Inspiring vegetarian recipes
Try our vibrant veggie dishes, from meat-free lasagne to vegetable curry and vegetarian chilli
Mapo tofu
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- Easy
- Serves 4
Ingredients
- 2 x 280g packs tofu, cut into 3-4cm pieces
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 300g pork mince
- 7 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp crushed sichuan peppercorns
- 6 tbsp chilli bean paste (doubinjiang/toban jang, see cook's notes below)
- 6 tbsp shaoxing rice wine (see cook's notes below)
- 500ml light chicken stock
- 8 spring onions, thinly sliced on an angle
- 2 ½ tbsp cornflour
- 1 ½ tbsp caster sugar
- 2 tbsp chiu chow chilli oil (see cook's notes below)
Method
- STEP 1
Put the tofu into a bowl and pour over a kettle of just-boiled water and add a pinch of salt. Leave to soak while you make the sauce.
- STEP 2
Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or frying pan until smoking, then fry the pork mince for 4-5 minutes or until really crisp, breaking any lumps up with the side of a spoon. Reduce the heat and add the garlic, ginger and sichuan pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until smelling fragrant, then add the chilli bean paste and cook for 1 minute.
- STEP 3
Add the shaoxing, chicken stock, ¾ of the spring onions and the tofu back to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp of cold water to make a paste, then add to the pan and mix. Simmer for 2-3 minutes until thickened, then season with sugar and chilli oil.
- STEP 4
Tip into a serving bowl and scatter with the remaining spring onions. Serve with rice, if you like.
