This Szechuan tofu recipe is loaded up with healthy veggies and bursting with authentic flavor! It’s easy to make in 30 minutes. Vegan, with a video.
Remember the authentic Szechuan Sauce I posted a while back? With hundreds of reviews, it is one of our most highly rated sauces. This time, I will show you how to use it as a stir-fry sauce with tofu.
As a chef, I am always asked about stir-fry and how to improve it. My answer is always the same: quick, high heat, and a balanced stir-fry sauce. With this Szechuan tofu recipe, you’ll learn the secret to creating a delicious stir-fry in no time flat!
Why You’LL Love This
- Incredible flavor & texture! A sweet, savory, spicy, and tangy sauce paired with crispy tofu and crunchy veggies.
- So healthy. Colorful veggies rich in antioxidants and vitamins, plus high-protein tofu!
- Versatile! Sub tofu for shrimp, chicken, or beef.
- Quick & easy. The perfect 30-minute weeknight meal.
Szechuan Tofu Ingredients
- Szechuan sauce: Use store-bought or make your own Szechuan Sauce. It’s sweet, savory, spicy, and tangy—so much flavor!
- Tofu: Use firm or extra firm tofu, patted dry with paper towels and cubed. You can easily sub shrimp, chicken, or beef here!
- Veggies: Thinly sliced onion, sliced mushrooms (optional), shredded cabbage (or shredded brussels or shredded broccoli), shredded carrots or matchstick carrots, thinly sliced red bell pepper, and asparagus (or snap peas, edamame, green beans, or a combo of crunchy green veggies!).
- Dried red Chinese chilies: Or Arbol chilies. Optional, but adds a nice kick!
- Peanut oil: Or other high heat oil. Essential for frying the tofu and veggies in a wok or skillet.
- Garnish: Scallions, sesame seeds, and chili flakes.
- For serving: Serve on its own or over rice, soba noodles, or zucchini noodles.
How to Make Szechuan Tofu
Step 1: Make the Szechuan Sauce. Toast szechuan peppercorns in a hot dry skillet over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, then crush with a mortar and pestle. Place all ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk until combined. Whisk in optional corn starch.
Step 2: Pan-sear tofu. Heat oil in a large skillet or wok. Season generously with salt and pepper (I typically do 1/2 tsp kosher salt per 1/2 pound of tofu). Swirl the seasoned oil, then add tofu and sear on at least two sides, until crispy and golden. Don’t wiggle or move the tofu. Wait until it naturally releases from the pan before flipping it. Set the tofu aside.
Step 3: Sauté vegetables. Add more oil to the pan if needed, then add the onion and mushrooms and sauté over medium-high heat. Stir constantly, until tender (3 minutes). Add the remaining veggies, reduce heat to medium and stir for 3-5 minutes. The veggies should be tender, but still vibrant and slightly crisp. Add dried chilies, turn hood fan on, and sauté for one minute.
Step 4: Add sauce. Add 1/4 cup of Szechuan Sauce (or more to taste). Cook 2 minutes to thicken, then toss in the tofu cubes (or shrimp, chicken, or beef) to warm.
Step 5: Serve. Divide among bowls, garnish with sesame seeds, green onions, and chili flakes. Serve as is or over rice or noodles.
And remember… do not eat the dried chilies!
Serving Suggestions
Serve as is or over a bowl of rice or noodles. Try this with our Jasmine Rice or Coconut Rice!
Garnish with sesame seeds and scallions, and if you want extra heat, add chili flakes!
Substitutions & Variations
- Tofu: Shrimp, chicken, or beef can be used instead. Shrimp is particularly tasty!
- Veggies: Get creative here and use whatever you’d like! It’s a nice way to use up excess vegetables.
FAQs
Floral and citrusy, and they give a sort of tingling “zing” to the dish!
If needed, you can simply sub black pepper or peppercorns! The sichuan peppercorns give the sauce a really authentic “zingy-ness” that is hard to replicate, but it also tastes great without.
If you add the dried chilies and garnish with chili flakes then the dish will be a bit spicy. However, you can skip the chilies and chili flakes and it will be a mild spice.
