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Absolutely delicious!! The whole family raved! I forgot to add the extra water, so it was a little more dry than you intended, but we loved it that way. Definitely will be making this again!
★★★★★
– Sata
In Japan, mabo nasu (mapo eggplant) usually includes meat. I already had a mapo tofu recipe of my own, though, and both dishes are made almost the same way. I wanted to do something different with this one, so I made it plant-based on purpose.
Everything centers on the eggplant. It absorbs the oil and sauce, with browned, toasty soy mince and the heat of doubanjiang (chili bean paste) clinging to each piece. Try a spoonful over rice. Ah, no question. This dish works without meat.
Vegan mabo nasu
Recipe Snapshot
- What is it? Eggplant in a thick, spicy sauce, usually with ground meat. In Japan, mabo nasu is both a home-cooked meal and a Chinese restaurant dish.
- Flavor profile: Spicy doubanjiang leads, followed by browned soy mince and rich miso coating tender eggplant. Crushed cashews give it crunch, while vinegar and sesame oil brighten the finish.
- Why this recipe works: This deliberately meatless version lets eggplant shine. Doubanjiang and miso add depth, while soy mince, squeezed dry and seared undisturbed, gives the filling its toasty flavor.
- How to make it: Sear and remove the eggplant, then use the same pan for the aromatics, pastes, soy mince, and sauce. Return the eggplant. There’s no deep-frying or lengthy simmering.
- What to expect: Allow about 30 minutes: 10 for prep and 20 for cooking. The part that needs patience is leaving the spread-out soy mince alone until it browns underneath.
What Is Mabo Nasu?
Mabo nasu (麻婆茄子) is a Japanese-style Chinese dish made by stir-frying eggplant and ground meat, then simmering them in a sauce similar to mapo tofu’s. Somewhere between a stir-fry and a soup, it’s a saucy dish that keeps you reaching for more plain rice. In Japan, it’s known as a dish in its own right, alongside mapo tofu.
Like General Tso’s chicken in American Chinese restaurants, Chuka Ryori in Japan adapts Chinese food to local tastes. Its heat is milder than Sichuan mapo tofu’s, and it usually leaves out the numbing Sichuan peppercorns.
Chuka (中華) means Chinese food adapted to Japanese tastes in homes and restaurants. According to one account, a Sichuan restaurant that opened in Tokyo in 1958 reduced the heat of its mapo tofu because customers found the full Sichuan heat too much. Mapo tofu remains a Chuka staple. Small neighborhood Chinese restaurants, known as machi chuka, are also everyday places to stop for lunch. Mabo nasu belongs on that menu too.
I cook the eggplant and use the cashews differently from the usual. Some cooks soak eggplant in salted water, and my earlier recipe included a 5-minute soak. I’ve since dropped that step. As soon as I cut the eggplant, I sear it cut side down, then transfer it to a rack. Letting it absorb oil straight after cutting seemed quicker and less wasteful than soaking it in salt water. The cashews were part of the earlier recipe too. Because this dish is plant-based, I wanted one more layer of texture. I used to stir-fry them with the mince. Now I crush them into coarse pieces and sprinkle them on just before serving.
Mapo Eggplant Ingredients
- Eggplant: Choose Japanese or Chinese eggplant if you can. Japanese eggplant cooks quickly thanks to its tender skin and flesh and high water content. Regular eggplant is fine if neither is available. The large globe eggplants sold in US supermarkets have thicker skin. If it seems tough, peel off strips, leaving alternating bands of skin.
- Soy mince: The mince replaces ground meat and supplies the browned, toasty flavor. Products vary considerably in quality, so use a plant-based mince you already love, either dried or ready-to-use. One reader swapped TVP (textured vegetable protein) for ready-to-use vegan “ground beef” and reported almost no difference in taste. Follow the package directions, since soaking times and the amount the mince expands vary by product.
