My Favorite Vegan Tofu Omelet

This recipe is a combination of three different vegan omelet recipes I’ve tried, each one contributing one key ingredient: silken tofu, cornmeal, and garbanzo flour. Silken tofu is much easier to blend totally smooth than regular tofu, the cornmeal provides essential flavor and texture, and the garbanzo flour helps with browning.

Vegan omelette filled with caramelized onions, potatoes and mushrooms

 

Favorite Vegan Tofu Omelet

Ingredients:

2  12 oz boxes of silken tofu

¼ cup cornmeal

¼ cup nutritional yeast

¼ cup water or soymilk

1 heaping Tbsp garbanzo flour (optional)

½ tsp onion powder

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp turmeric

1/8 tsp cumin

½ tsp salt (or less)

½ tsp lemon pepper

oil or cooking spray for pan

Fillings (arguably the most important part!):  I used a combination of mushrooms sautéed with garlic and parsley, potatoes, and caramelized red onions. Other options include salsa, cooked greens, beans, faux meats or cheeses, or various sautéed, roasted or grilled vegetables.

Fillings, warm and waiting

Directions:

Puree all ingredients (except oil and fillings) in a blender until completely smooth. It may be helpful to pre-mash the tofu a little before blending.

Put oil in a (preferably nonstick) frying pan and heat to medium heat. (make sure the pan is one with a lid). Pour ¼ of your blender batter into the hot pan and spread it out into a circle with a spatula. Cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes. Have your fillings warm.

Not quite ready

 

When the five minutes are up, lift the lid.  The top of the omelet should look mostly dry; if it’s very wet give it another minute of cooking. Place the filling of your choice in a strip across the middle third of the omelet. Using a spatula, carefully loosen and fold each side across the middle, burrito- style. Cover the pan again and cook for 1 more minute.

Remove to a plate and cook the other three omelets using the remaining batter, re-oiling the pan as necessary. If you’re a skilled multi-tasker, you could use two or more pans and have multiple omelets going at the same time.

Can be topped with ketchup, salsa, or guacamole.

Serves 4

Variations: There are various ways to fold an omelet.  In addition to the burrito style above, there is the classic half-moon shape in which the omelet is simply folded in half over the filling. The omelet can also be rolled around the filling like a cigar. I think the burrito style is the easiest to do successfully with the tofu batter, which has somewhat less natural structural integrity than a traditional egg batter.

The batter can be also be cooked without any filling, and then be chopped up and added to fried rice or Pad Thai.

Half-moon style