Mapo Tofu Recipe – Ma Po Tofu

This is the authentic Szechuan way of cooking Mapo tofu, a tofu dish made with a famous Sichuan flavor type – Mapo flavor.  The dish combines spicy doubanjiang (broad bean sauce), fermented black beans, ginger, ground meat, and garlic in a classic mapo-style sauce. The mapo tofu is smooth and silky, with a slightly hot and numbing taste that lingers on the tongue. It’s the perfect accompaniment to steamed rice or noodles and can be enjoyed as a main dish or a side.

Who invented MaPo tofu？

When seeing the name, you may wonder what’s the meaning of this dish’s name. Mapo tofu (Ma Po tofu) is named after its creator. It is recorded that there is a couple who own a restaurant mainly selling vegetarian dishes. The wife, also the cook, gets some pocks (麻子in Chinese)on her face. Her tofu dishes are quite popular among the guests. However, some guests told her that they want to eat some meat rather than just tofu. So she bought some beef and added them to her tofu. That tofu dish with beef becomes more popular and her guests give her the name: Mapo tofu. So Mapo means a woman with pocks on her face. Along with the popularity of this dish, “mapo” has become a kind of flavor that has also been used in other dishes now.

What is mapo tofu made of?

Mapo tofu is made with tofu, ground meat (pork or beef), and a spicy base sauce made with doubanjiang (the soul chili paste from Sichuan cuisine), aromatics (garlic, ginger, and scallion), chili powder, soy sauce, scallion or garlic greens and grounded Sichuan peppercorns.

Why it is so popular

If you visit Sichuan restaurants, you will find it is on almost every menu. This dish is famous throughout China and Asia with many variations worldwide. The hot, numbing, and aromatic flavor comes along with the crispy meat and soft silken texture, which make mapo tofu the best tofu dish. And the thick sauce from this dish can be so good with steamed rice, noodles, or steamed buns. 

For home cooking, although the ingredient list seems to be a little bit long, most of the ingredients are quite common and easy to find Sichuan seasonings.

In addition, mapo tofu is a healthy dish that is high in protein and low in calories.

Type of tofu to use

Although theoretically, both soft and firm tofu can be used to make this dish.

I believe that soft tofu is the best choice for mapo tofu. Soft tofu is tender enough but can hold its shape when gently cooked. Firm tofu is not tender enough and silken tofu will lose its shape. If you want to try to use silken tofu, I recommend this one pot tofu and egg because there is almost no moving during the cooking process and that one is really great too. But I don’t recommend using firm tofu for this dish.

What to serve with Mapo tofu

Mapo tofu itself is a dish with very strong flavors. When eating alone, it might be slightly salty and spicy. Mapo tofu is best served hot over a bed of white or brown rice. The savory and spicy flavor of the mapo tofu will be absorbed into the grains and give you an unforgettable eating experience. You can also serve mapo tofu with plain staple food, such as noodle soup, steamed rice, steamed buns, and all kinds of porridge.

🧾 Ingredients Breakdown

🔪Instructions

1. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of ground white pepper with minced beef. Mix well and set aside.

2. Cut tofu into square cubes (around 2cm). Bring a large amount of water to a boil and then add a pinch of salt. Slide the tofu in and cook for 1 minute. Move out and drain.

3. Get a wok and heat up around 2 tablespoons of oil, fry the minced meat until crispy. Transfer out beef and leave the oil in.

4. Add another 1 tablespoon of vegetable cooking oil and fry doubanjiang for 1 minute over slow fire until the red turns red (bring us a lovely red color dish).

5. Add fermented black beans,  garlic, scallion white, ginger, and fermented black beans to cook for 30 seconds until aroma. Optionally mix pepper flakes in. Pepper flakes should be added at the end because it contains little water and can be burnt easily.

6. Then pour in water or stock. Add light soy sauce, sugar, and half of the cooked beef (providing more flavor to the soup) after the broth boils and let it continue simmering for 2-3 minutes.

7. Place the tofu in, and simmer for another 6-8 minutes. The longer time of simmering helps the tofu to absorb the flavors.

8. During the process of simmering, mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2.5 tablespoons of water in a small bowl to make water starch. Stir the water starch and then pour half of the mixture into the simmering pot. Back push and wait for around 30 seconds and then pour the other half. You can slightly taste the tofu and add a pinch of salt if not salty enough.  Add cooked beef to create some crispy texture and then drizzle sesame oil. Mix well.

9.Transfer out when almost all the seasonings stick to tofu cubes. Sprinkle Szechuan peppercorn powder (to taste)and chopped garlic greens if using. The best way of serving mapo tofu is simply with steamed rice or noodles. The sauce is so good.

How to turn Mapo tofu into vegan

Vegan readers, skip the minced pork or beef. And another choice is to replace the meat with mushrooms either dried or fresh to enhance the flavor. Mapo tofu with mushrooms.