Simple Pad Thai
Updated June 11, 2024
- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 4ounces fettuccine-width rice stick noodles
- ¼cup peanut oil
- 1 to 4tablespoons tamarind paste
- ¼cup fish sauce (nam pla)
- ⅓cup honey
- 2tablespoons rice vinegar
- ½teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
- ¼cup chopped scallions
- 1garlic clove, minced
- 2eggs
- 1small head Napa cabbage, shredded (about 4 cups)
- 1cup mung bean sprouts
- ½pound peeled shrimp, pressed tofu or a combination
- ½cup roasted peanuts, chopped
- ¼cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 2limes, quartered
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
540 calories; 25 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 12 grams monounsaturated fat; 8 grams polyunsaturated fat; 60 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 29 grams sugars; 24 grams protein; 1618 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Put noodles in a large bowl and add boiling water to cover. Let sit until noodles are just tender; check every 5 minutes or so to make sure they do not get too soft. Drain, drizzle with one tablespoon peanut oil to keep from sticking and set aside. Meanwhile, put 1 tablespoon tamarind paste, fish sauce, honey and vinegar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and bring just to a simmer. Taste and add more tamarind paste if desired. It should be piquant, but not unpleasantly sour. Stir in red pepper flakes and set aside.
- Step 2
Put remaining 3 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; when oil shimmers, add scallions and garlic and cook for about a minute. Add eggs to pan; once they begin to set, scramble them until just done. Add cabbage and bean sprouts and continue to cook until cabbage begins to wilt, then add shrimp or tofu (or both).
- Step 3
When shrimp begin to turn pink and tofu begins to brown, add drained noodles to pan along with sauce. Toss everything together to coat with tamarind sauce and combine well. When noodles are warmed through, serve, sprinkling each dish with peanuts and garnishing with cilantro and lime wedges.
Private Notes
Comments
After reading comments and looking at the recipe it did seem off balance. I checked and Mark's recipe in his book, How to Cook Everything, and the two have major differences. Using the book as a reference, I changed this recipe to the following: 12 ounces rice noodles, 3-4 tblsps pure tamarind (after cooking sauce, it needs to be pressed through a sieve) or 1 tblsp tamarind concentrate, 2 tblsps minced garlic, 1 tsp dried hot chili peppers and the rest stayed the same. Tasted very authentic.
"Meanwhile, make a sauce from tamarind paste, now easily found in supermarkets." I don't know in which dimension Mr. Bittman Shops, but if one leaves driving distance of the five boroughs, tamarind paste is rarer than Unobtainium and about as easily found as Kryptonite. This sentence should not have passed an editor with a pulse.
After reading several of your notes, we've edited the recipe to suggest a 1-4 TB range of tamarind paste. Tamarind products vary WIDELY in their potency, so this is really a dish you need to taste and season as you go. Start with 1 TB and add more if you desire. I hope that helps!
Helpful for a quick pantry meal-I swapped tomato paste for tamarind paste to get that umami, and added a spoonful of smooth peanut butter to give some sweet to imitate the tamarind (approximately)
this tasted like diet pad thai to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ meh
Worst recipe we’ve tried on nytimes. We think the tamarind is totally wrong but also the four cups of cabbage. It’s way too much and really waters down the dish. Two thumbs down. Don’t cook this.