Meal Prep & Storage
If you’d like to prep a few things ahead of time, you can make the szechuan sauce in advance and store in a jar in the fridge. You can also prep the veggies a day or two in advance by slicing and chopping them.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
Tasty healthy Szechuan Tofu and Veggies! So much flavor here! See more tofu stir-fries below. 🙂
xoxo
More Favorite Szechuan Recipes
Szechuan Tofu video
Szechuan Tofu Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15mins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2
- Category: vegan, adaptable, tofu, stir-fry
- Method: stir-fry
- Cuisine: Chinese
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Szechuan Tofu and Veggies! A flavorful vegan stir-fry with crispy tofu, szechuan sauce and loaded up with healthy vegetables! Quick, easy and flavorful!!!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Szechuan Sauce ( store-bought or make your own- see notes below) and more to taste! (please multiply if doubling or tripling the recipe) See notes.
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil or high heat oil
- generous pinch salt and fresh cracked black pepper
- 8–12 ounces tofu, patted dry and cubed (or sub shrimp or chicken cubes)
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
- 4 ounces sliced mushrooms (optional)
- 2 cups shredded cabbage (or shredded brussels, or shredded broccoli)
- 1 cup shredded carrots or matchstick carrots
- 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 1 cup asparagus, snap peas, edamame green beans
- optional: 6-8 small dried red Chinese or Arbol chilies
- garnish: scallions, sesame seeds, chili flakes
Serve this on its own, over rice or over soba noodles or zucchini noodles.
Instructions
- Make the Szechuan sauce, set aside. (see notes)
- Heat oil in a large skillet or wok. Season oil generously with salt and black pepper. With tofu, I generally use ½ teaspoon kosher salt per ½ pound of tofu. Swirl the seasoned oil around until spread out uniformly. Add tofu and sear on at least two sides, until crispy and golden. Be patient here. Set it aside.
- To the same pan, add a little more oil if needed, add onion, and mushrooms and sauté over medium-high heat – stirring constantly, until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining veggies, lower heat to medium, and sauté, tossing & stirring for 3-5 minutes until just tender or al dente. Tender, but vibrant and still slightly crisp. Add the dried chilies, turn the hood fan on, and saute for one minute.
- Add ¼ cup of the Szechuan Sauce, adding more to taste. Cook the sauce 2 minutes, letting it thicken a bit. Toss in the crispy tofu ( or shrimp or chicken) right at the end, just to warm it up.
- Divide among bowls. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and scallions. Add chili flakes for more heat.
- Serve this just as it is, over rice, or noodles. And remember, do not eat the dried chilies!
Notes
Prepare the shrimp and chicken the same way as the tofu ( using less salt for the shrimp), pan searing first, then set aside.
Leftovers will keep up to 4 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container and can be reheated on the stovetop.
Szechuan Sauce Ingredients:
- ½ -1 teaspoon Szechuan Peppercorns (or sub black peppercorns)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ( or Gluten-Free Liquid Aminos or tamari) see notes.
- 3 tablespoons honey (or sub maple syrup, coconut sugar, brown sugar or sugar alternative)
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar (or black vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine (shaoxing) or mirin (both optional)
- 3 garlic cloves, finely minced (use a garlic press)
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, finely minced ( or use ginger paste)
- 1 tablespoon garlic chili paste (or sambal oelek) more for more spicy or sub 1 teaspoon chili flakes
- ½ teaspoon Chinese Five Spice
- optional- 2-3 teaspoons cornstarch, to thicken.
Szechuan sauce Instructions
- Toast szechuan peppercorns in a hot dry skillet over medium heat, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Crush.
- Place all ingredients in a medium bowl or small jar and whisk until well combined.
- Whisk in optional cornstarch.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cups (using ¼ cup Szechuan Sauce)
- Calories: 425
- Sugar: 22.3 g
- Sodium: 875.5 mg
- Fat: 27.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 3.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 37.4 g
- Fiber: 7.1 g
- Protein: 15.6 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Great balance of flavors. I used my air fryer to crisp the tofu. That reduced the amount of oil used and the amount of time I had to stand up in the kitchen.
Perfect Jean, love that it worked for you!
I made this tonight and it was very delicious! I made the sauce as well and couldn’t be happier with this beautiful meal. It is going in our household’s monthly rotation. I added some baby Bok Choy to the recipe but other than that I followed the directions. Thank you for this wonderful and healthy creation.
Happy you enjoyed this Karla!
This is my go-to Chinese dish!
