Faux Tofu Egg Salad

It's come to my attention that I tend to be a bit... well... snarky when it comes to what I call the "non-food foods." You know what I mean, right? The veggie burger that "tastes just like hamburger" or the tofu wrap that is "just like eating chicken."

This can get a bit dicey, especially when you have friends (and relatives) who are vegetarian, or cook vegan, or just - for who knows what reason - prefer to eat non-food from time to time.

One of those people in my life happens to be Betty over at Sweet Betty's Blog, and she recently made (and posted about) a Tofu "Egg" Salad (the recipe is there, so I'm not copying it here). I read through the recipe and decided to try it. After all, it seemed to be fairly easy and not too dangerous. And, based on her post, it was pretty, too:

Nice, right? All colorful and healthy looking - and still looking like egg salad.

I was reading the instructions, and I was kind of excited to see the garlic powder and hot sauce. Typically, I put hot pickle relish in my egg salad, so I was glad to see that there were going to be some other spices.

I got to the end and thought. "Okay. I can do that!" 

I'm going to cut to the chase: it was tasty. And mine also looked really good when I was done mixing it all:

Okay. So what was my process?

Well, I started with the ingredients. I realized, though, that I don't have any vegan mayonnaise, so I decided to opt for regular - since I was going into this more for the experience than for the exact recipe.

I put that into the bowl and also measured out my yellow mustard (which I don't usually do), as well as all of the other ingredients.

Can you see all of the lumps that kinda look like egg? That's where the "faux" in my "faux tofu" comes in:

I figured that, since it's okay for people to use tofu to substitute for hard boiled eggs, it was okay to go the other way, too, right?

And, well, if I'm being honest, here's my entire ingredient pile:

I tend to keep a couple of hard-boiled eggs in the fridge. So that I don't accidentally try to crack one into a bowl of batter, I mark them (in this case, with Xs). I'm not really sure what people would think if they saw them in the fridge...

Yes. I know that some readers might say that this completely negated my attempt at cooking with tofu. And, yes, you may have a point. But - on the other hand - it was the first time I've used garlic powder, lemon juice, and hot sauce in my egg salad. So... points for trying something new. Right?

In the interest of full disclosure, I also didn't have pretty, bright veggies to eat with this. I did have some Tostitos Scoops, though:

I also, sadly, don't have a brightly light work station at which to enjoy my lunch. When I moved it down to my desk to eat, it looked more like this:

Which, honestly, looks depressing enough that it kind of makes me wish I'd started with the tofu and veggies.

But only kind of.

Sorry, Betty. I tried.


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Have a recipe you'd like to see made, but don't want to be your own guinea pig? Let me know and I'll see what I can do!