- Doubanjiang (chili bean paste): This paste provides the spice, savory depth, salt, and red color. I like the mild Lee Kum Kee version here because it lets the eggplant stay at the center of the dish. It’s widely available, and I’ve used it since I lived in England. For a more prominent paste flavor, try Sichuan Pixian doubanjiang. It has a deeper, more aged flavor, with a darker color and noticeably more heat.
Substitutions, Variations, and How to Customize
Use these ingredient swaps, the ground meat variation, and the adjustments below to work with what you can find and get the heat and amount of sauce you like.
Substitutions:
- Eggplant → Zucchini or a large portobello mushroom: Both are suitable replacements for the eggplant.
- Soy mince → Maitake or king oyster mushrooms: Finely chop the mushrooms, then sear them until their moisture has cooked off. These come closest to mince of any mushroom, although they contain more water than squeezed soy mince and don’t separate into the same loose crumbles. One reader tried mushrooms instead of soy mince and reported preferring the result.
- Potato starch → Cornstarch: For the most dependable substitute, use about 1.2 times the amount of cornstarch. It produces the same thickness, but the sauce will look slightly cloudy rather than clear.
- Japanese leek (naganegi) → Leek or onion: The white part of a leek is the closest substitute, but use about 80 percent of the amount because an equal quantity tastes too strong. In our survey of Japanese home cooks living abroad, respondents in Ohio and Hannover said they use leeks for Japanese leek. Finely chopped onion also works if you can’t get leeks.
- Rice vinegar → Apple cider vinegar: Similar acidity makes apple cider vinegar the simplest replacement. It leaves a slight apple aroma.
- Cashews → Leave them out: You can omit the cashews and still have a successful dish. The only loss is the extra crunch on top.
Substitutions that I don’t recommend:
- Gochujang instead of doubanjiang: Its greater sweetness, lower saltiness, and lack of fermented bean depth change the flavor that defines the mapo sauce.
- Potato flour instead of potato starch: Made from ground whole potatoes, potato flour produces a thick, gluey, cloudy coating with a potato flavor.
- Green onions instead of Japanese leek: Slender green onions are a different vegetable from the thick Japanese leek, whose white part is chopped and fried in this recipe.
Can’t find a Japanese pantry staple? My guide to Japanese ingredient substitutes covers the rest.
Variations:
- With ground meat: Replace the soy mince with 100 g of ground pork. Ground chicken or equal parts ground pork and beef also work, although all-beef mince isn’t a particularly good fit. Omit the soaking and squeezing, sear the meat over fairly high heat until its fat runs clear, then cook the doubanjiang and miso in that fat.
How to Customize:
- Adjust the heat level: Start by changing how much doubanjiang you use. If you reduce it, a little extra miso replaces the missing salt. For more heat, finish with a drizzle of chili oil.
- Add the numbing tingle: Finish with ground Sichuan pepper or sansho (Japanese pepper) for a result closer to Sichuan-style mapo.
How to Make My Vegan Mabo Nasu
Before you start (Mise en place):
- Begin by rehydrating the dried soy mince according to the package instructions, usually 5 to 10 minutes. This takes longer than the other prep, so do the remaining jobs while it soaks. If you’re not using the dried type you can skip this step.
- Chop the garlic, ginger, and white part of the Japanese leek separately and finely. It’s fine to leave the garlic a little coarser.
- Break the cashews into coarse pieces rather than a powder. Keeping more pieces gives you more distinct crunch and flavor. Thinly slice the green onions.
- Mix the potato starch with the water to make a slurry.
- Tip the soaked soy mince into a strainer, rinse briefly under running water, then squeeze firmly with both hands. Rinsing and squeezing remove much of its beany smell. The drier you squeeze it, the better it will brown. With ready-to-use mince, omit the soaking, rinsing, and squeezing.
To develop this recipe, I used a 30 cm cast iron wok.
i. Wash the eggplant and remove the stem end, then cut it in half lengthwise. Make angled cuts to form 4 to 5 cm (about 1.5 to 2 inch) pieces, rolling the eggplant slightly after each cut. Score a shallow crosshatch into the skin.
ii. Set a frying pan over medium to medium-high heat and heat the oil for the eggplant. Place the pieces in the pan and stir-fry for 3 minutes.
iii. Cover and steam for another minute.
