Mapo tofu is a saucy, spicy dish that hails from Szechuan. Use as much or as little meat as you like – this is a recipe for the rehabilitating carnivore.

Time: 3/5

Takes about an hour to make a big pot of food.

Effort: 3/5

A throw-stuff-into-pot-and-wait kind of recipe

Spice, Rice and Everything Nice

Every now and then I explore ways to reduce my meat intake, for environmental and ethnical reasons. I have found some success, mainly by incorporating beans and other legumes into my meals: examples include Pork and Edamame stir fry with Pickled Snow Cabbage, and a Beef and Lentil Chili (with bonus recipe for Xinjiang Zucchini!). It’s not all smooth sailing though, as my SO isn’t wild about the texture of beans.

However, we both grew up eating tofu so that’s something we can both get behind. So one solution is to use a small amount of meat to flavour a large amount of tofu, which lets us enjoy the savoury and umami flavours of meat while consuming less meat than if we relied entirely on steak or pork chops for protein. That earns this recipe a place in a series I call Carnivore Rehab, which is written for those of you who are looking for ways to reduce your meat intake without sacrificing on flavour.

Enter Mapo Tofu. Mapo Tofu hails from Szechuan, and comes with the strong and bold flavours that you expect from the province like you find in Szechuan Spicy Chicken. Besides being quick and easy to make, it is great served with rice, which is always a plus in my books.

Still, the protein to calorie ratio of tofu isn’t quite as high as with some lean meats, and it takes more volume of tofu to provide the same calories. That isn’t much of an issue if you’re eating at home and/or eating less calories. But it’s kind of annoying if you’re bringing lunch to work in a meal container and have a higher calorie target. If that’s an issue for you, pack a snack – may I suggest Candied Walnuts, or hot-spring eggs?

Dramatis Personae

Meat – to taste

Any sort of ground meat would work. Beef is usual, but I prefer pork. If you want to use even leaner meat, consider ground chicken or turkey.

Tofu – as much as you think you can fit in your lunchbox(es)

Tofu is available in a spectrum of textures from silken to firm. Choose according to your preference, keeping in mind that generally the firmer the tofu the more nutritionally dense it would be. I went with silken tofu mainly for the texture.

Softer tofu does benefit from a brief blanche in salted water to firm it up a little to avoid it from breaking up too much. There is a time and place to be fussy, but this is a luxury that the meal-prepping home cook can rarely afford. Instead, I opted to simply disturb the tofu as little as possible once it is in the pan.

Aromatics

Garlic, ginger and spring onions make their usual appearances. The green parts of the spring onion are more delicate and are best reserved for garnish.

Chili flakes are indispensable to provide heat. Also essential to the unique aroma of the dish is Szechuan peppercorns. Here I have Szechuan peppercorn powder, which needs to be bloomed in hot oil to bring the best flavour out of them, but you might be able to find straight-up Szechuan peppercorn oil instead.

If you can find it, doubanjang (豆瓣酱) is a fermented soybean and chili sauce that gives a rich umami and some funk to the dish. Like the dry aromatics, it really benefits from being toasted in hot oil.

One ingredient that is theoretically optional but very good to have is fermented black beans. They bring a nice fermented, slightly funky umami that really adds to the dish. Give it a soak in room temperature water for 1 or 2 hours to soften, which will help it release its delicious flavour.

Sauce

The sauce is mostly soy sauce and water, with a dash of sugar for balance. Since we already have the water from soaking the fermented black beans, we might as well include that too. Adjust the texture with corn starch slurry until thickened as desired. I like the sauce quite thick, as it clings to the ingredients better and delivers more flavour that way.

Vegetables

I am a firm believer in eating veggies during every meal. Today we have Chinese baby cabbage (娃娃菜 Wah wah choi / wawa cai – literally, “baby vegetable”) simmered in chicken stock. Alternatively, you could steam them in the residual space in the rice cooker. Baby cabbage has a nice sweet flavour once cooked, which compliments the spiciness of the main dish. Use whatever vegetables you can get.

Executive summary

1. Soak the fermented black beans an hour or two ahead of cook time.
2. Get your rice going, so it can cook as you make the recipe.
3. Chop up and sauté aromatics in oil until fragrant, followed by ground meat. Break up the meat and let it brown.
4. While waiting for meat to brown, prepare vegetables and cut tofu into chunks.
5. Once meat is browned, add the sauce ingredients and adjust to your liking. Thicken with corn starch slurry.
6. Add tofu and simmer for 10-15 minutes undisturbed. Use the time to cook vegetables, and do some cleanup.
7. Serve with rice!

Play by Play

Give your fermented black beans a quick rinse, then soak them in fresh water to soften them up and release their flavour. The rinse gets rid of any dust or dirt that may have gotten on the beans, and lets us reuse the soaking water later. You can use hot water if you want to use them sooner.

Chop up the aromatics, reserving the scallion greens for garnish by piling them onto Bowl Cat’s smug face.

Remember to eat your veggies! A soak reduces the amount of any residual pesticides or dirt that may be clinging onto the leaves.

Fry the aromatics in a bit of oil first to release flavours. This takes some time, so let’s prepare the fermented black beans in the meantime.

You could leave your beans whole, but I prefer to give them a quick chop. Smaller pieces release more flavour, and gets broken down and incorporated into the sauce which I like. Hang on to the soaking liquid – check out how much it darkened after an hour. Since we rinsed the fermented black beans before the soak, we can use this soaking liquid in the sauce so that no flavour is wasted.

Stir fry the fermented black beans, Szechuan peppercorn powder and the Doubanjiang briefly with the aromatics. Forget to hold your breath, breath in the chili fumes and cough profusely.

Add ground meat to the pan. Break it up and let it brown. Add chili flakes according to masochistic inclination.

At this stage you can add the liquid portion of the recipe. Add soy sauce, the fermented black bean soaking liquid, and enough water to cover.

Thicken as desired with corn starch slurry. Remember, you can always add more but you can’t subtract. Wait until the sauce reaches a simmer to make your final verdict on the viscosity.

I just cut up the tofu right inside the box they came packaged in – no point in dirtying the cutting board. Once the sauce is thickened to your liking, add tofu and stir to combine. Do so gently, so as to not break the tofu up. You only need to warm them through.

Ready to serve.

Saucy!

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