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?
BEST RECIPE EVER !
Yum! This is my first time evr having pad thai, and I love it!
I didn't have any peanuts, so I added some peanut butter to the soy/sugar/vinegar sauce. I halved the soy sauce and replaced the rest with water to make it lower in sodium and added some sauteed peppers- Yuummm!! :) :)>>>
Oh, I also omitted the lime and onions. :)
Scrumdidaleeumptious!
Super awesome award goes to to the poster of this recipe. :)
I reduced the vinegar amount suggested by other reviewers to 1/3 cup. I omitted the peanuts and tofu but added broccoli, carrots, and those morningstar meal starter "chicken" strip things. I could have cooked this a bit longer, but I was worried I'd end up with mush.. Oh well, I've got plenty of leftovers and I'm sure it'll end up perfect reheated. Thanks!
Oh, PS: The directions for rice noodles always say to use warm water for some tiny amount of time, but I always have to use really hot water, and sometimes have to refresh it, or the noodles won't soften. It takes up to 45 minutes.
I get "Royal Blossom" noodles in the package with flowers on it (pink or blue). I have had bad luck with other brands getting sticky or not softening.
I agree that the directions for cooking the rice noodles are whack!!! they turn out hard if you do it this way! i needed to soak them in hot/ boiling water i believe!
Yeah!! But then...after I posted earlier, I made the recipe again, and I over-soaked the noodles because they were the ones in the package with pink flowers, and those are smaller than I'm used to. Haha, whoops. It still tastes great, though. But the wider noodles in the blue-flower package are better for this recipe. Too bad they were all out at the store!
Oh, PS: The directions for rice noodles always say to use warm water for some tiny amount of time, but I always have to use really hot water, and sometimes have to refresh it, or the noodles won't soften. It takes up to 45 minutes.
I get "Royal Blossom" noodles in the package with flowers on it (pink or blue). I have had bad luck with other brands getting sticky or not softening.
I agree that the directions for cooking the rice noodles are whack!!! they turn out hard if you do it this way! i needed to soak them in hot/ boiling water i believe!
Oh, PS: The directions for rice noodles always say to use warm water for some tiny amount of time, but I always have to use really hot water, and sometimes have to refresh it, or the noodles won't soften. It takes up to 45 minutes.
I get "Royal Blossom" noodles in the package with flowers on it (pink or blue). I have had bad luck with other brands getting sticky or not softening.
This is the best recipe IN THE WORLD!
I have adjusted it to my taste over time:
I only use about 1tbsp of oil. I drop the limes and sprouts altogether. I omit the chopped peanuts and instead add about 1/8 cup of smooth peanut butter to the sauce before cooking. I use sambal oelek for sure! I like extra garlic in medium-sized pieces. I add one or two carrots in quarter-moon slices early-ish in the cooking (so they get tender). I separate the green and white parts of the green onions, and add the white parts early-ish as well, so they cook better. I add the green parts near the end as in the original recipe.
I thought there was too much vinegar at first, too, but once it soaks in, it's exactly perfect. I kept eating this recipe at work and making sort of inappropriate noises because it tastes so good, so I ended up sharing some with my coworkers, and now I have two other people hooked :) It's SO GOOD!
I've made this twice now and it has turned out great both times. The first time I read through the comments first and used less vinegar (brown rice) and added some peanut butter into the sauce. It was famtastic! Last night I made it again and used vegweb on my phone as my guide. Since I couldn't see the comments, I used more vinegar than last time (still less than called for though-1/2 cup) and didn't have any peanut butter. It was good, but not as good. The vinegar taste was too strong. I just ate it for lunch today though and it tastes a lot better than last night.
This recipe is a keeper!
I made a bunch of modifications to this, and it came out wonderful! I used only 1/2 cup sugar and vinegar, didn't want to use chili paste (preservatives), so I just used red pepper flakes, used coconut oil instead of canola, omitted the tofu, boiled the noodles (so much quicker) and added mushrooms. This is a staple in my house now!
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