Ah, the much revered Pad Thai is always a crowd favourite — you just can’t lose with tasty stir-fried noodles. Here’s my new plant-based concoction, which stands up pretty well to the original even without fish sauce! I’ve used grated tofu here in place of the meat or egg — get it nice and crispy when you fry it and it’s amazing how perfectly it works adding a great texture and soaking up the flavour of the sauce. Who knows . . . it might just become your Friday night fave!
PREP 30 minutes
COOK 20 minutes
SERVES 4-5
Ingredients
2 x 300g blocks tofu (organic is best)
300g dried rice stick noodles (or any rice/wheat noodles)
peanut or grapeseed oil
1 large onion (or 2 small), roughly chopped
4–5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
3 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
100g fresh shiitake or button mushrooms, minced (optional)
250g green beans, chopped into 3cm pieces
100g snow peas or sugar snap peas (optional)
½ cup chopped roasted peanuts or cashews
2 spring onions, chopped
1 cup mung bean sprouts
1/3 cup chopped fresh coriander (leaves and stalks)
lime wedges, to serve
SAUCE
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp fresh lime or lemon juice
3 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
¼ cup hot water
3 tsp vegetable or chicken-style stock powder
¾ tsp ground black pepper
To make
Grate the tofu, then spread it out on a few layers of paper towel with a paper towel on top (or use a clean teatowel), so that all the excess moisture is sucked out. Press down to help draw it out.
Follow the instructions on whatever noodles you have, but cut the soaking time a minute short so that the noodles don’t all break up when you stir them at the end. They always break up anyway, but still.
Mix all the sauce ingredients in a small jug or bowl ready to go, and have the veges chopped and ready, too.
Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a large wok or frying pan over a high heat. When shimmering, season the grated tofu with salt and pepper and add it to the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of it is crispy and golden brown. Set aside.
Add another 2 tablespoons oil to the same pan and add the onion. Stir-fry for a couple of minutes until golden. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli and mushrooms (if using), and stir-fry for another few minutes until everything is golden and fragrant.
Add the fried tofu back to the pan along with the noodles, green beans, snow peas/sugar snap peas (if using) and sauce mixture, and stir-fry for another couple of minutes until the greens are tender.
Just before serving, toss through the peanuts, spring onion, bean sprouts and coriander.
Squeeze over a little more lime juice and season with salt and pepper and extra chilli if you like.
TIPS
- Some julienne carrot is nice added in, as is red capsicum.
- You can add a little finely chopped cabbage or spinach, as well as or instead of the beans, to bulk up the veg if you like.
This is my new favourite phad thai recipe – i love the amount of veggies in this version! The one thing that normally puts me off ordering phad thai (even though i love it) is the lack of many veggies so this recipe was perfect. We used julienned carrots and red cabbage (didnt have any beans/snowpeas/mushrooms in the fridge), and then threw in chopped spinach and the bean sprouts at the end prior to serving. We added a couple of eggs back into the mix and a few swigs of fish sauce along with some finely chopped kaffir lime. Super yum, highly recommend!
I had my doubts about this recipe as iI not really a tofu fan but made it for my daughter who was visiting. I only used half of the tofu and 1 of the chilli’s . It was easy to make and extremely delicious. I will make again. Yum.
An incredible meal & easy to make. Really loved the Tofu in place of the egg. I thought it was going to be tasteless as I couldnt see the colour of the noodles change much however for the sauce I added one more spoon of the appropriate quantity and it was perfect as I added an extra 100g of noodles. Really happy with how it turned out.
I’m super skeptical about making this…I’m not a huge tofu fan and I’ve never been able to make pad Thai nice even with a recipe…but I will give this a go because the reviews are amazing on Facebook…Watch this space because I will give an update when I’ve made it.
How did you get on Rachel?
Really enjoyed this version of Pad Thai, great recipe that will become a fav in this household!!!, did enjoy the fact that there was no coconut milk in it and loved the grated tofu, was a great way to have it as I am not a big fan, so this has definitely helped to convert me somewhat! Thanks, looking forward to the new book :)