Chinese
Mapo Tofu
Mapo Tofu is Chinese home cooking, eaten at dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 14 oz soft tofu
- 8 oz ground pork
- 2 tbsp doubanjiang
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 4 scallions
- 1 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorn
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp chili oil
- 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 cups cooked rice
- 2 tbsp neutral oil
How to cook it
- Gently simmer the cubed tofu in salted water for 2 minutes, then drain; this keeps it from breaking.
- Heat the neutral oil in a wok and brown the ground pork, about 4 minutes.
- Add the doubanjiang, garlic, and ginger and cook until fragrant and red, 1 minute.
- Pour in the broth and soy sauce, add the tofu, and simmer gently 5 minutes.
- Stir the cornstarch with 2 tbsp water and add it to thicken the sauce.
- Finish with chili oil, Sichuan peppercorn, and scallions, and serve over rice.
Serve it with
A Chinese dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Mapo Tofu, read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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Something to sip
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Mapo Tofu carries gluten and soy. It is free of the remaining 8 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | Yes | Turkey Lettuce Wraps |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | Yes | Nothing comparable without it yet |
| Fish | No | |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Moderate
- Protein
- High
- Protein quality
- Complete
- Food groups it covers
- Grains, Pulses, and Meat or fish
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Mapo Tofu takes about 30 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on tofu, pork, and rice.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from the United States.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.