Vegan Gourmet Caravan: PUTTANESCA SCRAMBLE

We have friends visiting from Australia (YAY!!!) all weekend so I only have time for some quick posting. The next few posts will be quick meals. Before we moved to Germany I was on a schedule that would kill most people. I worked a demanding job that expected long nights past midnight and weekends frequently. It was stressful and unrewarding – real corporate land horror. It also expected study to obtain professional qualifications so when I wasn’t working I was studying. After working for four years and obtaining two professional qualifications I decided something had to change. I had to quit but since my work was so specialised I didn’t have many options in Adelaide. It was then that we decided to move. We were going to move to Melbourne (love Melbourne) but then we got another crazy idea. My husband grew up in Germany and moved to Australia when he was 12. Being the clever bunny that he is he could still speak fluent German so like all sane people we decided to sell up and move to Germany. Now I have plenty of time cause I can’t speak German (trying to learn) and therefore can’t work in my profession (yep four years and some qualifications down the drain, but now that I have had time to reflect I think it’s what I needed, I’m sure I’ll blog about my personal insights after coming off the career treadmill in another post!).

But I digress……………. that was a long story to get to what I was trying to say, which is because I had no time, I have a collection of quick recipes, some of which I will post this weekend, cause I have no time (ah see the giant circle I just managed to go in). So I made this in a week when I wanted some really simple recipes and was looking through Vegan Brunch. We don’t really do brunch or breakfast. We may grab something in the morning before work or going out but we don’t make an event of it. I still bought this book anyway and needed an excuses to cook something from it and thought why can’t I eat brunch for dinner! And so for that week we ate savoury brunch items for dinner. Puttanesca uses common Southern Italian ingredients to form a spicy (chillies) , salty (capers and olives) and fragrant (garlic) sauce. Usually mixed with pasta, I really like this idea of mixing it with tofu instead. It makes a great super quick sauce for the tofu (which could be served with pasta!).

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
6 - 8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (or minced)
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (Chilli) flakes
400g firm tofu, diced
4 roma tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp fresh thyme
2 tbsp fresh oregano
1/2 cup mixed olives, roughly chopped
1 tbsp capers
1/4 tsp salt, or to taste

Directions

1.	Preheat a large heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Sauté the garlic in the olive oil until lightly browned, but be careful not to burn. 3 minutes ought to do it. Add the red pepper flakes and the tofu and sauté for about 10 minutes, until tofu is browned. Add a little extra oil if necessary.
2.	Mix in tomatoes, thyme, oregano and oregano and cook for about 5 minute, until tomatoes are a bit broken down but still whole. Add olives, capers and salt to taste. Cook just until heated through.