Easy Vegan Pad Thai (oil-free) (2024)

FAQs

What is vegan pad thai made of? ›

Bites of tofu are gently sautéed in oil to add a delicious dose of protein (16.6 grams per serving!) to the meal. Garlic and chili flake add heat and pops of flavor! Rice noodles are soaked briefly in hot water, then tossed together with the sauce, green onions, bean sprouts, and peanuts.

Traditional pad thai recipes use a lot of oil, and not a lot of vegetables. So a serving of pad thai can have a lot of calories with little nutritional value. My healthy pad thai offers whole food plant-based ingredients with plenty of veg.

Pad Thai Ingredients

Rice Noodles: Flat noodles are best, but any width will work too. Oil: You will want a mild oil to use, such as olive oil, avocado oil, peanut oil, or coconut oil. Garlic: This adds a delicious and enhanced flavor.

Pad Thai is a naturally dairy-free dish that's made with rice noodles. It's common street food in Thailand, and there are many variations of it online.

Tamarind concentrate: This is the starring ingredient in pad Thai that gives the sauce its signature tangy, sweet, and fruity flavor. Granted, some American Thai restaurants have switched to using ketchup in its place, which gives the dish a notably different and less-tangy flavor.

While pad thai includes many nutritious ingredients, its sodium content is considerably high. You can reduce its sodium by requesting the eatery go easy on the sauce and salt-contributing condiments. If you make your own, though, you can manage the amount of ingredients and seasonings used.

The dish is mixed with a tamarind sauce and served with lime. The flavors of this dish are centered around a sweet-savory fusion. Salty, nutty, and with that slightly sweet sauce, it's a treat for tastebuds!

When it's sold in restaurants outside Thailand, the noodles are sometimes bright orange – that's because sauces or spices, like paprika, have been used instead of tamarind. Authentic Pad Thai is a light reddish-brown colour.

Thai cooks commonly use coconut oil, palm oil, peanut oil, or soybean oil; traditionally, lard was also used in Thai cooking. These types of oil are low-smoke, as is desirable for frying or grilling, and they do not break down quickly. Peanut oil is often used for stir-frying and deep-frying.

What is a substitute for tamarind in Pad Thai? ›

The vinegar-sugar mix works well in dishes like pad thai chicken. If your recipe calls for 1 tablespoon tamarind paste, substitute with 1 tablespoon vinegar mixed with 1 tablespoon brown sugar. If using fresh lime juice, substitute 2 tablespoons lime juice for every 1 tablespoon tamarind paste.

So how do you make a peanut-free Pad Thai? It's easy to make the sauce without peanuts. First of all, substitute the peanut butter with either cashew butter (my personal first choice) or if you have tree nut allergies or sensitivities, use sunflower seed butter instead.

If we get technical, traditional pad Thai is not typically vegetarian because most authentic recipes contain fish sauce which is derived from fermented small fish or krill. Additionally, pad Thai recipes often contain sautéed shrimp or chicken, although tofu is also common.

In fact, in its traditional form, this is one of the world's most allergenic foods since it contains wheat/gluten, soy, fish, shellfish, eggs, and peanuts.

The word “pad” means “fried” while “thai” means “Thai”. It is a staple food in Thai Cuisine. The recipe of pad thai has evolved over time. It is believed to be originally a Chinese dish and later on got adapted to the taste of Thais.

Pad Thai is a Thai noodle stir fry with a sweet-savoury-sour sauce scattered with crushed peanuts. It's made with thin, flat rice noodles, and almost always has bean sprouts, garlic chives, scrambled egg, firm tofu and a protein – the most popular being chicken or prawns/shrimp.

Love rice noodles? We've got a quick note about the Noodles & Company Pad Thai. The noodles themselves are vegan, but the sauce contains anchovy, so even if you remove the egg, this dish isn't cruelty-free.

Its popular range of products includes Tofuna Fysh sauce, which is a vegan fish sauce made with ingredients like seaweed, tamari, horseradish, and pineapple juice.

In theory, soy sauce is vegan, as it is only made up of soybeans, wheat, water and wheat which are all, of course, vegan-friendly. However, some manufacturers add ingredients that compromise soy sauce being vegan, using flavour enhancers which are derived from fish or meat.