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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Easy Weeknight Asian - Pad Thai

I love Pad Thai. It's quick and easy, fun to eat, and very versatile. This is another weeknight meal that only takes about 15-20 minutes from start to finish. Real Pad Thai uses fish sauce, so I substituted for tamari. I also left out the egg.

Sauce:
2 1/2 Tb. lime juice
1/2 Tb. lemon juice
2 Tb. sugar
2 Tb. tamari
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. Thai chili paste

Stir-fry:
1/4 box (about 2 oz.) thin rice noodles
1 Tb. oil
1/2 bag broccoli slaw
1/2 block smoked tofu
1 tsp. minced garlic

Toppings:
Green onions, chopped
Fresh cilantro, chopped
Unsalted, roasted peanuts, chopped
Toasted sesame seeds
Additional chili paste
Lime wedges

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add rice noodles and stir. Turn off heat and let sit for about 8 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile, heat a skillet with oil. Add slaw, tofu, and garlic and saute until crisp-tender, about 3-5 minutes. In a small bowl, combine lime juice, lemon juice, sugar, tamari, garlic, and chili paste. Add it to the stir-fry and simmer another minute or two. Remove from heat. Drain and rinse the noodles and return to the pot. To serve, place hot rice noodles on a plate, top with stir-fry, and then top with desired toppings. Serve with lime wedges. Enjoy!

4 comments:

noone said...

Yum! Y'know, every time I read your recipes I get hungry and want stuff like this, and then I remember I'm flat broke and go for the old standby - mac n' cheez, LOL!

I would love to try this someday, and for some reason, I envision this with sliced smoked fish of some kind. (kinda been cravin' fish lately, maybe that's why) And udon noodles. Y'know, the ones that look like massively thick spaghetti, lol.

Just one thing - what on earth is tamari? I have seen it mentioned in numerous Asian recipes and have no clue what it is, lol.

Also, I tried millet for the first time on Thursday! I really like it. Have you had a chance to cook some up yet? It's a lot like rice in texture (if you don't cream it). Very mild flavor. I toasted the grains before I cooked them for a nutty flavor. It reminds me just a bit like brown rice, just not as chewy.

I can see cooked millet prepared TONS of ways. What I see it on most right now is a big fat burrito, underneath layers of refried beans, black beans, cilantro, a bit of cheese, some fajita veggies and salsa... oooo... I'd better stop, I'm driving myself nuts!! LOL! :P

noone said...

Ohhh... *facepalm* I said udon noodles. LOL!! I don't think those are the noodles I'm thinking of at all - I think I just said it because "udon" stuck in my head from your previous post, lol!! Dear lord, I need to go to bed, lol. *shakes head*

Jess of Midwest Vegan said...

Hey man, beans n' rice is some of the cheapest food you can buy!

Actually, I bet there are tons of recipes of Pad Thai out there that use fish, because that's traditional. And I know exactly what noodles you're talking about, but I'm having a huge brain fart too! Crap! Now this is gonna bug me!

I've made millet a couple times. I like it a lot, but I have this there where if it's a carbohydrate, I'm pretty much gonna love it. :) Mariah really likes it. She keeps wanting me to make her some more for breakfast.

Tamari is the Japanese version of soy sauce. They're a lot alike and you can pretty much use them interchangably. I just really like the flavor of tamari so I always have it on hand. It's still salty though, so you have to watch how much you use.

He he. I needed a big fat burrito yesterday, so I went to Chipotle. Man, I seriously love that place. I don't think I could ever get sick of it! I ate there 5x a week for over nine months when I worked there, and I never even got bored with it. Sometimes I miss working there (but only because of the free food)!

Jess of Midwest Vegan said...

SOBA!! It's Soba noodles you meant right?

Man, that was bugging me!