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Mapo Tofu with Garlic Green Beans and Five-Spice Glazed Eggplant (Meal Prep)

Watch how to make it here

Meal prep never looked (or tasted) so good! Enjoy this beautiful combination of tofu, green beans, and eggplant over the course of a week. It’s savory, spicy, fragrant, and flavorful – the perfect meal to eat at the end of a long day. 

A few notes:

  1. Doubanjiang (Spicy Bean Sauce) is essential to this dish. It can be found at most Asian grocery stores and will really transform the dish and provide the flavors normally found in mapo tofu dishes. You can also order it on here or here. 
  2. Garlic Salt is also essential to the green beans. Growing up, I would always heavily coat green beans with the huge container of Lawry’s Garlic Salt from Costco and it instantly transformed the vegetable into an appetizing meal. I really didn’t like green beans as a kid but I love it now. You can find this at your local grocery store, Costco, or online here. 
  3. Red Sichuan Peppercorns – Warning! Your lips might go numb and your tongue will experience a tingling sensation but don’t worry it won’t linger for too long. If you are particularly sensitive to spicy sensations, I would skip this. However, if you’re looking to go a little crazy, these peppercorns are worth trying and so much fun to eat. You can find this at your local Asian grocery store or online here. 
  4. WangZhiHe’s Chive Sauce – My friend introduced this sauce to me and it’s honestly incredible. It instantly makes any meal 10x better and is very salty. You only need a small teaspoon but it’s the perfect addition to the mapo tofu recipe. I couldn’t find this on Amazon, but this link here will show you the exact brand I used. 
  5. The recipe below is enough for 4-5 servings, depending on how much you’d like to eat. Since this is a meal prep recipe, pack the food side by side in an airtight container in this order: mapo tofu, green beans, steamed white rice topped with the eggplant. The green beans will serve as a barrier and prevent the rice and eggplant from getting soggy. Store this in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Mapo Tofu With Garlic Green Beans And Five-Spice Glazed Eggplant (Meal Prep)

1. Doubanjiang (Spicy Bean Sauce) is essential to this dish. It can be found at most Asian grocery stores and will really transform the dish and provide the flavors normally found in mapo tofu dishes. You can also order it on here or here. 
2. Garlic Salt is also essential to the green beans. Growing up, I would always heavily coat green beans with the huge container of Lawry’s Garlic Salt from Costco and it instantly transformed the vegetable into an appetizing meal. I really didn’t like green beans as a kid but I love it now. You can find this at your local grocery store, Costco, or online here. 
3. Red Sichuan Peppercorns – Warning! Your lips might go numb and your tongue will experience a tingling sensation but don’t worry it won’t linger for too long. If you are particularly sensitive to spicy sensations, I would skip this. However, if you’re looking to go a little crazy, these peppercorns are worth trying and so much fun to eat. You can find this at your local Asian grocery store or online here. 
4. WangZhiHe’s Chive Sauce – My friend introduced this sauce to me and it’s honestly incredible. It instantly makes any meal 10x better and is very salty. You only need a small teaspoon but it’s the perfect addition to the mapo tofu recipe. I couldn’t find this on Amazon, but this link here will show you the exact brand I used. 
5. The recipe below is enough for 4-5 servings, depending on how much you’d like to eat. Since this is a meal prep recipe, pack the food side by side in an airtight container in this order: mapo tofu, green beans, steamed white rice topped with the eggplant. The green beans will serve as a barrier and prevent the rice and eggplant from getting soggy. Store this in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Prep Time

