ramyaramesh3007Try this vegan version of the popular braised minced meat rice bowl from Taiwan – it’s an absolute comfort food with a melt-in-your-mouth texture that’s simply addictive.
Lu Rou Fan traditionally consists of braised pork, hard-boiled eggs, vegetables and steaming hot rice. In this vegan version, all you need is one substitute for the meat and the flavours remain strong and satisfying. Try it for yourself and let me know in the comments!
If you’d like to substitute the meat for a vegan look-alike pork belly, my friend Anh has a beautiful recipe for it – you can check it out here.
But if you’d like to keep things simple and make a braised minced meat pork dish, I have a few pointers for you on ingredients and the method of cooking. It’ll also take you only 30 minutes to make this, making it a wonderful dinner idea.
What You Need for this Lu Rou Fan
- Extra firm tofu – make sure your tofu is frozen and thawed. Squeeze out all the excess water beforehand.
- Shiitake mushrooms (fresh or dried ones) – for dried mushrooms, you would need to rehydrate them in some hot water for 30 minutes
- Brown sugar – any other sugar would work in place too.
- Light & dark soy sauce – for gluten free version, skip the dark soy sauce. However, the colour may not be as dark as you would like.
- Vegetarian oyster sauce
- Rice wine vinegar or Shaoxing rice wine
- 5-spice powder
- White pepper
- Steamed rice
- Green vegetables of choice
Most of the time spent cooking comes from simmering the aromatics. You can make this dish gluten free by substituting out the dark soy sauce with gluten free soy sauce and veg oyster sauce (if it contains gluten) to a mushroom powder/seasoning.
Vegan Lu Rou Fan (Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice Bowl)
Ingredients
- 400 g extra firm tofu
- 5-6 shitake mushrooms
- 1 tbsp minced ginger
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 star anise
- 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1-2 tbsp dark soy sauce (add more depending on colour)
- 1 tbsp veg oyster sauce
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp 5-spice powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- salt (as required)
- hot sesame oil
- scallions (garnish)
- blanched vegetables
Instructions
- Freeze tofu overnight and thaw in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. Squeeze out excess water.
- Crumble tofu until it resembles a 'minced meat' texture.
- Add shitake mushrooms to a food processor and process until its diced into fine pieces.
- To a pan, add some oil and add minced ginger. Saute until fragrant.
- Add shitake mushrooms and saute. Add your star anise, then add extra firm tofu. Combine well.
- Add your sauces – vinegar, light soy sauce, 1 tbsp dark soy sauce, oyster sauce.
- Add seasonings – white pepper, 5-spice powder, garlic powder, sugar and salt (if required).
- Combine well. Add more dark soy sauce for a deeper brown colour.
- Add water, cover with a lid and simmer on low for 5-10 minutes.
- Drizzle some hot chili oil and mix. Serve over steaming hot rice, garnished with fresh scallions and blanched greens. Enjoy!