In Thailand, pad Thai is a street food fixture: fragrant rice noodles stir-fried in a large, glistening wok. Most renditions, both in Thailand and in the West, aren’t exactly vegetarian, thanks to additions like dried shrimp, fish sauce, shrimp paste, and sometimes fresh shrimp, chicken, or pork. Making a flavorful vegetarian pad Thai recipe that remains faithful to the spirit of the original is a relatively easy feat, though, provided you have the right ingredients. Here, we turn to a mixture of tangy tamarind paste, soy sauce, brown sugar, Sriracha, and lime to conjure the dish’s trademark sweet, sour, and savory flavor profile.
Once you fire up the wok, things progress quickly; you can streamline this recipe by prepping all of your ingredients while the dried pad Thai noodles soak and the tamarind pulp softens in hot water. Though you’ll see that fried shallots are one of the last ingredients to go on your plate, we cook half of them at the outset in order to use the flavorful allium-infused oil to stir-fry the green onions, tofu, eggs, aromatics, and noodles. Adding the tart-sweet tamarind sauce toward the end ensures it coats the ingredients evenly without burning. Then, once you switch off the heat, simply sprinkle the noodles with your garnishes: crunchy peanuts, fried shallots, lime, and fresh cilantro.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the December 2007 issue of ‘Gourmet’ and first appeared online November 16, 2007.