Awesome 👏
I made this dish with shredded brussels, king mushrooms and green beans accompanied by organic short grain brown rice. The Szechuan sauce has great flavour and I’m thinking to combine coconut aminos with the tamari for even less sodium next time, but I’ll have to reduce the amount of honey, as the coconut aminos can be a bit sweet. I sautéed the veggies in a smaller quantity of oil and a bit of water as the Szechuan sauce already has enough oil. I also like the tofu slightly dreaded in arrowroot powder before sautéing in a bit of sesame oil, which makes it deliciously crisp. This is another great recipe that I will return to more than once. Hubby really enjoyed it too. Thank you Sylvia & Team 😃
Thaks Meg- be careful with the tamari it can actually be quite salty.
Thanks Sylvia. Yes, I did dilute the Tamari as per your tip at the bottom of the Szechwan sauce recipe. You think of everything 😊 Thank you!
This is so good & so adaptable! I am picky about tofu recipes & this was perfect. Spice is easily adjustable, substitutions are simple & you can load it with whatever veggies you want. Thank you for this!!
Glad you liked this Melissa!
This is delicious! The Szechuan sauce is so complex and wonderful. It makes simple veggies and tofu rise to a whole new level!
thanks so much Marti! Appreciate you!
Awesome recipes, luv the Szechuan sauce.
So good. There are so many different explosions of flavor! This is my third recipe that I’ve tried from Sylvia and she keeps on wowing me with these amazing vegetarian recipes! Thank you so much for sharing this, Sylvia! I recommend this to everyone, it’s so easy and delicious!
thanks Nelly!
It was really good! I used white cabbage, carrots, bell pepper and some sliced dried shitake. I added some fresh ginger and slices of Asian market bought deep-fried tofu to make it even more easy. Worked well!
Great to hear!
Do you press the tofu?
Just press very lightly with paper towels – to mop up some of the liquid before cutting.
Made this for dinner! Absolutely delicious 😋
I loved this dish with its seared tofu and spicy, sweet sauce! I made it in a cast iron skillet- got a great sear! I don’t do a lot of spicy so I left out the chilies and just used gojujang. I also used Lakanto brown sugar alternative and it worked great! Will definitely make again, great use of all my veggies in the fridge!
Absolutely delicious, even without the Szechuan peppercorns. Thank you so much for sharing this and your other delicious recipes, Sylvia!
We just had this for lunch. Amazing! Easy to put together & so tasty! Will definately be making this again.
What type of tofu do you recommend?
Medium, firm, extra firm?
Thanks!
I like firm or extra firm for this.
This is delicious! I used cauliflower, kale, celery, onion, and snap peas because those were the veg I had on hand. Love the method of seasoning/cooking the tofu too. I’ll definitely be eating tofu more often now. Thanks so much for sharing!
Really disappointed in this recipe. So bland, the sauce was way too sweet, and there was no heat except for from the szechuan and some Cambodian long kampot peppers I added. Too little tofu compared to the veggies. A waste of some great ingredients
Hummmm. I’m sorry Carrie. Did you by chance use the recipe multiplier? It doesn’t look like it multiplied the sauce which would defiantly make this bland.
This is delicious! My husband made it for dinner tonight and I practically licked the bowl!
I made this for our meatless Monday dinner and it was so delicious! I made a large batch of the Szechuan sauce to have on hand for more meals to come. Thank you so much!
You have been cooking up a storm! Love this Diane- thanks for much for sharing.
I made this recipe last night and substituted some of the veggies. It was super good and the sauce was delicious! Will make again.
I really wanted to love this recipe but I found it to be a bit salty with the base of tamari. I had to put about 1/4 cup of water to make it more tolerable. Any suggestions?
Hi Ali, tamari is much saltier than regular soy sauce. I think that’s the issue. I will note the recipe!
Turned out really nice. Served with rice. Used packaged szechuan sauce instead of making my own
Delicious. Freezes well, too. Next time I make it, I think I’ll skip the tofu and sub cashew nuts (saves time and I’m not a huge tofu fan).
Good to hear! Yes, cashews would be tasty here!
I doubled the sauce and made it a day ahead to make dinner quicker.
(I used regular peppercorns, and did not have chilis.)
I also put some of the extra sauce on the tofu and baked it.
New and interesting flavors to put into the rotation.
THanks
Thanks Christine! Glad you enjoyed it!
This was fantastic! I’ve made it twice, once with tofu and once with shrimp, and used the corn starch version of the sauce for stir fry. The sauce kept great in the fridge for a couple of days, between the two versions. Both were terrific but I loved the tofu especially. I used regular peppercorns and served it over quinoa. Way better than restaurant takeout.
Awesome!Great to hear…thanks!