Tofu Pad Thai w/ Sunflower Seeds (Peanut Free!) ... The Recipe

Recipe experiment success! (and if you call me a hippy for this one I'll poke you in the eye with an incense stick)

And if you're into the vegetarian aspect but don't mind peanuts, just use peanut oil instead of canola and roasted/salted peanuts instead of sunflower seeds.

This recipe is really close to tasting like the Pad Thai you get in restaurants, but without the oyster sauce, shrimp powder, or the peanut ingredients. It's modified from the Joy of Cooking recipe for traditional Pad Thai.

The key to this recipe is having lots of plates & bowls handy and prepping all of the ingredients ahead of time. Really once you've got everything prepped the "cooking" takes less than 10 minutes. Your work station should look like this...

What you need...

6 oz. dried rice noodles
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
10 oz. firm tofu (drained & crumbled)
3 eggs (beat em up)
1/2 cup of 1/2" pieces scallion (the white/light green part only)
3 red chili peppers chopped
2 Tbsp garlic chopped
1/4 cup vegetarian mushroom sauce (buy at your asian market)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup bean sprouts (the big white ones)
1/2 cup (or more) roasted, salted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (like you put on pizza)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Canola oil

What you do...

1. Soak the noodles in hot water about 30 minutes. Drain/cover. Set aside.

2. Mix cornstarch with sesame oil (add extra sesame oil if you want). Pour over crumbled tofu and stir it up to coat.

3. Put scallions, fresh red chili peppers & garlic on a dish

4. In another bowl stir together mushroom sauce, lemon juice & sugar

5. On a plate assemble bean sprouts through black pepper in nice little piles (you'll add these to the stir fry one-by-one in the order listed)

6. Heat 2 Tbsp canola oil over med/med-high heat til very hot (but not smoking) stir then quickly...

Go Fast!

7. pour the egg mixture in while stirring until the eggs have set (this part is really fun)

8. Set eggs aside, reheat wok over high heat & once hot pour in 4Tbsp canola oil

9. Add scallion/pepper/garlic mix and stir until garlic just browns

10. Quickly add tofu and continue stirring about 2 minutes

11. Quickly add noodles and stir until they're coated

12. Add the mushroom sauce mixture, stir

13. Add the eggs back in, stir

14. Add the remaining plateful of sprouts-through-pepper one at a time, stirring all the while

15. Serve piping hot

16. Make someone else do the huge pile of dishes

ขอให้เจริญอาหาร!
(supposedly that's Thai for bon appétit!)

xo,
Lindsey