This Moo Shu Tofu is loaded with crispy tofu, shiitake mushrooms, and tender-crisp vegetables, all wrapped in warm pancakes or tortillas with a tangy-sweet hoisin sauce. A quick and flavorful weeknight dinner that’s vegan and gluten-free adaptable!
This was delicious!! I'm a fan of Moo Shu and, if I may say so myself, this rivals anything I've had in a restaurant. Thank you!
I grew up eating Moo Shu at Chinese-American restaurants, and I've always loved the combination of crisp vegetables, savory filling, warm pancakes, and that irresistible hoisin sauce.
This Moo Shu Tofu is our plant-based take, with crispy tofu, meaty shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, bell pepper, and crunchy bean sprouts quickly stir-fried until just tender. Wrap everything in a warm pancake or tortilla with plenty of tangy-sweet hoisin sauce, or skip the wraps and serve it over rice for an easy weeknight dinner.
Why You’ll Love This Moo Shu Tofu!
Big flavor with plenty of texture. Crispy tofu, meaty shiitakes, tender-crisp vegetables, and crunchy bean sprouts come together with a deeply savory, tangy-sweet hoisin sauce.
A satisfying plant-based dinner. Tofu and mushrooms give this dish lots of substance, making it hearty enough to stand on its own for dinner.
Quick-cooking and fresh! Once everything is prepped, the stir-fry comes together in minutes, keeping the veggies crisp and colorful.
Easily adaptable. Swap in whatever stir-fry vegetables you have on hand (snap peas, snow peas, carrots, or cabbage), add eggs if you’d like, and serve it in pancakes, tortillas, lettuce wraps, or over rice.
What is Moo Shu?
Moo Shu is a Chinese stir-fry traditionally made with vegetables, mushrooms, eggs, and often pork, served with thin pancakes and hoisin sauce. The Chinese-American version became a restaurant favorite, with variations using chicken, beef, shrimp, or vegetables.
Our plant-based version swaps in crispy tofu and loads up on shiitake mushrooms and tender-crisp vegetables. Wrap it all in warm pancakes or tortillas with plenty of hoisin sauce for a flavorful, satisfying meal.
Moo Shu Tofu Ingredients
- Crispy tofu - Use extra-firm tofu and prepare our Crispy Tofu using the salt-and-pepper variation.
- Shiitake mushrooms - Add savory, "meaty" flavor and satisfying texture.
- Bell pepper & baby bok choy - Keep the stir-fry colorful, fresh, and tender-crisp. Feel free to substitute other quick-cooking vegetables.
- Ginger, garlic & scallions - The aromatic foundation of the stir-fry.
- Bean sprouts - Added at the end for fresh, crunchy texture.
- Hoisin sauce - The sweet-savory backbone of the sauce. Use it straight from the jar for the easiest version, or make our enhanced sauce below.
- Sauce ingredients - Rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, fresh ginger, miso, and cornstarch deepen the flavor and create a glossy sauce that clings beautifully to the tofu and vegetables.
- For serving - Use Moo Shu pancakes, rice pancakes, thin flour tortillas, lettuce leaves, or serve over steamed rice.
What is Hoisin Sauce?
Hoisin sauce is a thick, savory-sweet Chinese condiment traditionally made with fermented soybean paste, seasonings, and spices. It adds rich umami flavor and is delicious in stir-fries, marinades, dipping sauces, and wraps.
Here, we doctor it up with rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, and miso for an extra-flavorful Moo Shu sauce. In a hurry? Plain hoisin sauce works, too!
How to Make Moo Shu Tofu
1. Prepare the Crispy Tofu. Follow our salt and pepper instructions in our Crispy Tofu recipe.
2. Make the sauce. Add hoisin, rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, and miso paste to a saucepan and whisk. Heat to a near boil. While the sauce warms, mix the cornstarch and water together. Slowly add the cornstarch mixture to the sauce, whisking continuously. Once it comes to a boil, turn off the heat.
3. Stir fry the veggies. Start by rinsing and chopping all of the veggies.
Get your wok or pan really hot and turn on your hood. Add oil. It might smoke, and that’s okay! Add the shiitake mushrooms and stir for 2 minutes, then push to the edges. Add the bell pepper and half of the ginger and garlic. Stir-fry for 1 minute, then push to the side.
