Pad Thai

My husband and I are huge fans of pad Thai from our local market. There was a time (before kids) when we would go almost every week and eat until it felt like we were going to explode. Now, with two kids, it's not so easy a task to manage.

In my quest to find recipes that didn't contain meat I stumbled across this pad Thai recipe and decided to give it a try.

I've adapted it to fit what I did and didn't have on hand.



Ingredients:

1 package wide rice noodles
oil for frying
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup sugar (I used white)
2 tbsp Ketchup
2 tsp paprika
8 green onions, chopped
1/2 head broccoli
1-2 carrots, julienned (matchstick)

Directions:

The original recipe called for placing the noodles in a bowl of warm/hot water for half an hour until slightly soft but still tender. My package said to bowl them so that is what I did. I cooked them until they were flexible but  still a touch hard in the centre. Once they are done, drain and place aside.

In a bowl. mix your vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, ketchup, and paprika. The sugar won't totally dissolve and that is fine!

In a wok heat (medium-high heat) 1-2tbsp oil and then add in your garlic. Cook until garlic is turning golden then add in your sauce. Bring to a boil and then add your noodles. Stir until the noodles are covered. Add in your broccoli and carrots. Cook until the majority of the liquid has evaporated, then add in your green onions.

Once the noodles have sucked up all the liquid it is ready to serve!

Notes:

My broccoli and carrots were ones I had previously blanched and frozen, the broccoli was still slightly tender at the end, which we liked.

My husband said this would be better with mushrooms and some sort of meat (can you tell he's slightly bitter about this whole non-meat kick?) I think it would be wonderful with some onions, cashews or peanuts, tofu, and some bean sprouts (which was in the original recipe).

I found this to be slightly too vinegary for my taste, my husband didn't think so. Perhaps more veggies would help to cut some of the vinegar.

Overall, this was delicious! Not quite like the pad Thai we would get at the market but wonderful just the same. Definitely a recipe that will be added to my book and done again.