Vegan Chinese Hot Pot at Home

5 from 2 votes

Chinese hot pot or Shabu-Shabu is one of my favorite meals not only because it’s warm, comforting, and really easy to put together but it’s also great to share with a big group of friends or family. This one is of course a vegan hot pot for one since I like to make small batches to enjoy myself from time to time. You can easily scale this by preparing more of the soup base and ingredients to cook, so it’s totally up to you! The sauce is also an integral part of hot pot. A lot of Chinese hot pot or shabu-shabu places offer sauce stations where you can prepare your own dipping sauce.

My hot pot sauce is a rich mix of Chinese sesame paste, Chinese black vinegar, soy sauce, veg oyster sauce, sugar, chili oil, garlic, green onions, and a few other ingredients that make this sauce incredibly fragrant and tasty. Dipping pieces of cooked vegetables or tofu into this sauce is makes it so addicting.

Print Recipe Pin this Recipe

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 25

Total Time 50

Course Condiments, Main Course, Sauces, Side Dish, Soups, Stews

Cuisine Asian, Chinese, East Asian, Hokkien, Japanese

Servings people

Calories 229 kcal

Ingredients

VEGETABLES AND MUSHROOMS

Napa cabbage
Bok choy
Spinach
Watercress
Lotus root
Pumpkin
Corn
Shiitake mushrooms
Enoki Mushrooms
Black fungus or wood ear mushrooms
Shimeji mushrooms

TOFU AND BEAN CURD

Fresh extra firm tofu
Frozen extra firm tofu
Bean curd sticks
Yuba or tofu skin
Fried tofu puffs

NOODLES OR RICE

Wheat noodles
Japanese udon
Vermicelli
Steamed white rice

SOUP BASE

4 cups water
4-5 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 vegetable bouillon
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp miso paste optional (to make a miso-based broth)
1 green onion white and green parts separated (I just sliced the white part into 2” thick pieces)

HOTPOT SAUCE

2 tbsp Chinese sesame paste
2 tbsp soy sauce
1-2 tbsp Chinese black vinegar or rice vinegar
1 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce
1 tbsp sugar adjust to taste
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp roasted sesame seeds
1/2 to 1 tbsp chili oil adjust to desired heat
1 tbsp doubanjiang or fermented chili bean paste optional
1/2 to 1 tbsp minced garlic
Chopped green onions or scallions
Chopped fresh cilantro
2-3 tbsp water adjust to desired consistency

Instructions

THE SAUCE

Simply mix everything together. This sauce is customizable depending on your preference! So feel free to add more or less of everything depending on what you like.

HOTPOT

Soak the mushrooms in water overnight. I like to place this in the fridge. You can also do this the day itself and soak it for at least 1-2 hours until rehydrated.
Prepare a medium or large-sized pot. The size will really depend on how many people are enjoying this hotpot.
Add the mushroom broth, vegetable bouillon, soy sauce, miso paste (if using), and green onions.
Allow the broth to come to a gentle simmer. Taste it and season more if needed.
Once the soups comes to boil, you can now cook anything you’d like in it!
Enjoy the cooked hotpot elements with a homemade hot pot sauce.

WATCH Video

NUTRITIONAL INFO

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?Please leave a rating or comment and share a photo on Instagram, and tag me @thefoodietakesflight or use #thefoodietakesflight :)