Breakfast for Dinner/Fried Potatoes with Greens and Tofu Scramble

It was cold today.  Rainy and cold.  It felt like the season of Fall finally fell upon us.  I love it!  This weather, though, makes me want cozy food.  For me, this usually means something delicious and full of complex carbohydrates.  To stave off the cold, I decided to make fried potatoes with chard and tofu scramble for dinner.  And...while I was at it, cook a big pot of red lentil soup which is a staple around our house. (I'll post my lentil soup recipe at another time)

To be completely honest, I usually purchase frozen hash brown potatoes for brunch or breakfast feasts.  Today I decided to actually use potatoes, boil them, chop them  and then fry them up.  It was more work but I had the time this afternoon.  We have extra cooked potatoes in the frig for later this week.  They can be added to soup or stew, used as a side dish with seitan and gravy, or maybe we'll fry them up again with some greens.

Well not, that's a pretty crappy photo!  I am still new at this here thing called "blogging" so please give me some space to take blurry photos!

I cut the boiled potatoes up into little cubes and then added them to half an onion I sauteed in oil.  I added some salt and pepper and let them slow cook until they started to get brown.  I highly advise using a metal spatula to turn things like this.  It really allows you to get the browned bits up off the bottom!

Near the end of the cooking time I added two huge handfuls of chopped red chard.  I am always looking for ways to get more green into our diet.  To help the chard cook I covered the pan.

While the potatoes were frying I sauteed some garlic in oil in a different saute pan.  I used about 6 cloves of chopped garlic.  I added 2 pounds of tofu using my hands to crumble it as I added it to the garlic. (I used 2 pounds so that we'd have left overs for my daughter to eat over the next couple mornings.  I'm all about left overs!) 

While that was frying I put together a little spice concoction from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's tofu scramble recipe.  If you are using one pound of tofu the recipe is:

2 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp tumeric  (I have read that tumeric really needs to be paired with black pepper in order for it to have the amazing anti-inflammatory effects.  I added black pepper as the potaotes cooked)

Put these spices in a bowl and add water to make a paste.  You want the paste to be a tad bit watery.

After the tofu had sauteed and began to have brown bits I added the spice mixture, salt, pepper, a bit of garlic and onion salt, and nutritional yeast.  For one pound of tofu, add 1/4 cup nutritional yeast.  Mix this all up in the saute pan. 

I then added 2 - 3 handfuls of chopped spinach (see, there are those greens again!), 1/2 can chopped artichoke hearts, and chopped Kalamata olives.  Oh my, what deliciousness!

Here's a photo of the two fry pans doing their business....

We added Kelly's whole wheat millet toast with Earth Balance margarine and a big bowl of organic grapes from the Farmer's Market and sliced apples from our trees.

This meal is packed with protein, fiber, antioxidants and phytonutrients.  You can always use less oil in any of the saute or frying applications if you are trying to cut back on fat content or calories.

Here is my basic Tofu Scramble Recipe:

1 pound of firm tofu  (I only use organic tofu)
2 - 3 tablespoons of oil
3  or more cloves of chopped garlic
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp tumeric
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
chopped Kalamata olives
chopped spinach (remember that spinach cooks down so be very generous)
water packed artichoke hearts sliced into quarters

Heat the oil in a saute pan and add garlic.  After about 2 minutes add the tofu and crumble by hand.  Cook until tofu begins to brown.  While the tofu is cooking, put the three spices together into a small bowl with some water to make a watery paste.  Add this spice mixture to the browning tofu and add salt and pepper. Add the nutritional yeast.  Stir this all around until everything is incorporated. Add the spinach, olives, and sliced artichoke hearts. Enjoy!