I eat a lot of plant-based meals, but often the fact that they don’t contain meat is beside the point. So it’s one of my pet peeves when a recipe, restaurant or brand makes a bigger deal out of what a meatless dish isn’t than what it is.
This Vegetarian Mapo Tofu slides right into the meat-free category without a lot of fuss. My previous forays into a vegan version of the Sichuan staple have veered to either extreme — lots of work to try to replicate the texture and flavor of the ground pork it’s usually made with (it was good, but it’s more than I can manage, even on a weekend) or no attempt at something else to add a bit of heft and savory oomph in lieu of the meat.
Food writer and cookbook author Diana Kuan‘s recipe resides at a nice middle point between the two. Maybe that’s because it’s designed not so much as an analogue to a meat version but as an accurate representation of a vegetarian dish that Kuan discovered when she was living in China.
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Like the more well-known formulations with meat, this recipe includes Sichuan peppercorns for an almost piney flavor and that trademark mouth-numbing sensation. Savory funk to balance the spice comes from black bean sauce, made with fermented black beans, and chili bean paste, which adds another layer of fermented beans plus the heat of hot peppers. Rehydrated and fried shiitake mushrooms contribute depth and body. As an added bonus, the soaking water gets used as the umami-rich backbone of the “luscious sauce,” as Kuan puts it. It comes together in a dish you won’t be able to stop eating, regardless of how tingly your tongue becomes.
For the best results, you might need to do a bit of extra ingredient scouting, either in person or online. I found black bean sauce (the alternative Kuan suggests for fermented black beans) at my local supermarket; the jars might also be labeled “garlic black bean sauce.” The chili bean paste/sauce required a trip to my go-to Asian market, as did the soft tofu.
With some input from Kuan, who just published her second cookbook, “Red Hot Kitchen,” I also attempted a specialty-free version. I used dark miso instead of the black bean sauce and a mix of hoisin, chili oil and sambal oelek (a chili sauce that’s easier to find) instead of the chili bean paste. I tried it with firm tofu, too. Tasters agreed that it was good — as a spicy tofu dish, not mapo tofu. We missed the vibrant red sauce, the hard-to-replicate fermented bean flavor and the tender bite of the soft tofu. Kuan says anything from soft to firm is fine to use, however. Alas, there’s nothing that can mimic the tongue-tingling presence of Sichuan peppercorns (the “ma” part of “mala,” which is the Sichuan word for their flavor).
If you’re interested in adding mapo tofu to your repertoire of make-at-home takeout favorites — and you should, since it’s delicious and easy to pull together — the hunt for the right ingredients is worth it. You’ll have no problem burning through them with this recipe in hand.
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