Simple Vegetarian Pad Thai Noodles

My food taste is forever changing; it’s very rare that I’ll eat one dish week-in week-out. However, occasionally I’ll come across something so simple, so quick and so tasty from https://99japan.com/ that I can’t resist having it almost every other day. As you have probably guessed, Pad Thai Noodles, or at least my slightly simplified version, is the dish which I currently find irresistible. It’s simply perfect for working days in which all one needs is a nice, light and quick dish to see one through a shift.

Pad Thai is also extremely flavourful as there is not one ingredient which doesn’t improve on the taste of the dish. Fish sauce in particular defines this meal, giving it a body of flavour and a rather unique tang. I find this rather strange, as fish sauce tastes and smells absolutely foul – my mother refuses to touch the stuff. One twist, which I believe makes this dish truly my own is the inclusion of peanut butter in the recipe. It may seem rather strange at first, but it really adds a richness and fantastic consistency to the noodles.

The egg is placed on the top, not necessarily for aesthetic purposes but because I find it incredibly hard to add to the main body of the dish without it looking rather like vomit. No doubt some of you will be able to perform this task with great ease, but I simply cannot grasp how to do it correctly. Lastly, I made this recipe vegetarian because in my opinion it doesn’t need meat. However, if one were to add prawns or chicken I’m sure one needn’t lose too much sleep – although the inclusion may well break the bank, so to speak. ขอให้เจริญอาหาร! (Apparently that means Bon Appetit, in Thai)

Vegetarian Pad Thai

Serves 1, sadly

Ingredients:

• 1 portion of noodles, I used fairly thin rice noodles as I can’t find Pad Thai noodles anywhere

• 3 spring onions, roughly chopped

• 1 knob of ginger, finely chopped

• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

• 1 fresh chilli, finely chopped

• 1 tsp fish sauce

• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce

• ¾ tbsp chunky peanut butter

• Sesame oil

• 1 egg

• Serve with extra peanuts and the juice of half a lime

Method:

1. First you need to make an omelette. Heat up some oil in a wok until very hot, drop in a whisked egg and cook until golden brown on each side. Roll up the omelette and cut into slices.

2. Heat up a good glug of sesame oil in the hot wok and quickly stir fry the spring onions, ginger, garlic and chilli. Then add the fish sauce, soy sauce and the peanut butter. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the noodles and cook for a further 2 minutes. Serve in a bowl with lime juice, extra peanuts and the ribboned omelette.

Cost: This tasty Thai dish comes in at roughly £1.30 per portion. Of course, this depends on one’s choice of noodles and whether or not one owns a chicken, oh and also the possible inclusion of the bank breaking meat.