Steamed Tofu with Ground Pork features smooth silken tofu and juicy ground pork. It is light while packed with savory flavors and satisfying textures.
I shared a steamed silken tofu recipe with black bean sauce not too long ago. Today’s recipe is the version for meat-lovers, and it is also incredibly easy to make and tasty. Bonus: I think a lot of kids will enjoy it.
The tofu is delicate, creamy while the pork is tender and juicy with a savory taste. Serve this dish with rice and it will be really hard to resist a second helping, I must say :).
Watch How to Steam Tofu with Ground Pork
Ingredients
This recipe requires very easy to find ingredients:
- silken tofu: best type of tofu for steaming with no doubts. When coated with starch/flour, it can also be deep-fried like in this crispy tofu with salted egg sauce recipe.
- ground pork (also called minced pork): pick one with some fat content (around 10-15%) to keep the meat juicy once cooked.
- soy sauce and oyster sauce: these Asian seasonings will give the dish a well-rounded savory flavor.
- cornstarch: helps retain juiciness for the meat as well as helps bind the seasonings to the meat better.
- toasted sesame oil: I don’t think adding sesame oil is a must, but just a few drops will add an irresistible nutty aroma. You can find it at Asian grocery stores.
Besides those key ingredients, you will also need some garlic, scallions, and pepper (which you probably always have on hand).
Cooking Notes
To cook this dish, you will need to have a steamer basket or a pot with a steamer insert. It’s handy to have one to make other delicious Asian dishes such as sticky rice or steamed fish. The two main cooking steps here are:
- briefly sautéing the ground pork, then
- steaming the tofu and meat together until everything is fully cooked
Since this steamed tofu recipe is so easy and straightforward, I just want to point out some important points here:
- Be careful when slicing and handling silken tofu since it is very delicate and can break quite easily.
- Sauté the pork very briefly. The goal here is not to fully cook it but to break it up and combine it with the seasonings and cornstarch. The meat will be finished together with the tofu in the steaming step.
- Cover the plate with foil to avoid water dripping onto the food unless you use a bamboo steamer (the bamboo lid doesn’t collect condensation).
Detailed list of ingredients and instructions are in the recipe card below as usual.
More Tofu Recipes to Try
I’d love to hear what you think about the dish, so please feel free to leave a comment and a rating if you have tried it. New recipes are added every week so let’s connect on Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates. You can find my collection of Vietnamese recipes here.
Steamed Tofu with Ground Pork
Ingredients
- 10.5 oz silken tofu
- olive oil
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 4.5-5 oz ground pork
- 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce, divided
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons water
- black pepper
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons thinly sliced scallions
Instructions
- Pat dry tofu and carefully cut into thin slices, about 1/2 inch thick. Set aside.
- Place a pan over medium heat and add a small amount of olive oil. Sauté garlic briefly until fragrant.
- Add pork to the pan, briefly break up the pork for a few seconds and then add oyster sauce and 2 teaspoons of soy sauce. Continue to break up the pork and combine with the seasonings for about 30 seconds. Lower the heat.
- Combine cornstarch with water and pour the cornstarch slurry over the pork. Mix and combine the cornstarch slurry with the pork for about 10 seconds, then sprinkle some black pepper and remove the pan from the heat.
- Place the partially-cooked pork in the center of a shallow heat-proof plate. Then arrange the tofu slices around the pork, slightly overlapping.
- Drizzle the remaining soy sauce and sesame oil over the tofu slices evenly. Sprinkle scallions and black pepper, then cover the plate and steam for 12-15 minutes or until the pork is fully cooked.
- Take the plate out of the steamer and serve right away with rice.
Chong Chee Wee
This is extremely easy to do. My family loved it so much. I did it twice. Second time, i cut the tofu too thin, need to be watchful for it. Thank you for the recipe.
Sally
I had some leftover pre-seasoned pork and stir fried it till it is partially cooked. Then I followed steps 5 to 7. The dish was very popular and the fussy eater gobbled it up! Thanks for the recipe 🙂