Vegan tofu pad thai

Pad thai is one of my absolute favourite dishes but at restaurants it usually contains fish sauce, egg and meat so it’s not exactly vegan friendly. This recipe has all the pad thai flavour without the animal products.

It’s definitely worth hunting for tamarind paste at your local Asian supermarket as it really gives that classic pad thai flavour, but if you can’t find it try replacing it with lime juice.

The recipe calls for pressed tofu, pressing the tofu removes a lot of the liquid from it and improves the texture considerably. If you’re not sure how to press tofu there are some great instructions here.

Vegan tofu pad thai

Print Recipe

Servings	Prep Time
4 people	10 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Servings Prep Time 4 people 10 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Vegan tofu pad thai Print Recipe Servings Prep Time 4 people 10 minutes Cook Time 30 minutes Servings Prep Time 4 people 10 minutes Cook Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the sauce

• 1/3 cup warm water
• 1/3 cup raw cane sugar
• 5 tbsp tamarind paste (unsweetened)
• 1+1/2 tbsp soy or tamari sauce
• 1/2 tsp sriracha sauce

For the pad thai

• 400 g block of firm tofu (pressed)
• 400 g rice noodles
• 1/4 cup chopped spring onion
• 1 diced onion
• 1 diced green capsicum
• 3 cloves crushed garlic
• 1/4 cup fresh chopped coriander
• 1/2 cup mung bean sprouts
• 1/2 cup chopped unsalted peanuts
• 1 diced small red chili
• 1 tbsp cooking oil

Servings: people

Instructions

1. Prepare the sauce in a small bowl by whisking the sugar and warm water together until it dissolves. Add in the remaining sauce ingredients, whisk together well and set aside. You can taste the sauce and adjust the sweetness and saltiness to your liking.
2. Cut the pressed tofu into cubes. Heat the cooking oil in a wok over medium-high heat and fry the tofu or dry fry it if you prefer. Fry for about 10 minutes flipping frequently until the tofu has browned and firmed up. Remove from the wok and set aside.
3. In the same wok add the onion and garlic. Fry for about 10 minutes and then add the capsicum and fry for a further 5 minutes. If the wok looks dry you can add a little more oil or a splash of water.
4. While the vegetables are frying, bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the rice noodles according to the packet instructions.
5. Add the noodles, tofu and sauce into the wok and cook for a further minute.
6. Serve in bowls and top each one with the coriander, chopped peanuts, chili and mung bean sprouts.

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