Vegan Mapo Tofu

Happy National Beverage Day and No Diet Day! Did you know, 5/6 is the day to enjoy refreshing drinks without thinking about diet!

So some of you may think that why I’m posting about world famous Chinese dish today…but here is a reason.

Mapo tofu is considered as beverage sometimes in Japan, especially from young(around high school age) athletes and foodies. Since  mapo tofu is so soft and easy to swallow without chewing, they consider it’s a part of beverage and there is actually another dish as their main dish, side dish, or dessert to make it complete meal.

I was a chubby girl when I was young, and “mapo tofu is a beverage” statement makes nostalgic to me🤣   As time goes by, I started to lose weight and I don’t consider it as “beverage” because my stomach and metabolic system don’t allow that much food anymore.

So mapo tofu…While I was talking about this story to my husband, I felt like it so here it is! I post many mapo tofu recipes so far, so to make it look fun I decorated plate:)

Do you feel like mapo tofu today? Let’s cook!

 

<Today’s Recipe>

Vegan Mapo Tofu

<Ingredients>

• ½ large onion – chopped
• ¼ carrots – shredded
• 3 – 5 mushrooms – chopped
• ⅔ pack firm tofu
• ½ large tomato – chopped
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 thinly sliced ginger – shredded
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 bunch scallion

Sauce

• 1 tablespoon spicy bean sauce
• 1 teaspoon chili garlic paste
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• ½ cube veg soup stock
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 300ml water
• A tablespoon water and potato starch mixture

Rice

• 1 bunch scallion
• Some sesame seeds
• Some drops sesame oil

 

<Directions>

1. Pour olive oil with ginger, garlic in a large pan and bring it to medium high heat. Add onion, carrots, mushrooms and cook for about 5 min. Add tomato and ingredients for the sauce except potato starch/water mixture. Bring it to boil.
2. Add tofu and simmer it for about 5 min.
3. Pour potato starch mixture to make the sauce thick.
4. Combine rice, scallion, sesame seeds, and sesame oil together and transfer them on the center of a plate.
5. Pour mapo tofu around the rice and serve!

 

The point of eating this mapo tofu extra yummy: cook the rice with a reduced amount of water. Rich thick sauce soaks up the flavorful sauce and brings it to your mouth straight! 

And…the point to make the rice fancy is use a small cup for molding the rice, as you can see, but if the cup is a little too big, you can reduce the amount of rice to put in a mold…this is what I didn’t realized during cooking, because my nostrils are obsessed with the flavorful aroma of mapo tofu, and my stomach refused the idea of “1 serving.”

Happy big tummy🥂✨

 

<Other Recipes to Celebrate Beverage Day and No Diet Day>

Make a mountain of whipped cream over coffee! Vienna Coffee

Make a record of how many pancakes you can eat! Berry Cheese Pancake

Cutting carb? No, here is how you should “cut” the carb. Grilled Veggie Pizza

Enjoy home cooking and your own creation of homemade food:)