This vegetable pad Thai is a healthier take on a classic noodle dish lightening it up with a mixture of pad Thai noodles and zucchini noodles. Top it off with an easy to make pad Thai sauce and you have a healthy and easy to make weeknight meal the whole family will love!
What is pad Thai?
Pad Thai is a favourite Thai takeout dish that literally translates to “Thai stir-fry”. When you order it in a restaurant, it’s usually pretty heavy on the noodles, and we wanted to take the dish and do what we do best: make it healthier, and throw a bunch of vegetables in it 😉
What makes this version different?
Our version, Vegetable Pad Thai, replaces some of the noodles with ‘zoodles’ (spiralized zucchini), replaces any refined sugar with raw (and minimizes the amount), and switches rice vinegar for Chinese Black Vinegar. If you have never had black vinegar before - it is AMAZING! In fact, we are kind of obsessed with creating recipes with it and finding more ways to eat it. It's like malt vinegar on FIRE, and honestly, my mouth is watering just thinking about it to write about it! Depending on where you live, this may be a difficult ingredient for you to source, so if you can’t find it/don’t have it/don’t want it using rice vinegar is perfectly acceptable, and in fact, traditional.
Once you prep the vegetables, the dish comes together pretty quickly. The sauce is pretty easy to make, and WAY better than any pre-made sauce you will find in the grocery store.
How to Make Vegetable Pad Thai:
Prepare the sauce by mixing the fish sauce (or vegan alternative), tamarind paste, honey, vegetable broth, vinegar, soy sauce and chili paste together then set it aside for later.
Boil a large pot of water and cook the noodles for 5-6 minutes. They should be tender, but a little bit firm. When they have finished cooking, strain and rinse under cool water to stop the noodles from cooking further and to remove any excess starch to prevent sticking.
Heat a wok to medium high heat and add the oil.
Add the eggplant, mushrooms and onions to the wok and stir-fry quickly for 3-4 minutes. The vegetables should be heated through and slightly softened but still crisp, and not overcooked.
Remove the vegetables from the wok and set aside for later, then put the wok back on the burner.
Add the noodles to the wok along with the sauce and mix it thoroughly while cooking for 2 minutes.
Now for the tricky part: adding the egg to thicken the sauce!
Push the noodles to one side of the wok creating a little space for the beaten egg, then pour it into space you just made and stir it quickly to heat it through without cooking it.
When the egg has warmed, push the noodles into the heated egg and quickly toss them so that the egg mixture combines with the sauced noodles.
Add all the vegetables (including the cabbage, zucchini and carrot noodles) to the wok and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes more.
Divide the pad thai amongst 4 bowls, then top with cilantro and chopped peanuts. Enjoy!
DIETARY CONSIDERATIONS
This recipe for vegetable pad Thai is suitable for the following diets:
- Pescatarian
- Dairy free
- For vegetarian use a vegan fish sauce alternative
More recipes you'll love!
If you like this recipe for vegetable pad Thai, you might want to check out some of our other awesome veggie loaded noodle recipes:
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Vegetable Pad Thai
Equipment
Ingredients:
For the Stir Fry
- 2 Tablespoons cooking oil
- 4 ounces Thai stick noodles
- 4 ounces cremini mushrooms - sliced
- 1 small eggplant - diced
- 1⁄2 yellow onion - sliced
- 1 egg - beaten
- 1 zucchini - spiralized, or sliced thinly in noodles
- 1⁄2 cup red cabbage - shredded
- 1 carrot - spiralized, or thinly sliced
- ½ cup peanuts - chopped
- ¼ cup cilantro - chopped
Sauce
- 3 Tablespoons fish sauce - or vegan fish sauce substitute
- 1.5 Tablespoons tamarind paste
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- ¼ cup vegetable stock
- 2 Tablespoons Chinese black vinegar - or rice wine vinegar
- 1 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 Tablespoons sambal oelek - or chili paste
Instructions
- Boil a large pot of water and boil the noodles for 5-6 minutes. They should be tender, but a little bit firm. When they have finished cooking, strain and rinse under cool water to stop the noodles from cooking further and to remove any excess starch to prevent sticking.
- Prepare the sauce by mixing the fish sauce (or vegan alternative), tamarind paste, honey, vegetable broth, vinegar, soy sauce and chili paste together then set it aside for later.
- Heat a wok to medium high heat and add the oil. Add the eggplant, mushrooms and onions to the wok and then stir-fry quickly for 3-4 minutes. The vegetables should be heated through and lightly softened but still crisp. Remove the vegetables from the wok and set aside for later, then put the wok back on the burner.
- Add the noodles to the wok along with the sauce and mix it thoroughly while cooking for 2 minutes.
- Push the noodles to one side of the wok, creating a little space for the beaten egg. Pour the egg into the space you just made and stir it quickly to heat it through, but without cooking it, for about 30 seconds. Push the noodles into the egg and quickly toss them so that the egg mixture combines with the sauced noodles.
- Add the stirfried vegetables to the wok along with the cabbage, zucchini and carrots and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes more.
- Divide the pad Thai amongst 4 bowls, then top with cilantro and chopped peanuts. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
* nutritional information is calculated by online tools and may not be 100% accurate.
*** Originally published April 2018. Republished to add photos and update instructions.
georgie says
I love Thai food, but pad thai would have to be my favourite!!! i love that this is vegetarian too, I am always looking for vegetarian weeknight meals! and so colourful!
Alida | Simply Delicious says
I love me a good pad thai!
Jenni LeBaron says
I love pad thai so this is definitely a winner for me. I love that it's full of vegetables too!
Rae says
I must be living in a bubble because I have never heard of tamarind before! Pad thai is one of my favorite things to order when we're dining out, I'll have to try your version to see if it'll save me a trip to the only Thai restaurant in the area.
Courtney says
oh wow!!! I live in an area that is FULL of Thai restaurants, as well as many other cuisines from around the world so I am definitely spoiled by variety and also the ability to purchase ingredients like tamarind paste right from my local grocery store. I'd much rather make this version at home than to eat it out at a restaurant, I hope you enjoy it as much as well 🙂
Vicky says
I have never heard of black vinegar, but I need to get some. This looks so good, and I love how you lightened it up without sacrificing taste.
Courtney says
It is DELICIOUS! And adds a bit of that umami flavour to dishes.
Thank you!! This is our goal here - flavourful and healthy food 🙂
Sharon says
I love this dish full of vegetables and the sauce make for a perfect meal at home and skipping take out. Delicious!