Mapo Tofu Recipe

I made a variation of mapo tofu using ingredients I had available in the kitchen today. Instead of using fermented black bean sauce, I prepared a thick and spicy sauce with tomatoes, chili bean sauce and dried red chiles. I also added diced carrots and peas to the traditional silken tofu for a bit more nutrition. If you want to tone down the spiciness, you could replace it with sweet and sour sauce instead.

This is a quick and easy vegetarian meal when we’re running out of ingredients and I'm just too lazy to run to the grocery store. Onions, carrots and frozen peas are always on hand in our kitchen and they go great together, so I often use them when I make mapo tofu. You can use pretty much whatever veggies are in your pantry though, so be creative!

Vegetarian Sizzling Rice Soup

Yesterday, I promised that I was going to post a recipe about how to make sizzling rice soup. So I reserved 1 cup of parched rice from the Indian puffed rice snack we made yesterday, called chudwa in Urdu.

My favorite part of making sizzling soup is the sound of the freshly fried puffed rice in contact with the broth. It always amazes the kids. My poor Lulu's caught a bad cold so the warm broth really helped soothe his throat.  And he's a big kid, so the sizzling amazes him too!

I added water-chestnuts for crunch and miso and tofu for protein. The result is a very healthy and flavorful soup that you can enjoy as a starter or as a full meal.