Easy peasy Veggie pad thai

Thai food has been one of my favourite cuisines since I visited Thailand first time over 17 years ago. I didn't only fell in love with the stunning beaches and the friendly people there, but also the colorful kitchen. I was vegetarian at the time, and I just loved how "fresh" most thai dishes were with lots of crunchy veggies and rarely any heavy cream or melted cheese or deep fried things like in many other kitchens. I suppose it must be easy to be fully plant-based in Thailand too! 

Anyway... to my disappointment I have never been able to cook anything thai apart from green or red vegetable currys with coconut milk, until a few months ago when I discovered how easy it was to cook pad thai. Vegan pad thai more exactly, with scrambled tofu! I choose to have a lot of vegetables in it, more than what most other pad thai recipes suggests, but I think it becomes more of a substantial and satisfying whole-food meal then, which is more "my cup of tea" than just a large bowl of mainly rice nudels. And equally important is that all the vegetables make it look so beautiful and appetizing!

Have a try and see if you like it, it is very easy to make! The hardest thing can be to find black salt, but most well stocked supermarkets should have it, or even better if you can find an asian grocery store. If you don't find the black salt, don't worry it will still be good without it, but the tofu won't taste as "egg-like" as it would do if you have it since black salt contains natural pungent smelling sulfites, like eggs...

Good luck and enjoy!!

And please let me know what you thought of it if you tested it! :)  

Ingredients (4 servings)

For the sauce:

• 2 pressed limes  
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1-2 teaspoons Sriracha hot chili sauce (cayenne pepper, chili flakes or tabasco works as well) 
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter 
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup

For the rest:

• 7oz / 200g rice noodles
• 2 peppers (preferably different colors) 
• 1 bundle spring onions (around 8-10)
• 3 medium sized carrots 
• 1 bunch of broccoli 
• 1 package tofu (400g / 14oz)
• 1/2 tsp Himalayan black salt (kala namak)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 cup peanuts 
• 1/2 cup coriander/cilantro

Instructions:

1. Whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce until smooth (lime juice, vinegar, soy sauce, chili sauce, paenut butter). Set aside. 
2. Chop the peanuts and set aside. 
3. Rinse the coriander. Chop the stalks but leave the leaves as they are in a little bowl. 
4. Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the noodles and cook until al dente. Rinse under cold water, and leave in the cold water while you are woking the vegetables (to not make the nudels stick together)
5. Drain and press the tofu, removing as much water as possible. Crumble the tofu directly into a wok pan and stir, breaking up the tofu as much as possible. Add the black salt and the turmeric. Cook until most moisture is gone and it looks like golden scrambled eggs, about 5-7 minutes. 
6. Heat a wok pan and stir-fry the carrots for about a minute before you add the peppers and the broccoli. When they have soften a little, add the spring onion and stir for another minute. Lastly, add the the rest of the ingredients; the nudels, the sauce, the tofu and the coriander stalks. Toss for 3-4 minutes until warmed through. 
7. Before serving, top with some of the chopped peanuts and use the coriander leaves for decoration. The rest of the coriander and peanuts can be on the table for people to top with themselves (they both gets soft so quickly if added to the hot and moist pad thai so better everyone top their own plate).