments they wish their little one could one day try. For my husband that vetoed dish is curry.
yesnobananas 