Pad Thai

Pad thai is easily one of the simplest recipes you can make at home and is the perfect quick-cooking meal for a weeknight dinner. This dish is made of chewy noodles, crunchy peanuts and fresh vegetable flavours tossed in a pad thai sauce; its distinct sweet but tangy taste is actually more Chinese than Thai.

The dish’s full name—kway teow pad thai—roughly translates to ‘Thai-style stir-fried noodles’. It was in the 1930s that Thai Prime Minister Phibun popularised this recipe for its nutritious and well-balanced value and it soon earned its place as the national dish of Thailand. Today, it can be found at almost every food cart and restaurant across cities worldwide.

Ingredients

For the noodles

Flat rice noodles – 200 gms

Paneer – 1 cup; cut into cubes

Garlic – 2 cloves; grated

Onions – 2 pcs; thinly sliced

Carrot – 1 pc; cut into wedges

Green bell pepper – 1 pc; cut into wedges

Yellow bell pepper – 1 pc; cut into wedges

Broccoli – 10 florets

Bean sprouts – 1 cup; cut into small pieces

Spring onion – 1 cup; sliced

Coriander – two bunches; finely chopped

Roasted peanuts – ½ cup; pounded

Fresh red chillies – 2 pcs; thinly sliced

Sunflower oil – 2 tbsp

Lemon wedges – few pcs

For the Pad Thai sauce

Tamarind water – ½ cup

Soya sauce – ¼ cup

Sriracha sauce – 2 tbsp

Brown sugar – ¼ cup

Chilly sauce – 2 tbsp or more depending upon taste

Method

1. Bring a pot of water to boil and remove from heat
2. Soak rice noodles in the hot water for 15 to 20 minutes
3. Drain when soft enough to eat, but still firm and a little bit “crunchy”
4. Rinse with cold water and keep aside
5. In a separate bowl, add tamarind water, soys sauce, sriracha sauce and brown sugar, and stir well
6. Add chilly sauce as per taste. Set the pad thai sauce aside
7. Place a wok over medium-high flame. Add a tablespoon of oil, garlic and onions, and stir fry for about a minute to release the fragrance
8. Add the carrots, bell peppers and broccoli, and stir-fry for two minutes until the vegetables are lightly softened and yet crisp
9. Stir in the paneer and toss for a few seconds
10. Push the ingredients to one side of the wok and add the drained noodles and 1/3 of the pad thai sauce
11. Stir-fry everything together for about a minute using two ladles and toss
12. Add another 1/3 of the sauce and continue stir-frying in the same way for another two minutes, or until the noodles begin to soften
13. Add the bean sprouts plus the remaining sauce
14. Stir-fry to incorporate everything together into for another two minutes, or until noodles are fully cooked
15. Remove from heat and taste, adding more chilly sauce if desired
16. Scoop noodles onto a serving platter and garnish with green onions, coriander and peanuts, adding the lemon wedges on the side

All it takes is one helping of pad thai to know why it’s so popular! This delicious mix of rice noodles, peanuts and vegetables tossed in a unique sauce, is sure to leave you wondering about its all-in-one sweet, sour and savoury taste. Do share with us your experience of cooking this wholesome meal in the comments below.