Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Mapo Tofu
Silken tofu in a glowing, numbing-hot chili bean sauce, Chengdu’s most famous export.
Sichuan · easy · serves 3
prep 15 min · cook 15 min
~681 cal · 35g protein · 68g carbs · 30g fat · 3g fiber · 1g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Mapo tofu is the fieriest ambassador of Sichuan cooking, silken cubes of tofu bathed in a glossy, brick-red sauce of broad-bean chili paste (doubanjiang), minced meat, and the tingling numbness of Sichuan peppercorns. Its legend traces to a pockmarked ('mapo') old woman who ran a Chengdu eatery in the 19th century and made the dish her signature.
The dish is the definitive expression of 'málà', the interplay of spicy heat (là) and the numbing buzz (má) of Sichuan pepper that defines the region's cuisine. black beans and chili oil deepen the sauce, while the soft tofu soaks it all up.
Served with plain steamed rice to the heat, mapo tofu is everyday food in Chengdu, and the numbing buzz of the peppercorns against the soft tofu is the part people come back for.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut- and egg-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 3
1 lb soft or silken tofu, large cubes
6 oz ground pork
2 tbsp doubanjiang (chili bean paste)
Hard to find? red miso or Korean doenjang with a spoonful of chilli oil - doubanjiang is fermented broad beans with chilli, so a fermented bean paste plus chilli separately gets most of the way; use about one part paste to one part chilli oil and add a pinch of salt if the miso tastes sweet
1 tbsp black beans (douchi), rinsed and lightly mashed
1 tsp chili flakes or ground red chili
1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, toasted and ground
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
3 , sliced
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
Hard to find? dry (fino) sherry - the closest thing there is, and it disappears into the dish; buy dry sherry from the wine aisle rather than the salted bottle sold as cooking sherry. What will not work is rice vinegar, which is an acid where Shaoxing is a wine, and turns the dish sour
1 cup or water
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water slurry
3 tbsp
3 cups steamed rice, to serve
Instructions
1
Slide the tofu cubes into a pan of simmering salted water and leave 2 minutes to firm them, then drain gently.
✎ Chef’s note
This quick blanch keeps the soft tofu from breaking up when you fold it into the sauce later.
2
Fry the pork (or chopped shiitake) in oil over medium-high heat until crisp at the edges.
3
Add the doubanjiang, fermented black beans, and chili flakes and fry until the oil turns red and smells fragrant.
4
Stir in the garlic, ginger, and half the scallions and cook 30 seconds.
5
Splash in the Shaoxing wine, then pour in the stock and bring to a simmer.
6
Slip in the tofu and simmer 3 to 4 minutes, nudging gently rather than stirring hard so the cubes stay whole.
7
Stir in the cornstarch slurry and cook until the sauce thickens and coats the tofu.
8
Slide onto a plate and finish with ground Sichuan peppercorn and the remaining scallions. Serve over rice.
Chengdu, Sichuan classic.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Sichuan. The chronology matters here. Sichuan pepper is native and ancient, and the numbing half of ma la is genuinely old; the chilli is not, arriving from the Americas only in the sixteenth century, so the province's fiery identity is at most four centuries deep. Chengdu has been a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy since 2011, the first in Asia.
🗺️
China. China holds eight great regional cuisines within one border, the fire of Sichuan, the delicacy of Cantonese dim sum, the wheat noodles of the north, and more. Techniques like stir-frying, steaming, and braising, plus soy, ginger, and rice wine, unify an endlessly diverse table.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
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Good to know
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Mapo Tofu?
Silken tofu in a glowing, numbing-hot chili bean sauce, Chengdu’s most famous export.
Where does Mapo Tofu come from?
Mapo Tofu is a Sichuan dish from Sichuan, China.
Can Mapo Tofu be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Mapo Tofu recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Mapo Tofu safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Mapo Tofu take to make?
About 30 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 3.
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