I love Thai food.  Pad Thai is one of my favorite dishes.  Cooking on a budget doesn’t have to be boring.  We went up to our local Oriental market and picked up all the ingredients to make this dish for under $20.

Finding new Thai dishes to cook is easy as checking out this great website.  It lists several traditional Thai dishes that are very easy to make. 

As I've mentioned before I’m not a strict vegetarian so the fact that many Thai dishes use fish sauce or oyster sauce as a base doesn't bother me.  To make this dish as a vegetarian dish you’ll need to substitute the fish sauce for another sauce that does not contain an animal product.  One way to do that is to mix Hoisin or Miso with low sodium Soy Sauce as a replacement.  This website has a great list of vegetarian substitutions

Photo Credit - Renee Olson

Here are my ingredients

12 oz of rice noodles

½ cup white sugar

1 ½ tablespoon white sugar (added at end of dish)

½ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup fish sauce

2 tablespoons tamarind paste

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 egg beaten

1 slices of tofu

2 tablespoons Napa Cabbage

1-2 large green onion chopped very fine

**Optional**

1 cup Bean Sprouts

1 cup chopped peanuts

Process

Photo Credit - Renee Olson

Chop the onion really fine and dice the cabbage

Photo Credit - Renee Olson

Mince the garlic and chop the Tofu

Scramble the egg by itself and set aside

Next placed the dried rice noodles in a bowl and pour hot water over them and allow them to sit

Photo Credit - Renee Olson

In the skillet add the sugar, vinegar, fish sauce and tamarind and bring to a simmer over medium/high heat.

Photo Credit - Renee Olson

 (Note if not using a processed tamarind paste, you'll need to dissolve in water and strain before adding to dish)

In another pan add 1 tablespoon of oil, the minced garlic and the onions and sauté.  When it is cooked down add the tofu to the pan and stir until coated. 

Photo Credit - Renee Olson

Drain the soften noodles from the bowl they were soaking in and add to the frying pan with the garlic and onion mixture.  Add in the tamarind mix, the egg and Napa Cabbage and cook for about 3 minutes or until the noodles are done.

Photo Credit - Renee Olson

Toss in the bean sprouts and peanuts at the very end and serve.

I have texture issues so I leave out the peanuts.  I know this is very traditional Thai with the peanuts but I just leave them out.  This dish can be made with any other protein instead of the tofu but I found firm tofu cut in ½ inch cubes works best.

Have you tried one of my recipes? Do you have a suggestion or a tip on a meatless dish?  Send me your comments at Sosanna@sosannascloset.com or leave me a comment here.

Namaste & Blessed Be

Sosanna

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