Have you ever moved away from a place with a food that you love, and then found it’s not available in your new home? That happened to my sister-in-law Danielle when she moved from Oregon to Louisiana. So the last time she was visiting, she bought me a tub of something called “Toby’s Lite Jalapeno Tofu Spread,” and asked me to re-create it. A few days ago I perfected my own version, which is like a jalapeno eggless egg salad tofu spread.

Before you dismiss eggless egg salad tofu as a hippy-dippy vegan food, Danielle isn’t even vegetarian, and she loved it enough to want to make her own, so give it a chance!

I had never had Toby’s spreads before, which was surprising to Danielle considering that I was a vegetarian for many years even before I gave up eggs and dairy, and I went to school in Eugene, Oregon, where the brand originated. But I was the unhealthy type of vegetarian who mainly ate cereal, and truthfully, I was kind of afraid of tofu for years.

For an embarrassingly-long time, trying foods I had never eaten before made me nervous. Eventually I got over it, but it took years of eating new, delicious things before I stopped approaching them with suspicion. Tofu was a lot less common when I was growing up, and I don’t think I even encountered it until I was in college. So I was pretty wary of it for a long time. Now I love it, and eat it regularly, but if a love of tofu doesn’t come naturally to you, I understand, and there’s hope!

This eggless egg salad tofu spread is delicious on crackers, in a sandwich, or on toast, as I’ve shown here. It stands on its own, but is also excellent with avocados, tomatoes, and a sprinkling of black pepper, chives, and sesame seeds. (OMG, this is making me so hungry right now.)

I also experimented with making veggie roll-ups by shaving thin slices of English cucumber, and rolling a spoonful of the eggless egg salad tofu spread up inside. Also delicious!