Pad Thai is a crowd favourite! This recipe allows you to veganize it and customize it to make it COMPLETELY gluten-free, soy-free or BOTH! This colourful, yummy specialty will not only have your tastebuds traveling- but it’s also surprisingly easy to put together.

What I also love about making your own pad thai is that you can add all the veggies you want- instead of getting a flimsy 1/10th of a carrot on your plate, hehehe…

PLUS I’m including a section of the recipe so you can make your own pad thai stir fry sauce– which is also easier to make than you think 🙂 (it’s also delicious- completely different tasting from the commercial kind!)

LASTLY: note that I am NOT Thai- and this recipe is not called “Authentic Pad Thai Recipe”. Thai cuisine is incredibly complex in terms of balance of flavours- and a real Thai recipe includes ingredients like fish sauce, etc- ingredients that I wouldn’t be able to use here.

You’ll need (makes 3-4 servings):

• 1 pack rice noodles* (250gr/ 8.8oz pack)
• Vegetables thinly sliced (julienne) such as carrots, bell pepper, zucchini etc…
• Handful of peanuts, chopped
• Fresh cilantro, chopped
• Limes
• Scallion, chopped
• Soybean sprouts* (optional)
• Firm tofu* (optional)
• Coconut oil
• Low sodium soy sauce OR Tamari OR Coconut aminos*
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons tamarind pulp*
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1-2 teaspoon Sriracha or Chilli Garlic sauce*
• 1/2 teaspoon Tapioca starch*

The process:

• First off, place the tamarind pulp in a bowl with some warm water. Let it sit and dissolve for a few minutes.

• In the meantime, prepare your ingredients so you can have everything near you BEFORE you start cooking :):
  • Cook the rice noodles in boiling water for 3 minutes (or until JUST soft) and then transfer to a bowl of cold water with ice cubes.
  • Chop all your veggies
  • Chop the peanuts & cilantro
  • Dice the tofu

• Now, let’s prepare the sauce! Rub the tamarind pulp and remove any eventual seeds you may find.
• In a small pan or pot, mix the dissolved tamarind pulp, soy sauce (or sub of choice), sugar, vinegar, water, sriracha OR garlic-pepper paste. Cook everything together until well mixed.
• Separately, mix the tapioca starch with just a bit of water. Transfer this mixture to the pot, stir everything and then remove from heat. In a few minutes, this sauce will start to feel a little “thicker”.

• Now prepare your pad-thai! 
• In a large pan, place a bit of oil on high med-heat, place your tofu, sprinkle some salt and cook the tofu. Remove from pan and set aside.
• In the same pan, drizzle a bit more oil, cook all your veggies with some of the scallion for just a few short minutes. I also like to add the peanuts at this stage to make them even “toastier”. 
• Then add the noodles (use a pair of tongs to remove them from the cold water).
• Drizzle the stir fry sauce and mix everything together. Cook on high heat! Nothing should be soggy here!
• Remove from heat, toss in some sprouts, more scallion, more peanuts, the cooked tofu and serve into individual plates with wedges of lime on the side!

Notes:

• Make this entirely gluten-free by subbing soy sauce with tamari! Or coconut aminos with a pinch of salt!
• Make this entirely SOY-free by subbing soy sauce (as above) AND by removing the tofu and soy-bean sprouts!
• Make it BOTH gluten-free AND soy-free by doing both of the above lol.
• Ingredients with an * can be found at Fresh Approach on Constant Spring Road (Kingston). Click HERE for map.
• Add some EXTRA HEAT if you’d like by adding some finely chopped scotch bonnet (or hot pepper of your choice) in here 🙂