We are a big fan of tofu recipes for a quick family dinner. While we love our sweet and sour orange tofu recipe, sometimes you need a spicier dish, and Szechuan cuisine is the best for that.
What Is Szechuan Tofu?
Szechuan Tofu a spicy tofu dish cooked with a lot of chili, garlic, and a few other Chinese classic condiments that create a sticky spicy sauce. It’s a bit similar to Mapo tofu, another Sichuan dish, but it’s less spicy and vegan. Mapo tofu which is cooked with ground pork.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need to make this Chinese tofu dish are a few ingredients and under 20 minutes.
Extra Firm Tofu – Pressed to remove water. Some firm tofu you can buy in popular grocery stores aren’t very firm and need to be pressed for a long time to extract their water. This is essential for the texture of the dish. Cornstarch – for thickness. Szechuan Peppercorn – Despite its name, this spice is completely unrelated to pepper or even chili. Ginger and Garlic Powder – for flavor. Sesame Oil – Sesame oil brings the best flavors, but you can also use peanut oil or any oil you love using to fry food. Canola oil is often used in Chinese restaurants. Soy Sauce or tamari sauce. Sriracha Sauce – to give it zing. You can also use chili paste. Maple Syrup – You can use other sweeteners as well such as brown sugar, coconut nectar, or coconut sugar. Chinese Five Spices Powder – This is key to getting the classic flavor. Chinese Cooking Wine or mirin Chili Flakes
How To Make Szechuan Tofu
Adding Vegetables
You can use this recipe to make a tofu veggie stir-fry. After you fried the tofu, stir up to 2 cups of the below vegetables into the wok, before adding the sauce. Stir fry the tofu and vegetables for a few minutes until fragrant and half cooked, still crunchy.
Onion – brown or white, sliced Carrot Stick Broccoli Florets Mushroom Slices Chinese Cabbage shredded Asparagus Green Beans Cauliflower Florets
Spicy Food Pairing
This spicy tofu recipe is tongue-numbing, so you need some sides to help your tongue recover from the spicy food. A simple side to this recipe is:
Rice – try my coconut jasmine rice for smooth rice that helps decrease the spiciness of food in your mouth. Noodles – Ramen, soba, or rice noodles if gluten-free. Cabbage Salad Cucumber Salad
Toppings
Feel free to serve this tofu with any of your favorite Chinese cuisine toppings. Some of our favorites are:
A pinch of sesame seeds – we blend black sesame seeds and white sesame seeds. Fresh chili slices or jalapeno slices Spring onion
Allergy Swaps
If you need to replace some ingredients, use the options below.
Gluten-Free – Replace the soy sauce with tamari sauce. Corn-Free – Try arrowroot flour or tapioca starch instead of cornstarch.
Below are my answers to your most frequent questions about this recipe.
More Tofu Recipes
If you like recipes with tofu, you’ll love these other ones:
