Vegan Mapo Tofu

Last night I had my first attempt at making Vegan Mapo Tofu served with black rice. It was absolutely delicious 😋 the tofu is so soft and full of flavour, melts in your mouth. I followed this recipe with a few adjustments: https://www.cookwithmanali.com/vegan-mapo-tofu/#wprm-recipe-container-51914

Its was a pretty easy dish to make, it just has a few special ingredients that you'll have to go to your local Asian grocer for.

Ingredients

450g of soft tofu

2 tbsp of oil (I used olive oil)

1 tsp of chilli oil (i used crunchy chilli oil)

1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns

1.5 tbsp of gochujang

1 tbsp of ginger

1 tbsp of garlic finely chopped or crushed

1.5 tsp of chilli bean sauce (I couldn't find this in my store so I cooked without it, still tasted great!)

approx 100g of shiitake mushrooms minced (easiest is to use a food processor)

1 cup of water

1 tsp soy sauce

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp sesame oil

3 stalks of green onion (if you don't have any green onion just use regular onion)

3 tsp corn-starch

Instructions

1. heat your oil in a medium pan, add your Sichuan peppercorns, saute until fragrant.

2. Add gochujang and saute for another minute or so

3. Add ginger, garlic, chilli bean sauce and mushrooms

4. Cook mushrooms until they are caramelized

5. add water, soy sauce, sugar, and salt.

6. In a separate bowl mix cornstarch with 2 tbsp of water. Add this to the pan and stir, this will thicken the sauce.

7. Gently add tofu, be cautious as it can easier break apart, slowly stir the sauce over the tofu. Let it simmer for a few minutes and then add your sesame oil overtop.

8. Serve with brown rice or black rice and some fresh spring onions on top.