Hash Brown Scramble

This morning we were pretty hungry and wanted something really stick-to-your ribs good. After having a quick look in the fridge and pantry, I decided on some kind of hash browns. My mom always made homemade hash browns and I always do too, especially since they take just a couple of minutes to prep and taste so delicious!

Hash Brown Scramble

2 med sized russet potatoes, peeled, in 1/2 inch dice
2 small onions, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
olive oil
1 12-oz box of extra firm MoriNu tofu, drained and crumbled
pinch tumeric
1/4 C chopped parsley
1 tsp Herbes to Provence
salt and pepper to taste OR use seasoning salt and herb mixtures of your choice

In a large fry pan, saute the potatoes in about 1 Tbs of oil for a couple of minutes while you chop the onions. When the onions are ready, toss them in, along with the minced garlic. Season with seasoning salt and pepper. Saute the onions for about five minutes until they are about halfway cooked (a sharp knife point just just pierce a potato cube, but still meet some resistance). Add in other veggies, if you are using them (see note below). Saute some more, adding another tablespoon of oil if necessary, or adding a bit of liquid like broth or water to keep everything from sticking. You want the potatoe and onion to be fully cooked and golden brown, but still retain its shape. A few minutes before the potatoes are perfect, add in the crumbled tofu, and stir well. Taste - you will probably need to add some more salt and pepper, and this is the time to add some herbs as well, like parsley and Herbes de Provence. Stir until the tofu and potatoes are dry - just a minute or two.

We made pita sandwiches out of this with some of the spicy black bean dip I made earlier in the week. This was a delicious combo which tasted very buttery, which is odd because there were no dairy products used at all. But it sure was yummy!

Notes: I wanted to make the tofu look slightly yellow, more like scrambled eggs, and I used way too much tumeric, as you can see from the photo. Next time, I might just use a pinch of tumeric mixed into the crumbled tofu before I add it to the potatoes, or I might just leave it au naturel. You can add lots of other veggies to this, like chopped celery or peppers. Occasionally my mom would add really good oil cured olives, maybe about a dozen, which she pitted and chopped and believe me, there is NOTHING that tastes better than potatoes with olives! Some halved cherry tomatoes would also work well, as would some chopped zucchini or other summer type squash. I happen to be in love with three salty spice mixes: Soul Seasoning, Tony Chachere's and Cavender's Greek Seasoning - you may have your favorites, so use the flavors that YOU like. Instead of salt and pepper, I used about a tsp of Tony Chachere's.

This would be delicious with curry powder and peas!

Try this with cumin and chili powder, and then rolling it up in a tortilla with some salsa!

A note about frozen hash browns: Try dicing your own potatoes instead of spending a lot of money on these. It really doesn't take much more time, maybe about five minutes or so, and not only will you save a lot of money, but you will have superior nutrition and save all the added salt and sugar that are in most processed potato products. This is one case when the convenience food is not more convenient, IMHO.

Time from potato bin to mouth: 25 minutes

Four stars!