Chinese Mabo Tofu

My daughters are vegetarian, so I left out the meat, and I was winging it at suppertime (late!), so I didn't have everything. In my version I used olive oil, no meat.. didn't know what hot bean sauce so I put in some white miso (1 tbsp) instead. My daughter--who doesn't like sesame seeds, and I did use the roasted sesame oil--thinks this dish is keeper. So do I :)

This recipe is delicious. I didn't have any hot bean sauce so I substituted a mixture of miso paste and chili garlic sauce. I also substituted onion chives for the green onion. I bet the original recipe is even better, but my modified version was still yummy.

This is a very delicious recipe. It tastes like the restaurant style! Thanks!

i love this recipe! i used to make mabo tofu from a mix, but lately i'm trying to make things from scratch to avoid the chemicals that come in processed foods. this was easy to make & you know exactly what goes in it! i put in eggplant & green peppers & that really added to the dish. i used leftover ham instead of ground pork & it turned out great. also used red chili sauce instead of the hot bean sauce. basically, anything spicy should work. thanks for sharing a great recipe. definitely will make again.

I made this recipe with asparagus instead of ground pork because I don't eat meat. I thought it was fantastic!

I substituted green beans for pork (not a meat eater). Delicious and simple -- I had all of the ingredients, save the tobanjan, on hand. Thanks!

I followed this recipe exactly and it turned out great. I used low sodium tamari instead of regular soy sauce. It was still a little on the salty side I thought....but good anyway.

I substituted ground chicken for the pork and it was delicious! Thanks for sharing!

thanks!

First tofu dish my husband raved about! Heavy garlic flavor, and just the right amount of spicy. Couldn't find hot bean sauce, but chili garlic sauce worked well. Doubled the lean pork. Would go great with steamed green beans or snowpeas. Some pan cleanup effort, but worth it.

I tried this recipe twice with a couple of variations/healthier alternatives so-to-speak. 1st time I substituted ground turkey instead of pork. 2nd time I substituted shiitake, oyster, porcini, & baby bella mushrooms instead of pork. I must say the latter was hearty, earthy, & AMAZING!!! I used extra-firm tofu instead of firm. I used coconut sugar both times instead of white sugar. I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos instead of Soy Sauce. I also used Arrowroot instead of cornstarch. If you like more sauce, you can you more Arrowroot without getting that "starchy" taste you'd get from too much cornstarch ;)

I thought this was outstanding! For the tofu, I squeezed as much water out of it as I could, then rubbed some grilling seasoning on all sides and baked it for an hour at 350 degrees. After it cooled, I chopped it into bite size pieces. I omitted the pork because I was trying to keep it a little more vegan. Because I didn't have all of the ingredients, I had to substitute as follows: I chopped up 1 tbs of pickled ginger (didn't have fresh) and about a 1/4 cup of yellow onion (green onions would've been better if I had them on hand) and sautéed them in olive oil. I didn't have the hot bean sauce, so I used about a tablespoon of spicy sweet and sour sauce. Just before plating, I added chopped asparagus and an orange chopped up into chunks. I cooked just a minute or two longer until the asparagus turned a bright green. I omitted the sugar (I'm diabetic) and sesame oil. I would've sprinkled toasted sesame seeds on it if I had had them. I absolutely loved it! I want to try it exactly as written too. I'm sure it would be equally delicious. Thanks so much for the recipe!

This was great! The only substitution I did was replace the hot bean sauce with Huy Fong's Chili Garlic sauce. Extremely easy and extremely delicious, didn't taste extremely heavy or greasy. Excellent over white rice, with broccoli on the side (might also be good to put broccoli or Chinese long beans in with all other ingredients).

This was my second ever attempt at cooking tofu, as I'm just starting to eat it, and this dish will help ease carnivores into tofu eaters! I couldn't find the bean paste at any local grocers and didn't deal like trekking to the nearest Asian market, so I used another reviewers suggestion and substituted it with the garlic chili paste. I was not disappointed! This dish is delicious! I will definitely make it again and even my "I will never eat tofu - that stuff is disgusting" spouting boyfriend said he liked it. Not enough to eat a bowl, but at least he didn't spit it out! Lol!

I live in China and was looking to cook something for my husband (who is Chinese) and he loved it... He said it was authentic Hunan style. I will cook it again for sure!

Good recipe but I don't think it's represented correctly. more like tofu stir fry than mapo tofu.

Awesome recipe!! I was just looking to use up the tofu I had purchased and instead I now have a great recipe to serve to my friends and family. I used miso paste instead of the hot bean paste and I added a little mushroom and cilantro to dress it up a little. It was amazing, thanks!!

I haven't made it ye, but.... I used to make this many times when I was a vegan. I sustituted mushrooms, chopped, for the pork. I will add soy last in small amounts.we are limited in our salt I do use a low sodium soy sauce.

Good recipe with fairly easy to find in ingredients. If you have a Chinese or Korean grocery nearby, adding ground Shichuan peppercorns (1-2 tsp) and replacing 2T of the 4T soy saurce with 2T of Chinese cooking wine (Shiaoxing or Liao Jiu) gives it a more authentic taste. I'll sometimes also substitute 1 - 2 tsp of chili-garlic paste for the garlic

Ok. Far too salty with all that soy sauce. I don't think I'll make it again.

Very simple and yummy! Will make again!

SO EASY TO MAKE AND VERY YUMMY

An excellent, simple, adaptable recipe. I substituted diced mushrooms for the ground meat, and chili paste for the got bean paste, and didn't feel the dish suffered at all for it. I will definitely make it again.

No sesame oil. Maybe try other recipe next time with the cooking sherry.

Very good and easy. Made this vegetarain only. The soy sauce masked all the other delicious ingredients. It was salty, so I added rice vinegar to it and since I only had non-spicy black bean sauce, I also added chili garlic sauce. I omitted the sesame oil because we don't like them in certain dishes and its very overwelming, but thats just us.

Good recipe, very easy and quick. Made a few changes: I cook the garlic and ginger first and added the ground meat to give it more flavour. Then I added in the soy sauce and used chilli oil with chilli flakes to give it some heat. To make more sauce, I added in some water and more cornstarch to thicken it up. Once that was cooked, then I added in the tofu and chopped mushrooms. Yummy! Husband liked it very much and he normally doesn't like tofu :)

Can substitute Korean Gochujang for Chili bean sauce (toban djan) . Use low sodium soy sauce or else the finished product is too salty.

I substituted hot been sauce with hoisin sauce and some chili oil. Pretty good but way too salty. Next time I'll use about one half the soy sauce.