Look for glossy, deep-purple skin and cut surfaces that are beginning to turn soft and creamy. These tell you the eggplant is cooked through. The oil changing from cloudy to clear is another cue.
iv. Transfer the eggplant to a rack.
If it cools directly on a plate or sits in the oil, the eggplant will absorb the oil again.
Some professional kitchens briefly fry the eggplant in oil (just like I did for subuta) for mabo nasu rather than searing it. To try this, heat frying oil to 180°C/356°F, briefly immerse the cut eggplant, and remove it as soon as its color becomes vivid. This gives it a brighter color and richer taste. My recipe uses a frying-pan sear, but either way, drain the pieces on a rack before continuing with the steps below.
i. Re-using the wok, add another splash of cooking oil. Stir-fry the garlic, ginger, and leek over medium-low heat until fragrant, taking care that they don’t burn.
ii. Reduce the heat to low. Add the doubanjiang and sugar, then press and stir them into the oil for 30 to 60 seconds.
Watch for the oil to turn red and the sharp smell of raw paste to become sweet and toasty.
iii. Stir in the miso only until it is incorporated. It burns easily, so move straight to the next step instead of cooking it as long as the doubanjiang.
i. Increase the heat to medium-high or high and put the squeezed soy mince in the pan.
ii. Spread the mince across the pan and let it cook without stirring for 1 to 2 minutes, until browned underneath.
iii. Break up the mince and cook for another minute so that it is evenly colored.
On its own, dried soy mince has only a faint flavor, a little like simmered beans. This browning step gives the filling its toasty taste, so let it brown well.
i. Briefly reduce the heat. Mix the slurry again and slowly pour in a little at a time, stirring continuously.
ii. Put the seared eggplant back into the pan and raise the heat to medium. Stir while the sauce comes back to a boil, then let it bubble for about 1 minute.
iii. Turn off the heat once the sauce has reached a stable thickness and looks glossy and translucent.
i. Keeping the heat off, pour in the rice vinegar and toasted sesame oil, stir once, and sprinkle with black pepper.
ii. Serve over warm rice, topped with the crushed cashews and green onions. If you like, finish with a small tuft of shredded chili threads.
Tips for the Best Mapo Nasu
- Let the oil heat up before adding the eggplant. Tiny holes throughout the flesh make eggplant quick to absorb oil. If the oil is only lukewarm, it soaks in before the surface can brown, leaving the pieces heavy and soggy. Adding oil during cooking has the same effect, so finish searing with the oil you began with.
- Go by the eggplant’s weight instead of the number of eggplants. Use the weight listed in the recipe card. One reader used an enormous garden eggplant and reported ending up with much more food but much less sauce. If you have a giant eggplant, cut and use only the weight the card calls for.
- Start with a little less miso, then taste. Salt content varies substantially. It is about 12% for salty miso, 10% for sweet miso, and 6% for very sweet miso. An equal spoonful from a different tub can make the sauce noticeably saltier or milder. Use the listed amount as a guide and adjust for your miso.
For this meatless dish, the essentials are eggplant seared in hot oil and soy mince squeezed dry and browned, and the final heat and salt are yours to settle by taste.
Storage & Meal Prep
Fridge: 2 to 3 days, sealed. The eggplant’s water gradually thins the sauce.
Freezer: Up to 1 month. This doesn’t work for mapo tofu, whose tofu turns crumbly.
Meal prep: Freeze the soy mince sauce separately and sear the eggplant on the day you serve it, when it’s at its best.
Reheating: Microwave from frozen. If the sauce is thin, boil it and stir in a little more slurry.
