Eggplant Mapo Tofu

Eggplant Mapo Tofu. Make a trip to the Asian market and make one of your favorite Chinese food dishes at home!

I’ve been cooking a lot and trying new things and you can tell if I’ve had a productive day by the amount of dirty dishes in my sink. And if we are all (kids included) able to actually eat what I’ve made for dinner, it’s a double win.

One of my favorite things to do as a food blogger and recipe developer is to go to the grocery store or farmers’ market. I love walking around trying samples and seeing what’s in season. What better way to discover new ingredients and vegetables? I especially love visiting the Asian market to see what new ingredients I can get my hands on and test in the kitchen.

I set out to explore the Asian market one day in search of the perfect ingredients to play around with in the kitchen. Even I get a little overwhelmed sometimes at the Asian market since there are so many brands as far as pantry items are concerned. How do you know which ones taste the best? That’s when some good old experimenting and testing come into play. Or, if you are following a recipe, simply ask for some help! The people at my local Asian market are always quick to help and offer lots of suggestions as well.

Mapo Tofu is one of our favorite Chinese food dishes. It’s the dish that we always order when we go out and the spicier, the better. In fact, my husband doesn’t even want to eat it unless it has a certain degree of spiciness. Now, as with many Asian food sauces, you’ll find a lot of popular sauces jarred or in ready-made packets. Sometimes, I enjoy using these but I always add things to make it my own.

We usually eat our Mapo Tofu with some kind of beef, but it’s summer and eggplant is in season. I actually used a combination of both regular eggplant and Chinese eggplant after picking both up at the Asian market. Chinese eggplant has a thinner skin, fewer seeds, and is a little less bitter with a more delicate flavor than regular eggplant. But I couldn’t resist cooking with both.

I used my trusty KitchenAid® 7-Ply Stainless Steel with Copper Core 10″ Skillet. This is my absolute favorite skillet (yes, I’ve said this before) and I use it all the time. The low, gently angled sides not only make stirring and flipping easier, but provide a larger surface area for quickly cooking, sautéing, and searing meats and vegetables.

With any Asian food dish, there are varying degrees of spiciness and preference. Play around with this recipe and add more or less heat and spice, depending on your taste and what you want. I hope you give this recipe a try! If you like eggplant and Chinese Mapo Tofu, you simply must!

I’m waiting for the day where I can just make one dish and we can all eat spicy food together. But that probably won’t be for a long time.

Print Recipe

Eggplant Mapo Tofu

Notes for the cook: Ingredients can be found at any Asian market. You can just buy ONE type of eggplant or you can use a mixture of both as indicated below.

Course: Main

Cuisine: Chinese

Servings: 4

Author: Hip Foodie Mom

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 to 3 fresh cloves of garlic minced
• 2 teaspoons minced ginger
• 2 to 3 green onions finely diced (white and green parts)+ more for garnish
• 2 to 3 tablespoons spicy black bean paste or hot bean sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns ground
• 1/3 cup spicy bean sauce + more if needed as shown above
• 14 ounce container of silken tofu drained and cut into cubes
• 1/2 cup Chinese eggplant cubed
• 1/2 cup eggplant cubed
• Serve with cooked white or brown rice

Instructions

• Using a small mixing bowl, whisk together the chicken stock, cornstarch, soy sauce and sugar. Set aside.
• Using your skillet over medium high heat, add the sesame oil, garlic, ginger and green onions and cook until fragrant, for about 4 to 5 minutes, stirring continuously. Add the hot bean paste, ground Sichuan pepper and spicy bean sauce. Taste and adjust ingredients according to your taste. Continue sautéing for a few more minutes, or until heated through.
• Add the tofu and the eggplant and stir together gently so that the tofu and eggplant gets nicely coated with the sauce. Add more spicy bean sauce if needed.
• Whisk together the chicken stock mixture again and then pour it over the tofu and eggplant. Toss gently to coat, and let cook until the sauce thickens, for about 5 to 6 minutes. You can turn up the heat a bit if needed.
• Serve with white or brown rice and garnish with diced green onions.

And I’m using my new boards today! Food blogger friends: my husband had the brilliant idea of googling wood floor companies in the area to see if any had remnant pieces of reclaimed wood. And I scored big! Hooray!

I hope you try my Eggplant Mapo Tofu!

Disclosure: This is a paid, sponsored post in partnership with KitchenAid USA. All opinions expressed here are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting me in partnering with the brands and products that I use and love.