Mapo tofu
麻婆豆腐
Sichuan tofu in a chilli-bean sauce with minced pork, Sichuan pepper, and enough oil to carry the mala.
Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen. Native name preserved: 麻婆豆腐.
1 person cooked this in the public kitchen. Kitchen-tested by I Want Some Food. Not a purchased rating.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Total
- 35 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Spice
- Hot
- Cost
- Weeknight budget$8–16 USD · indicative, not a store price
About
Mapo tofu should tingle. Doubanjiang is fried until the oil turns red; Sichuan pepper is toasted; tofu stays wobbly; a little starch makes the sauce cling. It is Chengdu home cooking that restaurants made famous. If it is only 'spicy mince with cubes', you skipped the mala.
Ingredients
- Tofu, soft or medium, cubed, briefly soaked in salted water400 g
- Pork, minced120 g
- Doubanjiang30 ml
- Sichuan pepper, toasted and ground, plus a few whole for oil4.9 ml
- Garlic, minced3 clove
- Ginger, minced10 g
- Spring onion3
- Soy sauce4.9 ml
- Fresh chilli, chilli flakes or extra oil, optional4.9 ml
- Water200 ml
- Rice, uncooked, to serve300 g
Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.
Steps
Step 1
Toast Sichuan pepper in a dry pan until fragrant, 1 minute. Grind. Cube tofu and sit it in warm salted water.
5 minStep 2
Heat oil in a wok. Fry minced pork until it renders and browns. Add doubanjiang and fry until the oil is red and smells cooked, 2 minutes.
6 minWatch: Raw doubanjiang tastes harsh. Cook it.
Step 3
Add garlic, ginger and a pinch of chilli. Splash in water and soy. Slide in tofu. Simmer gently 4–5 minutes. Do not stir like scrambled eggs — nudge.
6 minStep 4
If you want a clinging sauce, mix 1 tsp cornflour with 1 tbsp water and drizzle in while nudging. Add ground Sichuan pepper and spring onion.
3 minStep 5
Serve over rice. There should be red oil on top. That is not a mistake.
Adapt this recipe
The canonical recipe stays intact. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are maths, not AI.
Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 24 August.
Substitutions
Pork → Finely chopped shiitake
Brown hard for savoury depth.
Doubanjiang → Gochujang plus extra chilli
Korean-adjacent, not Sichuan. Different fermented base.
Tips
- Pixian doubanjiang is worth ordering once. Generic chilli bean paste is saltier and less complex.
- Vegetarian: skip pork, fry mushrooms, and use a little extra doubanjiang oil.
History & culture
Named, in the usual story, for a pockmarked woman who cooked it in Chengdu. Versions exist without pork (vegetarian mapo) and with beef. The numbing-heat pairing is the Sichuan part that does not translate to 'add more chilli flakes'.
Chilli is a New World crop Sichuan adopted completely. Mapo tofu as a named dish is Qing-era Chengdu food that global Chinese restaurants exported, sometimes without Sichuan pepper — which is how it became 'spicy tofu' instead of mapo.
Traditional — Soft tofu, Pixian-style doubanjiang, whole Sichuan pepper. Fermented black beans are welcome if you have them.
Provenance: Editorial adaptation. Original editorial adaptation for I Want Some Food.
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