Vegan pad thai
Pad thai is a stir-fry dish made with rice noodles, shrimp, chicken, or tofu, peanuts, a scrambled egg and bean sprouts. Vegan pad thai, as you probably know is a bit different. As I mentioned in my last post, I recently traveled and had a chance to get my hands on some new ingredients. Among other things, I found some tamarind paste and great rice noodles. I know I posted a similar recipe some time ago, but I thought I might make a new, improved version.
I did my best to make this as easy for myself as I could. Mainly because pad thai is something that requires quite a few ingredients. But like in my last pad thai recipe, I kept it simple and used ingredients that were easily available.
I had pad thai several times before, and I made multiple versions of it over the past few months. This is the closest I came to the authentic pad thai. Similar versions of this Thai dish are probably out there, I am not claiming I discovered something new. But this is the version I really liked and thought was a great idea for lunch.
Next thing I knew, I was making it for lunch for a few days in a row. It’s an everyday dish, and I am really in love with it.
Some health benefits
There are a few nice ingredients in this recipe, even though it is not the healthiest dish on earth. And as always, I am going to describe here the potential benefits your body can get when incorporating them into your diet. This time I chose to talk about tofu and scallions.
Tofu is one of the main ingredients of this dish. It is low in calories but high in protein and fat. It also contains many important vitamins and minerals.
It contains antinutrients like trypsin inhibitors and phytates. Soaking or fermenting soybeans before making tofu reduces these antinutrients, increasing its nutritional value. All soy-based products contain isoflavones, which are believed to have various health benefits.
Whole soy foods like tofu can improve several markers of heart health. This may lead to a reduced risk of heart disease. Research indicates that soy has a protective effect against breast, digestive, and prostate cancers. Tofu may have positive effects on blood sugar control, but more studies are needed to confirm this.
Like many vegetables and fruits, scallions are mostly water. A cup of it has just 32 calories, trace amounts of fat, and no cholesterol. It also has less sugar and fewer carbs than vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and corn.
A cup of cut scallions has about 10% of the fiber you need for the whole day. Getting lots of fiber helps you feel full, keeps your cholesterol levels down, and may lower your chances for diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions.
Scallions and other similar vegetables may block cancer growth, especially in the stomach. Scientists are still not sure how. They believe that a compound called allicin, which is what gives you garlic breath, may prevent cells from turning cancerous or slow tumors from spreading.
Extracts of onions, garlic, and their relatives have long been used as medicine. They can kill bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Lab tests on certain varieties of onions showed that at high enough concentrations, some can kill or slow the growth of salmonella or E. coli.
Vegan pad thai
Ingredients
rice noodles (for one or two people)
1 red horn pepper
1 carrot
a small piece of fresh ginger
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 scallions (spring onions)
bean sprouts (optional)
some crushed peanuts
100 g of tofu
4 tbsp of corn starch
- For the sauce:
65 ml of light soy sauce (low sodium)
3 tbsp of sweet chili sauce
1 tbsp of rice vinegar
2 tsp of tamarind paste
Directions
- First prepare all the veggies. Cut the red horn pepper and the carrot into thin stripes. Chop the garlic cloves into very small pieces. Grate the piece of fresh ginger.
- Cut the tofu into small cubes. Place the corn starch into a small bowl. Roll the tofu cubes around in the corn starch until they are completely covered. Heat a little bit of oil on a non-stick pan and heat it on medium-high heat. Fry the tofu cubes until they are golden (from all sides). This should only take a few minutes.
- Lower the temperature and add the garlic and the ginger. Saute for a minute and then add the red horn pepper and the carrot. Add a little bit of water to the pan and cover it with a lid. Let everything cook for a few minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the noodles as instructed on the packaging. In a small bowl mix together all of the sauce ingredients. Drain the noodles and transfer them to the pan. Pour the sauce over all of the ingredients in the pan. Cook everything (and stir from time to time) until everything is covered with the sauce evenly.
- Transfer the vegan pad thai into a serving bowl. Chop the scallions and crush some peanuts. Top everything off with them, and if you want add some bean sprouts too. Serve the vegan pad thai right away.
If you liked this recipe, make sure you check out my other recipes like:
Feel free to tell me what you think about this in the comments below, or send me the pictures of your own vegan pad thai. If you did something differently, I would also like to hear that, I’d love to see the things you come up with.
P.S. for more recipes like this and a bunch of other stuff, follow me on instagram, @margo_drobi.
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