Vegan New Mexican breakfast burritos

This is a nice spot to have breakfast. (Ghost Ranch, former home to Georgia O’Keeffe, northern New Mexico

After making one of my favorite comfort foods, New Mexican inspired breakfast burritos, I decided I needed to make a vegan counterpart. I wanted to recreate the same satisfying flavor of the original: melty cheese, spicy chile, rounded out with potatoes and tofu.

Though it’s the most common recipe in vegetarian cookbooks, I’d been avoiding tofu scramble til now. The last time I made one, I was a 14-year old, freshly-made vegetarian. I bought a pre-mixed bag of scramble seasoning, and attempted to add it to very soft, silken tofu. The results? Well, there’s a reason why I haven’t made the stuff in well over a decade. But I decided that it was far past time to revisit the recipe.

Inspired by some nifty recipe ideas at Post-Punk Kitchen’s blog, I decided to give tofu scramble another go— and I’m very glad that I did!

I also went all out, and made my own vegan cheese, with cashews. Also, I added extra cayenne to the vegan cheese, so it’d have an extra kick. (If you’re looking for gluten-free tortilla reviews, I’ve tried a few.)

• Time: 30mins
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Ingredients (per burrito)

1 small potato
1 corn tortilla
1/2 green chile, or other salsa of your choice
1/4 pound tofu
1 tsp turmeric (for that lovely yellow color)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp salt (or more or less, to taste)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
olive oil or butter substitute (I used Earth Balance)
1/2 cup vegan cheese of your choice (Daiya is good)

1. Dice the potato(s) into small cubes. Fry them in olive oil or butter substitute until golden brown. Let them drain on a paper towel, and add salt and pepper to taste.
2. While the potatoes are frying, measure out the spices and mix them together.
3. Break the tofu into small, bite-sized pieces. You can either just break them apart in your hands, or put the tofu in a mixing bowl and break apart with a fork.
4. Thoroughly mix the tofu and spices in a bowl, until all that soy is completely covered.
5. Fry the tofu in olive oil. The trick is to make sure the tofu gets crispy on at least one side.
6. When at least one side of the tofu is good and crispy, take off the heat and top with vegan cheese.
7. Layer the potatoes and scrambled tofu side by side on a warm tortilla. Top with green chile, roll up, and chow down.

You can get about 4-6 sized burritos out of a 1 pound block of tofu— depending on how much tofu you want, and how big your tortillas are.