Pad Thai
1 pound rice noodles (wide ones)
1 pound extra firm tofu, pressed
canola oil, as needed
1/2 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons sambal olek chili paste
(or 2 tablespoons ketchup + 2 teaspoons paprika)
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
8 green onions, chopped into 1" pieces
4 cups bean sprouts
3/4 cup roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
lime wedges, to serve
1. Cover the noodles with warm water in a large bowl and allow them to soak for 30 minutes. They should be flexible and soft, but not soft enough to be mashed with your fingers. Drain them and put them aside.
2. For tofu, you can thinly slice into bite sized pieces and bake on a lightly oiled pan at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes on each side, or cube the tofu and fry in about 1/2 cup oil in a very hot wok. Fry the tofu until lightly browned. Remove from the oil and drain.
3. Mix the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and sambal olek in a bowl. Stir until well blended. The sugar won't dissolve completely, but that's okay. Heat several tablespoons oil in a medium hot wok and add the noodles coating them with the oil.
4. Add the soy sauce mixture and garlic into the wok and bring to a boil while gently folding the noodles. Lower the heat a bit and keep the liquid boiling while frequently folding the noodles. Try not to break the noodles.
5. When almost all the liquid has been absorbed, add the tofu and green onions and cook for about 2 minutes longer, until the tofu is warm and the onions are bright green. Serve the Pad Thai with a heavy garnish of bean sprouts and peanuts with lime wedges on the side.
Enjoy!
SO HOW'D IT GO?
This recipe was good, but definitely not as great as I was expecting. I followed the advice of others and reduced the amount of vinegar to 1/2 cup. The flavour was nice, however, the sugar in the sauce caramelized a little when I was cooking it and the final product was sticky. Like I said, not horrible, just didn't live up to my expectations. For those trying this recipe, be careful not to overheat the sauce.. it will caramelize!
I made it with less vinegar, as suggested in the comments. absolutely delicious! will make it again. my noodles needed less soaking though, the package said 10 minutes. I saw this after wondering why the noodles broke so easily. I fried the tofu in a mix of soy sauce and honey as I always do to make it tasty.
I was really excited about this recipe but it just wasn't for me. The vinegar was too heavy for my family. It was one of the few dishes we threw out in my house :/ since no one really cared for the taste.
I have never had Pad Thai before (cause it has all that fishy and eggy stuff in it) so I'm not sure what it's supposed to taste like but it was very heavy on the vinegar taste for me. I did read through the zillion reviews and saw the warnings some said about vinegar but I generally like vinegar so I thought I'd be fine. After eating one bowl I felt like my tongue was pickeled. My whole house smells like vinegar. So, I guess I'm one of those "too much vinegar" people after all. My boyfriend didn't mind it which is weird cause he's the picky one. Tomorrow I'm going to buy another thing of tofu and some more bean sprouts and a bunch of other veggies to try to dilute the big pile of Pad Thai I have left over.
It was easy to make and my noodles were the perfect texture. I did have to rewarm their water.
Thanx!
I just made this and it was fabulous! I used a 13oz. Package of rice noodles and I used about 3/4 cup of soy sauce, about 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar, a few good squirts or sriracha sauce (the rooster kind), 1/2 c. Sugar and a squirt of ketchup. It was just the right amount of sauce for the amount of noodles I used. I also added broccoli and shredded carrots with the noodles. My whole family loved it, and I ate way too much. Sooo full! Thanks for the great recipe!
this was DELICIOUS!!!! i didn't think it was too vinegary at all, we used the ketchup/paprika mix and added the rooster sauce...and tons and tons of veggies...i will be making this again for sure. i tried to upload a pic, but this site hasn't let me upload for months :( is anyone else having this problem?!!!!
This was fantastic! I cut back on the vinegar like some suggested. I fried up my tofu in coconut oil, adding just a splash of the soy sauce mixture at the end for flavor. I also tossed the noodles in coconut oil and added the sprouts towards the end with the green onions to heat them up. So yummy! Even my dad (meat eater that he is) took a heaping second portion. Great recipe!
I halved this recipe and made it with 2 servings of brown rice instead of noodles (it's just what I had) and it ended up being way too much sauce for the amount of rice. Other than that it was pretty good--I'll be interested to try this again sometime the right way!
My modifications were 1/4 cup rice vinegar and 1/4 cayenne vinegar, and slivered snow peas, carrots and shitake mushrooms. I simmered it for some time to softened the noodles. The snow peas turned dark green but it was all good. Also added chili sate paste and lime leaves. Will be eating it all week.
This was fantastic. I topped it with cilantro and did the tomato sauce, paprika combo.
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