Vegan cooking? Mar Po Tofu.

Shop Knives and stones on ebay
Find deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
B

boomchakabowwow

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2013
Messages
3,631
Reaction score
5,527
as some of you know...i have been homing in on my perfect (for me) version of MarPoTofu. one of my wife's friends threw down the Gauntlet. can i make it "vegan".?

pfffth..easy. i went out and search the food department i typically orbit widely around. picked up some mystery noodles (for fun), and walked away with some soy ground beef substitute.

i'll try it tonight. i have ZERO clue how to even use the product. i am truly interested to see if this even works.

any vegans here? that was a very interesting corner of the store.
 
Disclaimer: I'm not a vegan
I haven't tried to make this using tempeh or seitan but I have made it using mushrooms (primarily shitakes) and may take another run at it using marinated jackfruit.
Linked are some recipes for mushroom versions:
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/oct/27/mushroom-mapo-tofu-recipe-meera-sodha
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017358-vegan-mapo-tofu
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/02/the-best-vegan-mapo-tofu-recipe.html

There is a vegan "butcher shop" here in Minneapolis (https://www.theherbivorousbutcher.com/) that is well regarded but I've never used their products. I've been meaning to talk to them about potential substitutes. I would suspect that most major cities have some local equivalent these days.

Please keep us posted on your experiments.
 
Treat the ground soy like any other ground meat. If it is dried, you have to soak it in hot water to rehydrate. Then marinate, saute, stew, stir fry, like any ground meat.
My wife is a vegetarian, so I guess that makes me one for the most part. I use the veggie ground to make lettuce wraps, taco meat, sloppy Joe's, char sui pork, really anything that calls for ground beef, chicken, or pork.
 
Speaking as a Chinese person yes mapo tofu always has pork because everything has pork.

Also speaking as a Chinese person I make mapo tofu and just simply drop the meat all the time. If you get the balance of spices right and go the extra mile and source good sichuan peppercorn, it’s just as tasty. I haven’t tried impossible yet but beyond makes it too coconut-y and I’d rather just have no-meat mapo tofu than that. Bonus: drop the meat and it’s vegan already, provided you’re not frying things in lard or something.
 
Just finely mince mushrooms and fry rather hard instead of the pork. Kenji Lopex-Alt from Serious Eats has a great vegan Mapo Tofu recipe. :)
 
Viggetorr said:
Just finely mince mushrooms and fry rather hard instead of the pork. Kenji Lopex-Alt from Serious Eats has a great vegan Mapo Tofu recipe. :)
Click to expand...

This does work well for texture but personally it weirds me out because it gets very mushroomy (maybe I’m sensitive?). On the other hand I have used mushrooms in a vegan Bolognese before so....
 
Did it just last night, with pork. I'm diabetic. My resting blood sugar level was 91 with morning. Can't beat that. One of my favorite Chinese dishes with the Sichuan pepper and chiles I brought back from Chengdu.
 
okay. i tried it. i should have tasted the raw "fake meat" first. it was already kinda salty, and the final product was was too salty.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0586 (2).JPG
    IMG_0586 (2).JPG
    239.9 KB · Views: 43
  • IMG_0587 (2).JPG
    IMG_0587 (2).JPG
    169.7 KB · Views: 44
Always made it with firm tofu tasty sauce and ground pork.

First time made a batch with meat free soy substitute. If your sauce is good makes the fake meat taste better. Same with curry stew. Still not as good as pork.

When she goes on trips usually I stay at home & go buy some kalua pork so can make pork & cabbage. With chili water, Ponzu, smash good size piece of ginger put glass lid be on skillet & let it slow cook.

Just got some Beyond Burgers from Costco grilled onions & mushroom same pan as burger. Top bun mayo thin spoon scoops of avocado. Bottom bun horseradish mustard B Burger topped with onion, mushroom. Middle couple slices Vine ripe tomato, pickle & leaf of lettuce. It was surprisingly good. Still like Costco Salmon burgers the best.
 
Try OMNI-PORK if you're vegetarian. It's like Impossible Meat. I do a Mapo Tofu with just tofu and veggies sometimes, when I can't afford meat for that week.
 
spyken said:
Try OMNI-PORK if you're vegetarian. It's like Impossible Meat. I do a Mapo Tofu with just tofu and veggies sometimes, when I can't afford meat for that week.
Click to expand...

Thanks how can you purchase this? Looks like similar ingredients as Beyond Burger. Is it only in Asia now?

We eat fish & other seafoods. Beef & Pork she does not eat anymore. Have noticed fake meat is getting better. It used to taste pretty bad. With aging population in industrial countries around the world there is a market for these products.

Never ate much beef, but pork a staple. Much harder for me to give up. If could find a tasty fake pork for curry stew & things like mapo tofu I would buy it.
 
i like it/make it without meat. Although ground lamb is quite nice. Mapo tofu needs sichuan peppercorns / sichuan peppercorn oil. Neeeeeddss it. Green ones are more numbing, red ones are more floral.

and when I eat meat i usually like eat it without tofu . . .
 
Looks good never made it with leeks. Garlic, ginger, chili paste a must. Use baby Bok Choy.
 
Keith Sinclair said:
Thanks how can you purchase this? Looks like similar ingredients as Beyond Burger. Is it only in Asia now?

We eat fish & other seafoods. Beef & Pork she does not eat anymore. Have noticed fake meat is getting better. It used to taste pretty bad. With aging population in industrial countries around the world there is a market for these products.

Never ate much beef, but pork a staple. Much harder for me to give up. If could find a tasty fake pork for curry stew & things like mapo tofu I would buy it.
Click to expand...

Maybe email them. Seems to be available in New York and Vancouver and I know I can find it in local supermarkets in Singapore too, so, maybe they might be expanding their operations to the US soon - since it's not meat, I suppose FDA approval will be easier. Their website is: www.omnipork.co
 
Last edited:
I'll trade you OMNI-pork for wildboar meat o_O
 
Keith Sinclair said:
Thanks how can you purchase this? Looks like similar ingredients as Beyond Burger. Is it only in Asia now?

We eat fish & other seafoods. Beef & Pork she does not eat anymore. Have noticed fake meat is getting better. It used to taste pretty bad. With aging population in industrial countries around the world there is a market for these products.

Never ate much beef, but pork a staple. Much harder for me to give up. If could find a tasty fake pork for curry stew & things like mapo tofu I would buy it.
Click to expand...
Keith, take a look here. I’ve not bought anything yet but I’m intrigued

https://www.maywahnyc.com/default.asp

they’re a retail store as well as a wholesaler. You could call them and ask.
 
Checked sites looks like mostly still in Asia. Hawaii has excellent Veg. Market. Best salad bar & Veg. Hot items on Oahu. Down To Earth Have been around since early 1970's. I will put Omni pork on their radar. It says must be frozen in transport it may take a while to gear up for demand. They are relàtively new.


.
 
Oh, I forgot you were in Hawaii!

They're from Taiwan, this is their (I think) first US location.

I'm gonna stop by one day, pick something up and give it a whirl. There's a vegan Korean restaurant that I ate at that had something I assumed was this, it was delicious. Wasn't meat, but it was great.

https://www.franchia.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top