Pad Thai ft. YongYi

Based on a Thai street food classic! While this dish is NOT usually vegetarian, we’d included a vegan alternative for the sauce. Plus, this can all be made in a single pan, making cleanup easy on those busy weeknights.

1 Large serving

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

Sauce

• 1 tbsp of tamarind puree/concentrate (see notes)
• 1 tbsp of fish sauce
• 1.5 tbsp of packed brown sugar (White is fine too!)
• 3 tbsp of water

Vegan Sauce

• 1 tbsp of tamarind puree
• 1 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp of miso
• 1.5 tbsp of packed brown sugar
• 3 tbsp of water

Pad Thai

• 1 block of Naked Noods
• 1-2 tbsp of cooking oil
• ½ a carrot, thinly sliced
• ¼ onion, thinly sliced
• ½ cup of bean sprouts
• ½ block of fried tofu (You can also use Firm Tofu), cut into small cubes
• (optional) 1 Thai chili
• ¼ cup of roasted peanuts, crushed, for garnish
• Green Onion, thinly sliced, for garnish
• Lime wedge, for garnish

Instructions

1. Mix the sauce in the bowl, making sure to dissolve the sugar. 
1. Give it a taste, since some tamarind purees are more sour than others. You want it to be a nice balance of sweet and sour, with some umami saltiness. Feel free to add more sugar if it’s too sour for you.
2. Boil Naked Noods for 3 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
3. Chop your onions, carrots, chili, and tofu, and crush your peanuts.
4. In a pan at medium heat, add your cooking oil.
5. Once the oil is shimmering, add in the onions and carrots. Stir fry until the onion becomes translucent, and the carrots soften.
6. Add in the tofu and chili. Stir fry until tofu is golden brown.
7. Add in the noodles. Toss mixture in pan to warm up the noodles a bit.
8. Pour in the sauce. Toss gently to coat the noodles and caramelize the sauce a bit.
9. Serve immediately. You can top the noods with peanuts and green onions. 
10. Enjoy! Feel free to squeeze a lime wedge over your pad thai for that extra zing.

Notes

Tamarind

Tamarind is a type of fruit found in Southeast Asia. It has a tart flavor, lending to that sweet and sour taste found in Pad Thai. You can usually find this either as a puree or a concentrate in Asian or Indian supermarkets. It’ll usually be in the sauce aisle and is sometimes labeled as Sour Soup Concentrate. You can also purchase this ingredient online here.

We recommend you use the Southeast Asian concentrate/puree for this recipe. TWhat’s the difference between the puree and the concentrate? The puree is typically made in Thailand / Vietnam and comes in a plastic container. It tends to be a light reddish-brown color and has a bit of a watery consistency. The concentrate is usually made in India, and is looks like molasses. It’s going to be syrupy in texture. It’s also a lot more sour, and needs to be diluted out with water before using in this recipe.

Need a substitution?

Tamarind puree can be substituted with a mix of ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and brown sugar. Feel free not to use Worcestershire Sauce if you want to make this vegan. Mix together 1 tbsp of ketchup and 2 tbsp of rice vinegar with a dash of Worcestershire Sauce. 

Fish Sauce

Make sure you’re using pure fish sauce, and not diluted fish sauce for this recipe. 

Vegan Substitute

Pad Thai is not vegetarian due to the use of fish sauce usually. However, we can get that salty and fermented flavor with the use of soy sauce and miso! 

Fried Tofu

A lot of Asian supermarkets have pre-fried blocks of tofu for sale. If you can’t find those, any block of firm tofu works just fine. Avoid using softer tofus as they’ll break apart. Don’t have Tofu on hand? You can add in egg instead.

Nutrition

• Calories, 680 (depending on how much oil you use lol) 
• Total Fat - 28g
• Saturated Fat - 2.9g
• Trans Fat - 0g
• Cholesterol - 0mg
• Sodium - 1440 mg (lol)
• Total Carbohydrate 98g
• Dietary Fiber 11g
• Total Sugar 21g
• Protein 27g