Pad Thai

I found another delicious recipe. This one is vegan and the recipe made quite a bit for two people (for those who aren’t vegan, you can add chicken to the recipe). My husband thought this recipe needed more flavor but I thought it was fine the way it was.

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces dried rice noodles
  • 1/3 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon tamarind paste (see note below)*
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 3 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 pound extra firm tofu, drained, pressed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
  • 1 small red onion, quartered and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
  • 4 green onions, minced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/3 cup coarsely chopped dry-roasted unsalted peanuts
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1 cup bean sprouts (for garnish)
  • 1 lime, cut into wedges (for garnish) 

Directions

(I made the mistake of not starting with the tofu first which made dinner a lot later than it should have been,  so … here’s the directions for preparing the tofu first.)

Tofu Preparation

  1. Remove the tofu from the package
  2. Cut the block into slabs and place the slabs on a baking sheet lined with paper towels
  3. Weigh down the slabs with a baking sheet topped with heavy canned goods and let it sit for an hour
  4. After the hour (when most of the water has been removed from the tofu) cut the tofu into 1/2 inch pieces
Food Preparation
  1. Soak the noodles in a large bowl of hot water until softened which takes anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes depending on the noodle you’re using
  2. Drain the noodles well and rinse them under cold water
  3. Transfer the noodles to a bowl and set them aside
  4. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, lime juice, sugar, tamarind paste, tomato paste, water and crushed red pepper. Stir this together and set it aside.
  5. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium heat. Add the tofu and stir-fry until golden brown (5-10 minutes). Transfer this to a plate and set it aside.
  6. In the same skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat then add the onion and stir-fry for 1 minute.
  7. Add the green onions and garlic then stir-fry for 30 seconds.
  8. Add the cooked tofu and cook about 5 minutes tossing occasionally.
  9. Add the cooked noodles and toss to combine and heat everything through.
  10. Stir in the sauce and cook through, tossing everything together so it’s evenly coated with the sauce. (You can add additional water if it seems too dense for you — a tablespoon at a time …)
  11. When the noodles are hot, put them on a platter and sprinkle with peanuts and cilantro.
  12. Garnish with the bean sprouts and lime wedges.
  13. Serve this meal hot.
*I wasn’t able to find tamarind paste locally so I used the substitution they recommended which was 1 teaspoon brown sugar (or you could use molasses) with 1 teaspoon of lime juice.

Quite a delicious meal! I decided to add some more veggies to the meal also — brocolli and carrots.  My husband had to wait an hour longer than normal for this meal as I thought I had read the recipe all the way through but didn’t account for the tofu preparation time.  Oh well … live and learn.

This recipe is from the 1000 Vegan Recipes Cookbook that I have found to be quite useful because of its tasty recipes.

[amazon_link id=”0470085029″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]1,000 Vegan Recipes (1,000 Recipes)[/amazon_link]

 

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