Add more oil as needed. Add the scallions and cook for a minute before adding the remaining ginger and garlic. Add the bok choy. Stir for another minute, or until the bok choy just begins to wilt.
4. Finish the stir-fry. Add the soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil, and mix in the tofu. Sprinkle with bean sprouts over the top.
4. Assemble. Warm tortillas or rice pancakes on a pan. Spoon the sauce down the center of the tortillas and fill with the stir-fried mixture. Fold and enjoy!
Chef’s Tips
- To keep it simple, just use hoisin sauce. The sauce has incredible complexity and depth, but if you’re in a pinch, you can just use hoisin sauce on its own to make this recipe even simpler.
- Add eggs! Add scrambled eggs or make flat, omelet-like eggs and cut it into thin strips.
- Prep everything before you start cooking. Stir-frying happens quickly, so slice the veggies, measure the seasonings, and have your crispy tofu ready before heating the wok.
- Get the pan really hot. High heat quickly browns the vegetables while preserving their fresh, crisp texture. Resist the urge to cook the vegetables until completely soft!
- Warm your wraps. Quickly warm the pancakes or tortillas to make them softer, more flexible, and easier to fold.
- What can I use instead of Moo Shu pancakes? Lettuce wraps, tortillas, or serve over a bowl of rice.
Serving Suggestions
- Wrap it! The classic way to serve this Moo Shu Tofu is tucked into warm pancakes, rice pancakes, or thin flour tortillas with a spoonful of sauce.
- Serve it over rice. Spoon the tofu and vegetables over steamed jasmine rice or brown rice and drizzle with the sauce for an easy bowl.
- Make lettuce wraps. For something fresh and light, spoon the filling into crisp butter lettuce or romaine leaves and top with extra scallions or bean sprouts.
Storage
Store leftover Moo Shu Tofu in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Store the sauce and wraps separately. If the sauce thickens, whisk in a splash of water before reheating.
More Stir Fry recipes you may enjoy
After you try this Moo Shu Tofu recipe, let us know how it turns out in the comments below. Your review will help other readers, too! Sign up here to join our community and receive our latest recipes and weekly newsletter! xoxo Tonia
Moo Shu Tofu
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
- Category: 30 minute Dinner, asian recipes, Dinner, Main, stir fry, tofu recipe, vegan, weeknight dinner
- Method: Stir fry
- Cuisine: Asian
- Diet: Dairy-Free, Vegan, Vegetarian
Description
This Moo Shu tofu is loaded with tender-crisp vegetables and crispy tofu all tucked into a tortilla or rice pancake for a delicious vegan meal.  Served with tangy hoisin sauce.
Ingredients
The Stir Fry
- 1–2 tablespoons refined peanut oil or coconut oil
- 1 batch crispy tofu
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 5 large shiitakes, sliced (about 2 cups)
- 1 red pepper, sliced thin
- 4–5 scallions, sliced in half lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 baby bok choy, cut lengthwise
- 1–2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 cup bean sprouts, rinsed
The Sauce (see notes)
- 1/3 cup hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger, grated
- 1 teaspoon miso
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Make the crispy tofu recipe here (salt and pepper version)
- Make the Sauce
- Mix together the hoisin, rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, and miso in a saucepan. Heat to almost boiling.
- Whisk together cornstarch and water. Slowly add to the sauce, whisking all the while. Once it comes to a boil turn off the heat.
- Make the Stir Fry
- Get your wok or pan smoking hot. Add peanut oil or coconut oil. Stirfry shiitake mushrooms for 2 minutes. Push to the side of the wok.
- Add bell pepper, half of the ginger and half of the garlic stir-fry 1 minute. Push to the side.
- Add scallions stir-fry a minute add the remaining ginger and garlic and Bok Choy. Stir another minute until Bok Choy is just beginning to wilt. Add soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. Mix in the crispy tofu.
- Sprinkle the bean sprouts over the top.
- Assemble
- Warm tortillas or rice pancakes on a pan.
- Spoon sauce onto tortilla.
- Fill with stir-fried mixture, fold and enjoy!
Notes
Shortcut: Alternatively you can use straight store-bought hoisin sauce rather than make the sauce.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 198
- Sugar: 3 g
- Sodium: 48.8 mg
- Fat: 13.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 6.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 8.8 g
- Fiber: 3.1 g
- Protein: 12.2 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
This was delicious!! I’m a fan of Moo Shu and, if I may say so myself, this rivals anything I’ve had in a restaurant. Thank you!
Awesome Michelle, thanks for taking time to review!
The only tofu recipe that my meat eater husband seems to really enjoy. It’s one of my favorites. Yum!
Great to hear Ellen! Thanks for the review.
YUMMMM! This is so delicious. I added some extra bok choy and bamboo shoots.
The sauce is outstanding. Much better than using plain jarred hoisin.
I’ll be eating this frequently.
Great to hear!
Delicious!! I even found a recipe for rice pancakes and made those. Thoroughly enjoyed these! Thanks so much for ANOTHER fantastic recipe.
Great to hear!
Ann, where did you find your recipe for rice pancakes? Thank you.
what recipe did you use for the rice pancakes
Absolutely delicious! Loved the hoisin sauce, will make more just to have on other stir fry dishes!!
Great to hear Jean!
Another wonderful recipe Рthank you! Followed the recipe with the exception of subbing cabbage for the bok choy and saut̩ed soy curls for the tofu.
So glad you enjoyed, love the adjustments.
This looks great. The recipe for the sauce calls for store bought hoisin sauce plus rice vinegar, sesame etc. But then in the notes it says you can use straight store bought hoisin sauce. So, you mean skip all the other sauce ingredients and just serve with hoisin?
Yes that is what that means. We just enhance the sauce a bit in the recipe. If you are short on time and/or have a hoisin you love as is, you can just use it as is.
Great recipe! It’s turning into our family favorite for Sunday night dinners. We hit the Asian supermarket and swap out different mushrooms, bok choy and cabbages.
Awesome, sounds like a fun ritual!
I made the crispy tofu but wasn’t sure if I was to add it to the stir fry or have it on the side. Ended up deciding to mix it in. Served it in a wrap and all tasted great!
Oh, thanks Cindy for commenting! Yes add it in but either way works! Recipe now specifies this. 🙂
I have made this with tofu and another time with chicken. It was delicious both times.
So great to hear!
My family loved this recipe! We often get Moo Shu take out from a local restaurant but this tasted so much more fresh, crisp and flavorful. Thank you so much!
Nice Dina, so happy to hear this!
Our kids have been asking for more vegetarian meals. I made this tonight and it was delicious! Easy to make, lots of flavor and everybody loved it!
Awesome Maggie!
This was delicious, Tonia! One question: how do you recommend incorporating the bean sprouts? It’s not in the recipe, so when I got to the end and still had the raw sprouts I sauteed them very briefly with a little seasoning then incorporated with the veggies. Were they meant to be used raw?
Oh thanks Tina, I will adjust the recipe! It is really up to you. I prefer them with the raw crunch but I know some like them wilted a bit. 😊
This is another great recipe and easy to make. I didn’t have tortillas or rice pancakes at home so we ate the stir fry with rice and spoon the sauce on the vegetables. Absolutely delicious !
Thanks, so great to hear Marie!
The sauce is delicious and tastes authentic compared with what I’ve had in restaurants here (if that’s authentic?). On a snowy night, I made this recipe with what I had in the fridge, so no sprouts, and spinach instead of bok choy, and had to serve it on a whole wheat tortilla … and it was still delicious. Looking forward to using the rest of the sauce with the leftover tofu! And trying it some time with the proper ingredients. Thanks.
Wonderful Marsha!
Hi Sylvia! This recipe looks delicious! Would you mind providing a link to the rice pancake you purchased? I can’t wait to make this for my family!
Thank you for all of your wonderful recipes. Keep up the great work!
~Amy
Thanks so much Amy! Do you have an Asian Market where you live? Usually you can find rice pancakes in the freezer section. We also have used Siete Cassava Flour tortilla’s, they are great! 🙂