Vegan Mapo Tofu Recipe

Preparation + cooking time
45 mins

Serves
3-4 people
1 very hungry significant other

Ingredients

• Coconut oil (2 tbspn)
• Soy sauce (5 tbspn)
• Veggie soup stock (500ml)
• Tomato passata (100ml)
• Miso paste (1 tspn – optional)
• Spring onion (5 stalks)
• Fresh ginger
• Garlic (3-5 cloves)
• Ground pepper (1/2 tbspn – optional*)
• Cayenne chilli pepper (1/8 tpsn – optional*)
• Tofu – silken or cotton (1 block / approx. 300g)
• Mushrooms (medium-sized x7)
• Corn or potato starch

Steps

1. Dice the mushrooms, chop up the spring onion and finely dice both the garlic cloves and ginger. Cut your block of tofu into approximately 1cm cubes and leave out on a plate. This allows for enough time to let water to seep out.
2. Set a wok on high-heat and melt the coconut oil. Check whether it is ready to get sizzling by throwing in a tiny piece of your garlic.
3. Throw in the garlic, ginger and spring onion and stir-fry for 3-4 mins or until the ginger and garlic has had time to brown. Throw in your mushrooms (*optional: add grounder pepper+ cayenne chilli pepper) and cook for a further 5 mins on a medium heat.
4. Add your cubed tofu into your wok and be careful to not stir it, but to scoop from underneath and toss it as you mix it up. This way your tofu will not break too much! Silken tofu is a lot softer as it is drained through silk, whereas cotton tofu is a lot harder and is more commonly used in stir fries. Keep on a medium/low heat
5. I like to prepare the sauce in a separate pot as it’s a lot easy to taste test and adjust, before it gets mixed in with the ingredients in the wok. Heat the soup stock, add the soy sauce and tomato passata. Now is an excellent time to dilute the sauce if it is too salty.
6. Add the sauce to the wok and stir in gently as to not break the tofu cubes. Before it comes to a boil, add the corn or potato starch gradually – depending on you preferences you may like to have a thicker or more watery sauce.
7. Serve with a rice of your choice!