What to Serve With Mabo Nasu
- Vegan Ginger Miso Soup
- Quick Pickled Cucumber (Kyuri no Tsukemono)
- Simmered Kabocha Squash (Kabocha no Nimono)
- Kinpira Gobo (Braised Burdock Root)
Mapo Eggplant Troubleshooting
The likely causes are oil that wasn’t hot enough when the eggplant went in, or extra oil added during cooking. In cool oil, the flesh absorbs oil before it can sear, making it heavy. Move the pieces from the pan to a rack immediately so they can drain. Before cooking the next batch, let the pan get hot again without adding any more oil.
Too much time simmering in the sauce or overly vigorous stirring can break the pieces up. Searing cooks the eggplant almost all the way through, so it continues to soften with every minute in the sauce, especially thin-skinned Japanese eggplant. Stop stirring as soon as you see it coming apart. Switch off the heat when the sauce returns to a boil and serve immediately.
Water left in the mince after squeezing makes it steam before it browns. Dried soy mince has little flavor of its own, so the filling depends on that browning for flavor. If you haven’t added the broth, leave the heat high, spread the mince over the pan, and let it sit undisturbed until the moisture evaporates and the underside browns.
More Japanese Vegetarian Recipes
Now that you know mapo heat and depth come through just as well in a plant-based version, pick your next meatless plate from my Japanese Vegetarian Recipes.
Did You Try This Recipe?
I would love to hear your thoughts!
💬 Leave a review and ⭐️ rating in the comments below. 📷 I also love to see your photos – submit them here!
Plant-Based Mabo Nasu (Japanese Mapo Eggplant)
Ingredients
Prep
- 30 g soy meat dried soy mince, about 100 g once soaked
- 2 cloves garlic minced, a little coarse is fine
- 1 tbsp ginger root minced
- 3 tbsp Japanese leek (naganegi) white part, minced
- 2 tbsp cashew nuts optional, coarsely crushed, some chunks left
- 1 tbsp potato starch (katakuriko) or cornstarch
- 2 tbsp water
Sear the Eggplant
- 300 g eggplants ideally Japanese, Chinese, or Italian eggplant
- 3 tbsp cooking oil 2 tbsp for the eggplant, 1 tbsp for the aromatics
Build the Mabo
- 1 tbsp chili bean sauce (toban djan) a mild one such as Lee Kum Kee
- ½ tsp sugar
- 2 tsp yellow miso paste (awase)
- 1 tbsp sake
- 2 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 300 ml vegetable bouillon free of animal products
Finish and Serve
- 1 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar (komezu)
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 pinch ground black pepper coarsely ground
- 1 tbsp finely chopped green onions
- chili threads optional
The ingredient brands and tools I trust are in my Japanese pantry guide and my cooking tools guide.
Can’t find certain Japanese ingredients? See my substitution guide here.
Instructions
Prep
- Pour boiling water over 30 g soy meat and soak it for the time on the package. (Ready-to-use mince needs no soaking, rinsing or squeezing.) While it soaks, separately mince 2 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp ginger root and 3 tbsp Japanese leek (naganegi), white part only.
- Roughly crush 2 tbsp cashew nuts, keeping them in small chunks. Stir 1 tbsp potato starch (katakuriko) into 2 tbsp water in a small bowl.Drain the mince in a strainer and give it a quick rinse under the tap. Squeeze it hard with both hands until no more water drips out.
Sear the Eggplant
- Trim the stem ends off 300 g eggplants and halve them lengthwise. Score the skin side of each chunk with a shallow crosshatch. Cut them on the diagonal into 4 to 5 cm (about 1.5 to 2 inch) chunks.
- Right after cutting, heat 2 tbsp cooking oil in a frying pan over medium to medium-high heat. Sear the eggplant for 3 minutes. Then cover for 1 minute. When the skin is glossy deep purple and the cloudy oil clears, lift it onto a rack.
Build the Mabo
- Add the remaining 1 tbsp cooking oil to the same pan and set it over medium-low heat. Stir-fry the garlic, ginger and leek until fragrant, before they brown.
