Quick and healthy Pad Thai
Quick and healthy Pad Thai; flavor-packed rice noodles loaded with veggies and your choice of protein. A family favorite weekday meal.
Ingredients
Pad Thai sauce
- ¼ cup agave nectar (or sub coconut sugar)
- ¼ cup fish sauce
- 2 tbsp tamarind concentrate (or make yourself*)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (or sub coconut aminos)
- 1 lime (juiced)
- ¼-½ tsp red pepper flakes (to taste)
Noodles
- 1 package rice noodles
Protein
- 1 tbsp olive oil (or sub avo oil or even coconut oil)
- 1 lbs preferred protein (chicken, beef, shrimp, tofu or omit)
- 3 eggs (or omit, it's optional)
Vegetables
- 1 tbsp olive oil (or sub avo oil or even coconut oil)
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 1 cup carrots (shaved into ribbons)
- 1 medium red bell pepper (cut into strips)
- 1 cup greens beans (cut in halves or thirds)
Garnishing (optional)
- 1 handful crushed peanuts
- 1 handful green onions (cut into small rings)
- 1 lime (cut into wedges)
Instructions
Pad Thai sauce
- Whisk all 6 iPad Thai sauce ingredients together into a fairly thin pourable sauce.
Make the Pad Thai
- Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package. Then drain the water and set the noodles aside. Mix them with a bit of oil so they don't stick together.
- Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a large skillet and add the protein after you have seasoned it with salt and pepper. Once cooked, set it aside. (You can cut chicken and beef either before or after cooking).
Cook the vegetables (and scramble the eggs)
- Cut the vegetables to their size; carrots in strips or ribbons, green beans in half, and bell peppers in strips.
- Heat up another tablespoon of olive oil in the same skillet you prepared the protein in. Once it is hot, add the minced garlic. Stir until softened. Now add the vegetables (you can boil/blanch the green beans and carrots before hand to soften them a bit. Not necessary though). When they start to turn brown, move them to one side of the skillet to make room for the eggs.
- Add the eggs to the skillet and scramble them with a whisk. Mix them with the vegetables and add the cooked protein, noodles and the sauce. Stir to combine it all. The Pad Thai is now ready to be divided over plate and garnished with crushed peanuts and/or green onions.
- The Pad Thai is now ready to be divided over plates and garnished with crushed peanuts, lime wedges and/or green onions.
Notes
Tamarind sauce: Buy tamarind paste instead of concentrate. You will notice it is a thick brown paste with all the tamarind seeds still attached to it. Add the whole package to a sauce pan with a little bit of water. Heat it up on low to dissolve the paste in water and to separate it from the seeds. Then strain it through a sieve to catch the tamarind sauce. Now you have tamarind sauce/concentrate without the seeds!
Nutritional information:
the information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice.