Learn how to make Justine's Mushroom Ma Po Tofu. Finely minced mushrooms tossed in a wok with Sichuan pepper, ginger, garlic, and chilli bean paste, then folded through silken tofu with a rich, spiced sauce. The Chinese classic made vegetarian in just 30 minutes.
Ingredients: 250g button mushrooms 2 tbsp peanut oil ½ tsp Sichuan pepper, crushed 1 x 2cm piece of ginger, chopped 2 cloves of garlic, chopped 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine 2 tbsp chilli bean paste ¾ cup of vegetable stock 1 tsp cornflour 2 tbsp dark soy 1 tsp caster sugar 300g silken tofu, cut into 3–4cm cubes 5 spring onions, cut into 3cm batons
To Serve Steamed jasmine rice, to serve
Method: Pulse mushrooms in a food processor until finely minced.
Heat oil in a wok over high heat. Add the mushrooms and toss; cook until golden all over. Add the Sichuan pepper and toast off for 30 seconds before adding the ginger and garlic, and cook for a further minute. Add Shaoxing wine, then the chilli bean paste and toss to coat the mushrooms.
Mix a few tbsp of stock into the cornflour to make a paste. Pour the remaining stock into the wok and bring to the boil. Add the cornflour slurry. Add the soy and sugar, followed by the tofu. Turn the heat down to medium and fold through to prevent the tofu from breaking up too much. Add the spring onions.
This video demonstrates how to make a vegetarian version of Mapo Tofu, replacing traditional minced pork with finely chopped mushrooms to maintain a meaty flavor and texture. The dish emphasizes bold Szechuan flavors, combining spicy and numbing elements with silken tofu for a comforting, high-contrast meal served over jasmine rice.
Mapo tofu, it's the ultimate Chinese comfort food and usually it's done with silken tofu
and minced pork. But I thought why not try a vegetarian version and instead of using pork
mince, use mushrooms. Mushrooms are a fantastic substitute for any type of mincemeat. This is
so delicious and the mushrooms of course impart a really meaty flavor. So I've been heating up
my wok. I want it to be really hot because it is a stir-fry after all and we want to get our
mushrooms ready. So you can just cut them in half and then pop them into the food processor. Yes,
you can do this by hand, so finely chopping all the mushrooms. But if you have a food processor
on standby, this is just the speediest way to do it because it's going to chop it into small little
bits. So once the mushrooms are in, we're going to pop the lid on and don't blend it. I'm just
going to pulse it just to chop everything finely. Okay, happy with that and we'll take that blade
out and let's get frying. So that preheated wok, we're going to add some peanut oil, good splash
of peanut oil and then in with our minced mushroom. It looks like quite a lot but as we know, mushrooms
are full of water and they will cook down. And then we're just going to leave that for a moment.
Don't worry about tossing it yet. We just want to get some caramelization on the bottom and then
we're going to toss it until it's golden brown. Okay, so that's going to take about five minutes.
Szechuan is a key ingredient in Mapo Tofu. I just love it. It's spicy, it's numbing, it's that
wonderful sensation you get on your tongue and it is just a must whenever you're making a Mapo Tofu.
So that goes in next. While we're waiting for our mushrooms, I'm just going to prepare
some ginger and two cloves of garlic. I like to mince it up. So I've got a really big piece of
ginger here, about two, three centimeters. So I'll mince that along with the garlic and then that can
go in next. Okay, we've got some color on our mushrooms. So in with our minced ginger and garlic
and that takes no time at all to cook along with our Szechuan. I do like to start the mushrooms
off first because if you added the ginger and the garlic to Szechuan first, it'll burn. So you
want a high heat for the mushrooms. Oh, and that smells so good. All right, now we can start
building the flavors on top of the Szechuan. Some Shaoxing wine, so some Chinese cooking wine.
And this is a chili bean paste, which you can get from all good Asian supermarkets. I would say it's
quite similar to gochujang, which is the Korean bean paste. So if you can't find this one,
then of course you can use that and you can get that from all your supermarkets.
And we'll add that. And although this is going to look like quite a delicate, smooth dish because
of the silk and tofu, no, this has got a real kick to it. It is spicy, not only with the chili bean
paste, but also because of the Szechuan. All right, now we need to make this extra saucy. So
we'll need some stock and I'm just going to measure that out, about three quarters of a cup of stock.
That can go in and vegetable stock because I'm keeping it vegetarian.
Oh, it's going to be good. And then I've got some cornflour. We want to thicken this up. So I'm
just going to add the cornflour to that jug and another splash of the stock. That can also go in
and you do want to add cornflour slurry, which is the combination of the liquid and the stock.
Now, while it's boiling, if it's not boiling, it's not going to thicken up the way that you
need it to. And to just balance out the flavor, some sugar. So some caster sugar and some dark
soy. And one of the final pieces to this is the tofu. Now you need silk and tofu. And the reason
it's called silk and tofu, we'll have a look at it. It cuts like butter. I'm going to cut it into
quite large chunks and then it will break up as it cooks in there and that's totally fine.
So in that goes, break it up a little bit and we're just going to cook that out for a couple
of minutes. I'd give it two to three minutes before we serve it. You want to serve this with
lots of steamed jasmine rice. All right, Mapo tofu is ready to go and we need some freshness. So
spring onions, lots of spring onions. I'm going to cut them into batons and we can add that at
the very last minute. Look at that. You would not know that there's no pork mince in there because
of the mushrooms, how they've been minced up. You have to serve this with some rice. So I've
got a little mound of rice. Just make a nest in there and you want to just smother it in loads
of Mapo tofu. Put that cascade down. One more piece of the tofu. There was a stage there where
I just refused to eat tofu. I didn't like it that much. I think because it has no flavor to it.
But when you put it with big bold flavors like the Shaoxing wine, the chili bean paste and the
Szechuan, it really is such a great carrier of flavor. And this is a perfect example. So if you
don't like tofu, you think you don't like it, try it like this. It is just sensational. And just like
a lot of Chinese cuisine, texture is so important. It's up there with the taste and that's why this
is just such a prize dish because of the silkiness of the tofu and of course the minced mushrooms.
That tofu has just sucked up all of those beautiful flavors from the mushrooms
to the sauce. If you think you don't like tofu, well, try this. It may change your mind.
