28. Vegan Mapo Tofu

Adding greens (Chinese broccoli in this case) certainly isn’t traditional, but mind you, neither is substituting mince for shiitake mushrooms. My vegan mapo tofu is a more balanced, complete meal that you can enjoy when you need more spice in your life.

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Step 1

Rinse the rice and set it to cook by your favourite method.

Step 2

Dry toast the sichuan peppercorns in a small pan until just starting to smoke. Take off the heat and grind to a powder in a mortar and pestle.

Step 3

In a wok or large frying pan, over high heat add the oil, and then fry the pieces of mushroom. Add the doubanjiang and cook for a further few minutes, allowing the oil to go a rich red tinted colour.

Step 4

Add the ginger and garlic, and before the garlic burns add the stock. Then add the soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar and rice wine vinegar.

Step 5

Add the stalks of the Chinese broccoli and most of the ground Sichuan peppercorn (through a sieve so your result isn’t gritty) and cook for a couple minutes. Then add the corn starch slurry to thicken, and once thick, add the tofu and Chinese broccoli leaves, allowing them to just cook for a minute or so and get covered in the sauce.

Step 6

Serve the mapo tofu over cooked rice, garnishing with the spring onions.