Mabo don | vegan
Mapo doufu or tofu is a Chinese tofu dish with a spicy bean sauce. Japanese have their own variation of this dish with their own spices which is called mabo don. This vegan version of the dish is not exactly the Japanese style mabo don, but rather our own interpretation of this amazing dish. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it as much as we did!
Servings: 4 Preparation: 30 min Cooking: up to 10 min
Ingredients:
300 g tofu
1/2 cup dry soy mince meat + 1 cup water (if not vegan or vegetarian, you can replace this with ground pork meat; then no water is needed)
1 small onion
1 inch piece ginger
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 Tbsp sake
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp red miso
1/2 Tbsp + 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil
1/2 Tbsp water
1/2 Tbsp corn starch
1/2 Tbsp Japanese rice vinegar
1 tsp toban djan (chilli bean sauce)
1/2 tsp Sichuan pepper
some green herbs to garnish
Instructions:
Place the tofu on a hard surface, lay a kitchen towel over it and place something heavy on top. Let the tofu drain for about 30 min. When the tofu is ready, cut it into small cubes.
Place the soy mince in a bowl and cover it with 1 cup of hot water. Let it soak.
Chop the onion, ginger and garlic and set them aside.
In a small bowl mix the vegetable broth, sake, soy sauce, sugar, red miso.
In a separate bowl mix 1/2 Tbsp of sesame oil, water, corn starch and rice vinegar.
Heat up a wok pan with the remaining 1/2 Tbsp of sesame oil. Add the chopped onion, ginger and garlic. Let it fry for a minute.
Add the liquid mixture (step 4) and bring it to boil. Then add the tofu, soy mince and toban djan and let it simmer for a few minutes.
Add the corn starch mixture (step 5) to the wok and mix it in well. Let it simmer for a minute until the dish thickens.
Serve it with rice with sprinkled Sichuan pepper and garnished with green herbs (e.g. cilantro).
