Tasty healthy Pad Thai Noodles

To me its the king of noodles! Pad Thai, with its right balance of sweet, spicy and salty. Its taste and flavor is hard to describe but supremely delicious to chomp down and keep going back for a second helping.

Its the one reason I can’t wait to go travel to Thailand. May be one day I will, and I’ll make a bee line dash to all the street food vendors dishing up the best of this dish. As of now such travel is restricted to my dreams, I can’t even get to my favorite Thai restaurant! So that means its time to stir up that wok and dish up some homemade pad thai noodles! I tried to keep it on the healthier side with the brown rice noodles and low oil… and I think it tastes just as great… give it a try!

A vegetarian version can be made easily with tofu. I would do the same as i do with chicken in this recipe, salt and pepper sprinkle, then toss in flour and saute before adding to the noodles and of course leave out the eggs, prawns and chicken!

353 Calories per serving 6 Servings

Preparation time 15 minutes

Cooking time 15 minutes

1 pack Brown rice noodles

1 bunch Green onions

2-3 cups Mung bean sprouts

2 large Shallots

1/3 pound Prawns (shelled and de-veined)

1/2 Chicken breast

2 tablespoons flour

1 Egg

2 tablespoon oil (peanut / vegetable)

3-4 tablespoons Pad Thai sauce

1 teaspoon Fish sauce

1-2 tablespoon White vinegar

1 tablespoon Dried shrimp paste (optional)

2 tablespoons Sugar

1 tablespoon (or to taste) Red chili flakes

2 tablespoons Ground Peanuts

1 handful Fresh coriander (optional)

2 liters Water

Lemon wedges for serving

1. In a clean kitchen sink set place a colander and have a large dish with cold water with some ice.
2. Cut the chicken breast into thin strips, against the grain of the meat. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the chicken and toss it in flour.
3. Beat 1 egg with 1/4 cup milk and season with salt and pepper till its all mixed up and set aside.
4. Dice the shallots finely, and roughly cut the green onions into 2 inch pieces and set aside. If you don’t have crushed peanuts put it in a zip lick bag and crush them up using a rolling pin. (Get all your anger out!) Now you are done prepping! This is a fast dish so best to have everything prepped.
5. In a large pot boil about 2 liters of water. Once the water comes to a rolling boil add the brown rice noodles and give it a stir. Check the noodles every 2 minutes They should be done in 4-5 minutes. You want a bit of a bite to the noodles as you will be stir frying them later too. Under cooking is better than over cooking as a rule!
6. As soon as the noodles are done dump them in the colander and wash the noodles in cold running water. Then transfer the noodles into the dish that has the ice cold water. This will instantly stop the cooking. If you don’t do this the noodles keep cooking slowly from all the heat that is trapped in them.
7. In a wok take 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and start cooking on high flame. Stir fry the shrimp for 1-2 minutes, till it turns white. Take them out of the wok.
8. Now lightly stir fry the chicken pieces till they turn white (2-3 minutes) and take then out of the pan.
9. In the same oil on high flame, add the shallots and season with salt. Once they are soft (2-3 minutes) add in the beaten egg. Do not stir for 1 minute and let the egg cook. Once its done using the ladle cut up the egg into scrambled pieces.
10. Lower the flame to half the max and then add the sugar, red chili flakes, fish sauce, pad thai paste and the shrimp paste if you are using it. Give all of it a good stir and season with salt. (I often use the left over chili flakes from pizza take out when I can’t find chili flakes)

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11. Add in the noodles and turn the flame to high. Stir the noodles in an upwards to downwards direction so that the sauce that was at the bottom of the pan gets well incorporated with the noodles. Check the salt. If needed add some more of the pad thai sauce and 1/4 cup water.

12. Now add in the white vinegar, prawns and chicken. Give it another good stir. Last add the green onions, and mung beans and 2-3 table spoons of crushed peanuts. Stir once more and taste if it needs any sauce or seasoning. If you like it more sweet, I would use brown sugar at this point. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes.

13. While its cooking adjust the flavoring if you need to. Throw in extra red chili flakes for the spice and for sauciness if you need to add more I would dilute it with a table spoon of water in a bowl and then add to the wok. (Don’t add any more if the noodles taste as you like it)

14. Avoid over cooking the noodles. It should take not more than 5 minutes after adding the cooked noodles. Dish it out on a flat is dish and sprinkle some fresh coriander, more of the crushed peanuts and squeeze on some lemon juice….. dig in!