Vegetarian Pad Thai
 
 
Author:
Serves: 3
Ingredients
Tofu Marinade
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • ½ tsp garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • ¼ tsp ginger, minced
  • 1 block of extra firm tofu
Pad Thai Sauce
  • 2 Tbsp tamarind paste, diluted with water making it around 4 Tbsp
  • 4-5 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 4 Tbsp sugar (Use palm sugar if available) (I used normal white sugar)
  • ½ tsp red chili flakes
  • ½ lime juice, med size lime
  • Salt to taste
Assembly
  • 1 Tbsp oil, olive oil or sesame oil or good vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp garlic, minced
  • 2-3 red bird's eye chilies chopped (optional)
  • Bunch of green onions, cut in thin rounds, white and green parts separate
  • Marinated crispy tofu ~200 gms
  • Rice stick noodles, soaked in room temp water for almost an hour
  • Pad thai sauce
  • Lot of lime or lemon wedges
  • Salt to taste
  • ¾ cup roasted peanuts, crushed
  • Sugar to taste (If needed)
Instructions
General
  1. Soak 6 ounces of rice stick noodles in a pot filled with room temperature water for 30-60 minutes. (VERY IMPORTANT : Water needs to be at room temperature)
Tofu Marinade
  1. Marinate tofu. It tastes equally good without tofu but nowadays you can find tofu easily everywhere and I would suggest adding it for additional protein. Marinating tofu is a very important step. I have made pad thai both without marinated tofu and with marinated tofu and I will always go the marinated tofu route.
  2. Take tofu out of the packaging and pat it dry using a paper towel. Cut it in bite size pieces. In a bowl, mix all the sauce ingredients and add tofu to it. Mix it slowly using hands so all tofu pieces gets coated with the sauce and let it sit on the side.
General
  1. Prep up all the vegetables, roasted peanuts.
  2. Heat a skillet on med-high and spray little oil, Lay tofu pieces and cook them untouched for few minutes each side until crispy and bouncy. Keep them aside.
Pad Thai Sauce
  1. Add all the ingredients in a clean pot. To it add around ½ cup water and cook it on med-low until sugar dissolves. Keep the gas at low and taste and adjust the sauce to your taste. More tangy needed? Add little tamarind paste. Too sweet? Add soy sauce+tamarind paste. Too salty? Add sugar.
  2. It is not hard to get the sauce right. The only thing it requires apart from basic cooking skills is PATIENCE and this is coming from someone who is very low in this department. But I realised that Patience does help here a lot.
  3. Once the sauce is ready as per your taste, keep it aside.
Assembly
  1. Heat a skillet and add oil. Add garlic + chili and saute until fragrant. To it add chopped white green onion and cook for few minutes until soft. Add marinated crispy tofu and add strained rice stick noodles. Add ¾ of the sauce and start mixing everything together quickly. Add salt to taste and lime juice to taste. Add peanuts and mix it all together on high or med-high until noodles soften and everything comes together beautifully. Taste and adjust. Garnish with lots of freshly chopped green parts of green onion and serve with leftover sauce and lime wedges.
Recipe by Naive Cook Cooks at https://www.naivecookcooks.com/pad-thai/