This weekend I did a lot of things I don’t normally do. For example: I went grocery shopping without Dan. It was funny; as I was walking around the store, I realized that I was pretty much the only person not talking. All the other single shoppers (and many of the partnered ones) were on their cell phones. Here’s the thing about when folks talk on their phones in public – you find yourself left with a lot of unanswered questions. As I walked home with my heavy environmentally-friendly cotton bags, I had time to think about a few things…
Like, who was that girl that Craig (maybe Greg) brought to the BBQ that other night? What was Craig/Greg’s Mystery Guest thinking when she put on that outfit? And of course, why would Craig/Greg even bring a guest to a BBQ for his birthday when everyone knows he’s still in love with the woman in track pants who stood between me and the organic pasta section and then later cut me off at the Earth Balance?
Why do people keep dumping the guy in Frozen Foods? Could it be because he’s completely oblivious to the people around him and their desire to get a single bag of organic peas?
What is the woman ahead of me in the check-out line going to do about Megan’s new 4th grade teacher who drives a van and has handwriting like a serial killer? Sounds terrifying.
Really, I thought about how I could take our Vegan Poached Egg from The Eggs Benedict Recipe and make the classic fried egg. Oh, classic fried egg… with your runny yoke for dipping toast in, and your crispy edges. I’m over you. I don’t need you and your salmonella and battery cage hometowns.
Now vegans everywhere can enjoy this classic American breakfast staple. We really can make anything cruelty free.
The Vegan Fried Egg
1 package of Firm Tofu (drained and cut into 4 rectangular pieces)
1 Batch of the Cheese Sauce in our Mac & Cheese recipe (you’ll have a bunch left over, but if you also pick up some Macaroni, you’ll also have lunch for a week)
Olive Oil for cooking
Black Pepper and Salt to taste
Make the Cheese Sauce from the Mac and Cheese recipe.
With warm water, rinse your Flavor Injector. This is a crazy-looking toy. It’s one of those tools made for people who aren’t happy just eating meat – they need to inject things in the meat. But, I love my re-appropriated flavor injector now. I’m partial to food that has some kind of injected filling, because, as I’ve said many times: who doesn’t love pie? OK – back to the recipe.
Fill your injector with Cheese Sauce. Take your Tofu and one at a time, slowly stick the injector in the center of one of the shorter sides of the rectangle. Make sure it doesn’t go in to far. You don’t want to pierce one of the sides. Then–this is key–gently move the Tofu back and forth. Don’t move the needle; it’ll tear a big hole on the outside of the tofu. But if you move the Tofu, it creates a pocket in the tofu while keeping the injection spot as small as possible.
Fill all 4 Tofu Pieces with the Cheese Sauce very slowly. Stop when you see a lump start to form in the center.
In your amazing cast iron skillet, heat 2-3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil. Once it’s hot, gently place the “Eggs” in the skillet with the lump side up. Fry with that side up until you can see the edges begin to brown. Then gently flip. Let them fry until you see that side’s edges brown as well. You may want to do this a few times till the “Egg” gets the desired crispy brown edges.
Serve hot with Salt and Pepper over the top and with your favorite vegan bacon and potatoes… maybe call a friend and brag a bit about how you rocked breakfast. Share your victory.
Pretty simple... Come with us if you want to live. 
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we're not worthy, we're not worthy. love it! 🙂
Love it, something new and safe! This is a fun one too.
yes! yes! YES!!!!!!!
Oh man, I wonder if my local grocer sells these injector thingummies. I must have this for dinner.
Brilliant!
Looks so awesome… I need an injector thingy too.
That's just how you give a saline injection!
any hints for making the yolk taste like yolk and not cheeze?
Try some kala namak (indian black salt). It tastes like the sulfurous yolk of an egg and does wonders for adding an eggy taste to things.
hey gladcow, maybe add some black salt, it has a sulfur-like taste…
this has been the most entertaining recipe-reading experience ever! loved the story. 🙂 thanks for what looks to be a very promising recipe. – Heather
Ingenious!! Thanks for sharing.
I love it! This I will have to try.
And may I say, a very approachable writing style.
Very well done.
i tried your fried “eggs” this morning and they turned out delicious! since i don't have a flavor injector (but may need to get one), i just cut a hole in the middle of my tofu eggs and dropped a little cheesy “yoke” in the middle. wow, was it good!! yum!
I concur on the black salt suggestion above. It's a natural Indian ingredient – a sulphurous salt that tastes (and smells) just like egg!
It can be found in Indian/Asian shops and has an Indian name too. Google it – it is a wonder ingredient!
(for this recipe, just sprinkle a bit on top at the end as you would with normal salt)
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I bought a flavor injector recently, after I saw this recipe. I cannot wait to make it!
I just found your blog and this recipe was the first thing that caught my eye. I've been looking for a good excuse to use my injector, and this is perfect! I never follow blogs, but this one looks like a great reason to change my ways. Thank you!
What is great about tofu is that it can take on many different flavors depending on the spice that you add to it. I love tofu but still miss eating eggs.
Weird flavor injector thingy ordered. Tofu in the refrigerator. Vegan fried egg happening soon. Genius. Thanks! =)
We've just ordered ourselves a flavor injector. Will report on the results.
Hey Chuck, if you miss eggs just buy them from a local grower who raises free range, uncaged hens. Hens lay eggs no matter what, and a hen with a compassionate owner is living a better life than she would in the wild anyway. Picking up and eating an egg that would remain unfertilized and go bad anyway is no less ethical than picking up a berry and eating it.
was just checking this recipe out and noticed the mcdonalds advert on the sidebar……REALLY??
Actually the ads we have on our page are based on your search history and not really anything to do with out content. I mean we have no relationship with McDonalds besides never going there and taking part in online actions asking them to become more ethical. I have never actually seen a McDonalds ad on any of our pages. I usually get travel related ads like for airlines, Peta, ASPCA and Modcloth. Unfortunately we do have to have ads on our site because that pays for the grocery bills that go into testing and retesting and making these recipes – which does get pretty expensive and until very recently we have both worked for animal rights organizations for the past 10 years – but we use google ads because they are based on YOUR search history not ours. We are constantly looking into better ad systems but at this time this is the one we are stuck with. Sorry you had to see a mcDonalds ad… not sure why that would happen…
thanks for the reply, was curiously amused by seeing the ad. I too have no relationship with McDonalds short of reading about them in the news. Totally understand needing ads to fund the blog which is great i might add. We made the mexican tater tot pizza for dinner last night was a big hit even minus the cheese (i cannot find vegan cheese where i live) also hot choc muffins where pretty good too!! thanks keep up the great blog.