- Turn the heat to low. Add 1 tbsp chili bean sauce (toban djan) and ½ tsp sugar and work them into the oil for 30 to 60 seconds. When the oil is red and the sharp smell has turned sweet and roasted, add 2 tsp yellow miso paste (awase) and stir just until it blends in.
- Raise the heat to medium-high or high and spread the mince across the pan. Sear it untouched for 1 to 2 minutes, until the underside browns. Break it up and cook 1 minute more, until it is colored all over.
- Add 1 tbsp sake and scrape up the browned bits stuck to the pan. Drizzle 2 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu) down the side of the pan, toss briefly and taste.
- Pour in 300 ml vegetable bouillon and bring it to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat for a moment. Stir the slurry again and pour it in a little at a time, stirring as you go.
Finish and Serve
- Return the eggplant to the pan and turn the heat to medium. Stir until the sauce boils again, then simmer for about 1 minute. When the sauce has thickened evenly and looks translucent, turn off the heat and taste to settle the seasoning.
- Off the heat, drizzle in 1 tsp unseasoned rice vinegar (komezu) and 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil, stir once and add 1 pinch ground black pepper. Scatter on the cashews and 1 tbsp finely chopped green onions, plus chili threads if you like. Enjoy with plain rice!
Hello.
Kochen macht Spaß und dank deinen Rezepten lerne ich neues in der Küche und mit Lebensmitteln.
Vielen Dank.
Es war sehr lecker! 🙂
Danke schön. Ich freue mich immer, wenn ich Ihr Foto vom Essen sehe!
Good Evening 🙂
I used mushrooms instead of soy meat.
I like them better than soy meat.
It was very appetizing.
Once again, thank you very much for this wonderful recipe.
Greetings from Kathleen- yay-
Thank you for sharing your idea and experience! Good idea! Again, thank you for sharing your picture too! Always love to see how it turns out! 🙂
Hallo.
Vielen Dank für das appetitliche Rezept.
Es war mir eine freude.
Immer wieder gerne!
This is a very tasty dish with a pleasant spiciness. I added more tofu, but it didn’t ruin it. Thank you!
“This is a very tasty dish with a pleasant spiciness. I added more tofu, but it didn’t ruin it. Thank you!”
Hi Tatiana,
Thank you so much for trying this recipe and sharing your picture! I love when a little tweak works out! Thanks for making it and sharing this! Looking great! 🙂
Yuto
Absolutely delicious!! The whole family raved! i forgot to add the extra water, so it was a little more dry than you intended, but we loved it that way. Definitely will be making this again!
Hi Sata,
Thank you so much for trying this recipe! I’m happy to hear that your whole family enjoyed it. It’s great to know that even with a little less water, it still turned out well for you! I really appreciate your lovely feedback! 🙂
Yuto
5 stars and then some. Delicious! Be careful though with increasing the amount of servings button. If I had followed exactly, the house would have burned down because of the spiciness. The recipe is a keeper.
Hi Rem2GO,
Thank you so much for trying this recipe, and that’s a fair warning! I’m happy to hear the recipe earned a keeper spot 🙂
Yuto
Wow! This came out soooo good! I made a few tweaks to use what I had at home, which included red curry paste for the spiciness, TVP instead of vegan “ground beef,” rice vinegar instead of sake, and tapioca flour in place of cornstarch. These all work relatively the same and didn’t change the taste at all, I just ended up with way more, and less of the soupy texture because I used a massive eggplant from the garden. This was a great recipe and honestly the best eggplant I’ve ever cooked. Not exactly like the mabo nasu I ate in Japan but super tasty! Will be adding to the rotation for sure!!!
Hi Randiah,
Thank you for trying this recipe! Love that this is making it into the rotation, that’s honestly the best kind of comment to get. The ingredient swaps you made are exactly the kind of substitution info that’s actually useful to hear since I don’t always know what’s available outside Japan. Really glad it worked out so well with that big garden eggplant too. 🙂
Yuto