Recipe: Delicious Vegan Mapo Tofu

Vegan Mapo Tofu. Mapo tofu is a justly popular menu item in many Chinese restaurants It is a quickly cooked dish of braised tofu with minced pork (sometimes beef) in a bracing spicy sauce made with fermented black beans and fermented broad bean paste, along with hot red pepper and Sichuan pepper This meatless version with fresh shiitake mushrooms is completely satisfying, and surprisingly easy to make Ready in minutes, this vegan mapo tofu relies on a show-stopping sauce of fermented black beans, chili bean paste, and Sichuan peppercorns. The result is a vegetarian/vegan dish that hasn't sacrificed a bit of umami! This vegan mapo tofu recipe is very similar to our ever-popular traditional mapo tofu.

In this vegan mapo tofu recipe, I omitted the pork and used a generous amount of fermented bean pastes to give the dish flavor. One of them is doubanjiang (豆瓣醬), a Sichuan-style sauce made with fermented broad beans/fava beans. A QUICK MAPO TOFU FOR THE START OF WINTER. You can have Vegan Mapo Tofu using 20 ingredients and 10 steps. Here is how you cook that.

Ingredients of Vegan Mapo Tofu

1. It's of For the Sauce:.
2. You need 3 tbsp. of Gochujang OR.
3. It's 1 tbsp. of each Fermented Bean Paste and Fermented Chili Paste.
4. You need 1 tbsp. of Mirin or other sweet cooking wine.
5. It's 2 tbsp. of Rice Wine Vinegar.
6. You need 2 tbsp. of Soy sauce.
7. You need 1/2 cup of Vegetable or other Stock.
8. It's of For the Tofu:.
9. It's 1 tbsp. of Coconut Oil.
10. You need 1/2 cup of minced fresh Shiitake Mushrooms OR.
11. It's 1/2 cup of dried Shiitake Mushrooms, rehydrated in hot water for 10 min. and rinsed.
12. Prepare 1/2 cup of chopped Green Onions, white and green parts separated.
13. You need 3-4 cloves of minced Garlic.
14. It's 1-2 tbsp. of minced Ginger.
15. Prepare 2-3 of dried Chili Peppers, any variety OR.
16. Prepare 2-3 tbsp. of Red Pepper Flakes.
17. It's 1 package of Firm or Extra Firm Tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
18. It's 1 tbsp. of Corn Starch dissolved in 1-2 tbsp. water.
19. Prepare 1/2 tbsp. of Sesame Oil (optional).
20. Prepare 1-2 tbsp. of Sesame or Caraway Seeds for garnish (optional).

Both versions contain leeks, garlic and ginger but herein lies the biggest difference; the meat version uses water or chicken broth while vegan mapo tofu uses mushroom broth. Then the tofu dish with beef become more popular and her guests gave the name: Mapo tofu. For the tofu, I recommend using regular tofu not firm tofu or silken tofu. The taste of firm tofu is not so tenderer but silken tofu is too easy to break.

Vegan Mapo Tofu instructions

1. Bring 3-4 cups of water to a simmer over medium-high heat. Slide in the chopped tofu and simmer for 10 minutes..
2. Whisk together the sauce ingredients and set aside..
3. While the tofu cooks, sauté the garlic, ginger, and the whites of the onions over medium-high heat until fragrant (1-2 minutes)..
4. Add the mushrooms to the pan and continue cooking until soft..
5. Once the mushrooms are done, add the sauce mixture to the pan and bring to a simmer..
6. Strain the poached tofu and gently fold it into the sauce..
7. Bring the sauce to a boil, stirring frequently to prevent burning..
8. Gently stir in the corn starch and sesame oil, and cook until the sauce becomes thick and shiny (3-5 minutes)..
9. Serve over white rice or plain greek yogurt..
10. Granish with the green parts of the onions, and sesame or caraway seeds (optional)..

Heat oil over high heat until lightly smoking. Add garlic, ginger, scallion whites, chives, and yacai (if using). But sometimes I just want a lighter dinner with plant-based ingredients. That's why I developed this vegetarian mapo tofu recipe. Vegan Mapo Tofu With loads of aromatics and mushroom ground "meat" in the red hot sauce, this vegan With creamy blocks of tofu smothered in a fragrant, spicy sauce made from ground mushrooms, this Vegan Mapo Tofu is just as comforting and flavorful as the original.