Bird's Nest toasts is a fun way to enjoy eggs and toast, so I wanted to try making a plant-based version. I recently discovered how easy and delicious it is to make a scramble with tofu, so I figured, why couldn’t it substitute for eggs in other ways? I was inspired by the tofu fried egg “eyes” I made for my Halloween Brunch last fall, so I followed the same recipe for the “yolk”. The yolk is really more just to make this look like a cooked egg, so if you don’t care what it looks like, it is much faster to just make this with tofu and toast!
The basic form of this Bird’s Nest is the toast with cooked crispy tofu in the center, but I decided to take this one step further with the nature theme and add some little tomato ladybugs! I saw this post from Veggiekins where she made little ladybugs with tomato slices and sesame seeds, and thought it was so cute!
To make these, just slice little tomatoes in half, place them on basil leaves, and add sesame seeds on top. It is actually very tricky to add the sesame seeds without them sticking to your hand or clumping together, so I ended up using a toothpick and getting the end slightly wet to pick up the seeds and roll the toothpick on the surface of the tomato until the seeds stayed on the tomato. I used pieces of mushrooms for their heads (Remy from Veggiekins used olives but I didn’t have any).
You can add any veggie toppings to your Bird’s Nest toast though! I added slices of pepper, homemade quick pickled onions, and seaweed. The seaweed is pretty random, but I wanted some greens and didn’t have any spinach, kale, or lettuce. It was a tasty combo all together! I had fun making these tofu Bird’s Nests and will definitely be doing this again. It is fun to make the reverse Bird’s Nest as well with the tofu on the outside and bread on the inside - don’t waste the tofu and bread you cut out! You can also toast the bread slightly after cutting the hole if you want it to be extra toasty.
Ingredients
1 slice of bread
Slice of firm (or extra firm) tofu (about 1-2 cm thick - the thickness of your bread slice)
A few tbsp olive oil
Everything But The Bagel (EBTB) seasoning (or use salt and pepper)
Vegan egg “yolk”: ⅓ cup water, 1 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp nutritional yeast, dash of: turmeric, salt, pepper, chili powder, etc to season
Toppings of choice
Steps
1. Place the slice of tofu on top of the bread, and cut a circle in the center through both - you can make the edges a bit irregular if you want to make it look like a cooked egg. If you are adding the egg “yolk”, then carefully cut out an indentation in the middle - make sure not to cut all the way through the tofu or your yolk will run through later.
2. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat on a pan on the stovetop.
3. Place the tofu circle inside the bread, and the bread circle inside the tofu and place both on the skillet. Sprinkle EBTB seasoning on top.
4. Let cook until the tofu starts to get golden-brown and crispy on the edges, then flip carefully to cook the other side.
5. While the toast and tofu is cooking, mix the “yolk” ingredients together in a saucepan over medium heat. Keep an eye on it and stir often.
6. When the “yolk” mixture has thickened, remove from heat and let cool.
7. Once your Bird’s Nest toasts are all cooked, add a spoonful of “yolk” into the indent of the tofu egg - now it will look like a cooked egg!
8. Add your toppings and enjoy while the toast is warm!
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