Hot and cold, sauce and savory. This dish is made for rice! We cook ground pork with lots of garlic and miso paste to make a very tasty pork sauce. Then we pour that over soft tofu and serve right away. Miso Pork and Tofu is a definite crowd pleaser ^_^
I was planning to make mapo tofu for dinner yesterday but then recalled a pork and tofu dish I had bookmarked months ago from Cabagges World!
Imagine a savory ground pork sauce poured over a block of soft tofu. It's similar to mapo tofu (as in, ground pork plus tofu), but different enough to feel special.
The main seasoning in the pork sauce is miso. We use white miso, but this works well with any type of miso paste. It's really bold in flavor and the pork sauce itself could be it's own dish (especially if you spoon it over a bowl of plain noodles). Perhaps we'll try that another day ^_^
Ok, let's begin!
Ingredients
Here's what you'll need:
- Ground pork - I like this dish best with ground pork. It's also pretty tasty with ground turkey!
- Soft tofu - About 14-19 ounces per box. You'll need 2 boxes for this recipe. We usually go between two different brands: Aloha Tofu Factory has 19 ounce boxes and House Foods has 14 ounce boxes. Either size is fine, as this is a flexible recipe. Make sure to get soft tofu (not firm tofu).
- Garlic - The more the merrier!
- Green onions - We use 1 bunch of green onions for this recipe, but if you have more, feel free to add it. Like garlic, green onions are always welcome.
- Mirin
- Soy sauce
- Sake - If you don't have or don't want to use sake, you can use chicken broth or any other type of broth (like vegetable broth, beef broth, dashi, etc).
- Cornstarch
- Miso paste - We use white miso for this recipe, but you can use any type of miso paste you have available.
- Sesame oil
- Roasted sesame seeds - Optional, we just use this as garnish at the end.
- Chili oil - Also optional, but a good to add if you want to make it spicy!
Instructions
Let's get cooking!
First prepare the tofu:
Remove both blocks of soft tofu from the container. Gently rinse and set each block on a plate or shallow dish.
Then cook the pork:
In a large pan on medium-high heat, add a little oil and the ground pork. Cook for a few minutes, using a spatula to help break the pork into small pieces.
Add garlic and green onions:
Once the pork starts to brown, add the minced garlic and cook for another minute. Add half of the green onions and cook for another minute.
Add liquid seasonings and cornstarch:
Then add the soy sauce, mirin, and sake (or chicken broth). Stir to mix.
Mix the cornstarch with ¼ cup water and pour into the pan.
Add miso paste and sesame oil:
Turn the heat down to medium. Add the miso paste and stir to mix and dissolve the miso.
Stir in the sesame oil. Then turn off the heat.
Finish and serve:
Pour the ground pork sauce over the tofu (divide the equally between the two blocks of tofu). Top with the remaining green onions.
You can finish the dish with a sprinkle of roasted sesame seeds and chili oil if you’d like. Eat with rice and enjoy!
Top Tip
The first step of this recipe is to plate both blocks of soft tofu on separate plates.
By the time you are done making the ground pork mixture (takes about 15 minutes), some water will have drained from the tofu.
Make sure to drain that excess water off the plate before you top the tofu with the ground pork mixture.
To do that, I use one hand to tilt the plate and another hand to hold the tofu in place. Then just drain the excess water over the skin. Fast and easy!
FAQ
Yes! This is a very easy recipe to adjust, just keep the proportions of 1 pound ground pork to 2 blocks soft tofu.
We always purchase ground pork in 1 pound increments, which is why we did this recipe with 2 blocks of soft tofu.
Rice! You really need rice. The pork is saucy and juicy, it is perfect with rice.
This also great with soba noodles and somen noodles (the same type of noodles we use for somen salad).
Yes. The tofu is slightly chilled and the ground pork sauce is hot off the stove. That hot and cold combo is great.
You can also have it with room temperature tofu by removing it from the fridge and plating the tofu 30 minutes beforehand.
And you can have it with hot tofu (my dad prefers it this way). To do hot tofu, you can microwave or steam the tofu.
Miso Pork and Tofu Recipe
Miso Pork and Tofu
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground pork
- 2 boxes soft tofu about 14-19 ounces per box
- 8 cloves garlic minced
- 1 bunch green onions chopped
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons sake
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons miso paste
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- roasted sesame seeds optional
- chili oil optional
Instructions
- First prepare the tofu:Remove both blocks of tofu from the container. Gently rinse and set each block on a plate or shallow dish.
- In a large pan on medium-high heat, add a little oil and the ground pork. Cook for a few minutes, using a spatula to help break the pork into small pieces.
- Once the pork starts to brown, add the minced garlic and cook for another minute.
- Add half the green onions and cook for another minute.
- Then add the soy sauce, mirin, and sake (or chicken broth). Stir to mix.
- Mix the cornstarch with ¼ cup water and pour into the pan.
- Turn the heat down to medium. Add the miso paste and stir to mix and dissolve the miso.
- Stir in the sesame oil. Then turn off the heat.
- Pour the ground pork sauce over the tofu (divide the equally between the two blocks of tofu). Top with remaining green onions.
- You can finish the dish with a sprinkle of roasted sesame seeds and chili oil if you’d like. Eat with rice and enjoy!
Mahalo for Reading!