Pad Thai with Seasoned Tofu

I made this dish after reviewing a restaurant Nine Thai in Chatham, NJ. It was a really good restaurant with a friendly staff and great food. I gave it a great review and decided to replicate their pad thai at home.

I have been eating pad thai for years now and love ordering it at restaurants. I have always thought this dish as extremely complicated and hard to make.

Since I had to replicate a dish, I decided to take this one on. After a bit of research, I realized the noodle dish is really not hard to make- it just has a lot of ingredients. Once you have them on hand- it doesn’t take that long. You can control the amount of fat and salt when you make popular take out dishes at home.

In this case, I made it super healthy with tofu, bean sprouts and garlic chives. I had most of the ingredients at home- like tamarind, fish sauce, tamari, etc. I decided not to add any meat but it will be delicious with chicken or shrimp.

If you love eating pad thai in a restaurant, definitely make this homemade version- it is delicious.

• 10 oz extra firm tofu, cut into thin strips about an inch long
• 2 teaspoons tamari

Place the tofu strips in a zip lock bag with the tamari and marinate for 2 to 3 hours.

• ½ pound rice noodles- soaked in hot water for 30 minutes. Drain and keep aside.

Sauce

• 1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons palm sugar
• 2 tablespoons tamari
• 1 teaspoon chili paste with garlic

Mix the tamarind, fish sauce, palm sugar and chili paste in a small bowl and keep aside,

• 3 tablespoons extra light olive oil
• 2 medium shallots, sliced thin
• 3 green onions, chopped (white parts only- save the green parts for the garnish)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup garlic chives, cut into 1 inch long segments (optional)
• 2 cups bean sprouts
• 2 eggs, beaten with 1 teaspoon salt

Garnish

• 1 cup chopped salted roasted peanuts
• ½ cup cilantro, chopped
• 3 green onions, chopped (the green parts only)
• One lime cut into wedges

In a large frying pan or a wok like sauce pan heat the olive oil and add the marinated tofu. Saute on high heat for 2 to 3 minutes or till the tofu is golden brown. Add the shallots, white parts of the green onions and garlic. Saute on medium high heat for a minute. Add the garlic chives and sprouts and mix well. Move all the mixture to the side of the pan and make a well in the middle. Drop the eggs and scramble for 30 seconds and then mix with the rest of the mixture. Add the drained noodles and mix well. Saute for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the tamarind mixture and mix well. Add the peanuts, cilantro and green onions. Mix well and check for seasonings. Squeeze the lime and serve.