Vegan Mapo Tofu Recipe (2024)

Cayenne peppers are totally unrelated to Szechuan peppers, have a completely different chemistry and effect in food and do not "substitute" for Szechuan peppers to yield anything even approaching "authentic-tasting" Mapo dofu. It could be a tasty dish, but not even close to authentic (especially if one also substitutes Japanese black bean sauce with garlic for the totally different combo of fermented black beans and chile bean paste).

No. Absolutely do not substitute cayenne pepper for Sichuan peppercorn. Sichuan peppercorns are not peppercorns or even related to peppers! They are the husk of a seed. and the soft tofu definitely benefits from the incredibly easy step of steeping in salted water - why would you skip it? Sichuan peppercorns are surprisingly widely available and absolutely integral to this dish. If you can't find them, wait to make this until you do.

This dish ended in the trash can. I now realize that I used the wrong ingredient. I couldn't find "fermented broad bean paste" and went with a Chinese lady's recommendation to use Bean Sauce. Next time, I'll make it with the "Toban Djan" I did find. When it comes to Asian dishes, photos of the ingredients are helpful because of the wide variety in products, names rarely match, spellings vary, online search results are not always trust-worthy.

We have made this dish twice. The first time, we substituted red pepper flakes for the Sichuan pepper, because we couldn't find it in any of the stores near us. It turned out ok. After ordering some of the proper pepper online, we made the dish again. What a huge difference. It was delicious. It's kind of amazing that one ingredient can be so crucial to a dish, but that Sichuan pepper is the real deal.

If no Sichuan Pepper - Grind together 1/2 t black peppercorns and 2 t coriander seeds. Add grated zest of 2/3 lemon (yellow only). This will fill in for about an equal measure of whole Sichuan peppercorns. While it lacks the important numbing effect it will fill in for the flavor.

Great recipe, easy. My husband and I had tense negotiations for the leftovers!

Too much soy sauce. Should be called "soysauce toufu". ln China, we put at least one teaspoons of Sichuan pepper CORNS into hot oil together with the dry red chilis in addition. The only 1 teaspoon of grounded ones tastes nothing like Ma po Toufu (Miss Ma's toufu). Ma means "numb", a feeling given by Sichuan pepper corn. The only problem is, Chinese people can eat around those pepper corns, but for westerners, you need to fish them out after they infuse the oil.

Lee Kum Kee is a reputable Chinese label. They call Toban Djan "Chili Bean Sauce."

If it doesn't "numb the tongue", it's not Mapo dofu!

Toban djan is the same as doubanjiang, just a different transliteration. Doubanjiang is pinyin (the official transliteration of Mandarin). I am not sure what transliteration toban djan is.

1.) There are a few required ingredients that they don't sell at most stores like fermented back beans, Sichuan pepper, fermented spicy broad bean paste, etc. I would recommend just buying those on Amazon to make it easy. Once you have all of the ingredients the recipe is pretty simple and tastes amazing!!Another thing that helped was prepping all of the ingredients before starting the recipe in bowls grouped by each step of the recipe.

This is one of my go-to meals for meatless Monday. My husband, who generally is not appreciative of the meatless Monday concept, thinks this is great and admits it doesn't need meat. Could not find fermented spicy broad bean paste and the fermented black bean paste I found had so many preservatives that I would not buy it. The recipe is good without either of those ingredients.

I always pour boiling water over my tofu. It changes its flavor to be more like the fresh, warm tofu you can buy in the morning at Asian markets.I’ve read that steeping in boiling and salted water makes the texture more unified and ready to accept sauces.I’ve made this dish numerous times and I think it’s worth it to hunt down the ingredients. When it was first published I scoured the city for Szechuan peppercorns and now they’re everywhere... and there’s always that store in the sky.

I have family from Szechuan and can confidently say this is not mapo tofu. This is severely lacking heat, severely lacking in the "funk" fermented beans bring. There is not enough numbing spice, and this recipe is overwhelmingly soy-saucey. Call this anything but mapo.

Wow! Spring for the doubanjiang; it's worth it. Also I ground up the Sichuan peppers from thepeppercorns, In terms of the heat profile, you will appreciate the difference.

This is very close to the recipe that my Tai Chi instructor gave me. I don’t use mushrooms or the hot red pepper. I serve mine on jasmine rice.Excellent recipe, but, alas, the name of the dish is americanized.The Chinese name is Ma Po Dofu!

Made exactly as written, and it came out delicious and pretty authentic-tasting. However the dish overall lacked the depth of “classic” mapo, likely because it had no meat. To enhance the flavor I tried adding a tiny bit of sugar and salt which helped a lot.

I cannot find soft tofu that is not silken? Any suggestions? Why can’t you use silken?

It’s a nice dish and quick to make once the ingredients are prepped. I found this dish a bit bland. The spiciness was fine but the underlying umami flavor was a bit off for me. I’ll stick to my old standby Gourmet recipe that uses dried shiitakes and silken tofu. NOTE: absolutely do not substitute for the Sichuan peppercorns.

I liked it but it lacked a bit of taste, I would’ve put more pepper.

Oh. My. Gawd. This is legit awesome. I followed the other posters about just using mushroom broth which made it a bit easier. But that’s the only change. I feel like this was something I would get in a restaurant. My only complaint is that there’s no way this is enough for 4-6 people. We made some rice but it served 2 with no leftovers…which is very sad. Will triple next time!

This is delicious. I followed the recipe exactly. It is really spicy—if you aren’t someone familiar with Sichuan peppercorns or who is sensitive to spice, you may want to consider halving the amount of ground Sichuan peppercorns (or even less for certain palates).Came together really quickly using a flat-bottomed wok. If you don’t have an Asian supermarket near you, Amazon has Sichuan peppercorns, fermented black beans, and doubanjiang—once you have the ingredients it’s a cinch!

I followed the recipe exactly. My overwhelming impression is that this is *not* a 5-Star dish. It’s not awful, but it’s pretty far from 5-Stars.

I’m not sure why the ingredient list says not to use silken tofu. Soft tofu and silken tofu are very similar. I used medium silken tofu and it was really good. I also simmered 4 dried shiitakes in water to make the broth because my fresh shiitakes didn’t have stems and I think that worked well. All of these ingredients can be found at the Asian market so if you want to make mapo tofu just go get the ingredients!

Made with firm, not soft, tofu and it was fine, likely better with soft. Did not have broad bean paste so doubled the fermented black beans. Needed more Szechuan peppercorns. Either double or add chili crisp at end. Maybe sauté mushrooms longer to give them a crisper texture. No cilantro, didn’t miss it. Used better than bouillon veg broth instead of making mushroom stock - didn’t miss it. Very good served w wild rice.

I substituted the do bu zhang for ground maraschino cherries, and it worked awesomely! Will make it this way every time.

Great recipe! I really do not think there are six servings in this, though. There are barely four. Will be doubling everything next time when cooking for a group of four.