30 min

cooking time

1 hours

Servings

4

total time

1 hours 30 min

Difficulty

Ingredients

1
Green Beans
2
16 oz green beans, prewashed, ends trimmed
3
4 garlic cloves, minced
4
1 tbsp garlic salt
5
1 tsp black pepper
6
1 tsp mushroom seasoning
7
½ cup vegetable oil
8
Five-Spice Glazed Eggplant
9
1 Italian eggplant, sliced and cut into 2 inch strips
10
1 tbsp five-spice powder
11
1 tbsp mushroom seasoning
12
1 tsp white pepper
13
2 tbsp sesame oil
14
1 tbsp soy sauce
15
Mapo Tofu
16
1 tbsp sesame oil
17
1 tablespoons ginger, minced
18
4 cloves of garlic, minced
19
6 oz shiitake mushrooms, minced in food processor
20
2 16oz silken tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
21
1 tbsp of red Sichuan peppercorns, grind into powder form or keep whole
22
1 tbsp gochugaru or cayenne pepper
23
2 tbsp spicy bean ‘doubanjiang’ sauce
24
1 cup vegetable broth
25
2 tbsp cornstarch (plus 2 tbsp of water, stir to create cornstarch slurry mixture)
26
2 green onions, roughly chopped
27
28
1 tbsp chives sauce, optional but highly recommended
29
Side
30
4 cups steamed white rice
31
4 cups steamed white rice

Cooking Instructions

1
Step 1
Five-Spice Glazed Eggplant: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare the eggplant by slicing and cutting it into 2 inch strips. Mix the five-spice powder, mushroom seasoning, white pepper, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Lay the eggplant slices next to each other on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Brush the five-spiced glaze over one side of the eggplant. Once the oven is ready, bake for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, flip each eggplant slice and brush with the remaining five-spice glaze. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. When the eggplant has been fully cooked, transfer to a plate and set to the side.
2
Step 2
Garlic Green Beans: Rinse the green beans and dry with a paper towel to prevent any oil from splattering during the frying process. Prepare the green beans by trimming the stem end and mince the garlic. Heat up vegetable oil in a non-stick skillet for a few minutes before adding the green beans and ensure it does not become overcrowded. Depending on the size of the skillet, there might be a need to fry the green beans in two separate batches. Fry the green beans for 4-5 minutes or until it turns a vibrant green color. Once all the green beans have been completely fried, place it in a paper towel lined bowl or plate to absorb the oil. In the same pan, remove any excess oil but save about 1 tbsp of oil in the pan and add the garlic. After a minute, add the green beans back in the pan along with the garlic salt, mushroom seasoning, and black pepper. Mix everything well and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Transfer the green beans to a plate and set to the side.
3
Step 3
Mapo Tofu: Prepare the ginger, garlic, shiitake mushrooms, and green onions. Cut the tofu into 1 inch cubes and grind the red Sichuan peppercorns with a mortar and pestle. Alternatively, the peppercorns can be added whole directly into the skillet (Warning: your lips might go numb or your tongue will experience a tingling sensation but don’t worry it won’t linger for long). Heat up the sesame oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat and add the sichuan peppercorns. After a couple minutes, add the garlic, ginger, and white ends of the green onions. After a minute, add the doubanjiang, gochugaru, and chive sauce to roast the spices and turn it into a paste. Add one to two tablespoons of water to deglaze the skillet if it begins to dry up. Once a paste forms, add the mushrooms for a few minutes and mix well. Allow the mushrooms to cook for a few minutes before adding the vegetable broth and wait for it to lightly boil. Meanwhile, combine the cornstarch and water to create the cornstarch slurry. As soon as it boils, turn the heat down to a simmer and add the cornstarch slurry one tablespoon at a time. You will want the sauce to resemble a gravy like texture. If the sauce is too watery, add more cornstarch slurry. Once the sauce has thickened, add the tofu. Gently toss the tofu, be careful not to break the tofu. Allow the tofu to simmer for 4-5 minutes before adding the green ends of the green onions.
4
Step 4
Once the tofu is ready, feel free to serve immediately with steamed white rice, five-spice glazed eggplant, and garlic green beans. Keep in mind, this is a meal prep recipe that is enough for 4-5 meals so there will be plenty of food. Refer to notes above for storage instructions.
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ABOUT AUTHOR
Hi, I'm Tiff!

Tiff Loves Tofu is a blog all about simple and delicious plant-based recipes, largely influenced by my culture and life experiences. I hope to show people that cooking wholesome, vibrant plant-based meals is not only easy but it is loads of fun. So, let’s get cooking!

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