Serves 4
Total time: 30 minutes || Active time: 30 minutes
Photo by Vanessa Rees
Here it is: the quintessential sweet and sour Thai noodle. Also, the key to my heart. If I didn’t think it would give me some sort of vitamin deficiency, I’d probably eat Pad Thai for every meal. This recipe introduces my super top secret ingredient. (Um, as usual it’s miso.) It adds a bit of fermented depth that mimics traditional fish sauce. I have a recipe for Pad Thai in Vegan With A Vengeance, but this one is from Isa Does It, which means…it’s much, much, simpler! We’ll get back to the recipe in a sec, but first I have to share my excitement about the new book.
We are exactly a month away from the release of Isa Does It and in many ways, this feels like I’m releasing my first cookbook ever. After all, it is my first full-color, hardcover book! Perfect for gift-giving, coffee tabling, and yeah, even cooking from.
So I’m hoping that you love it as much as I do. And I don’t forget for a second that I couldn’t have written it without you. I am grateful for all of the feedback and support as well as the ideas and inspiration I get from you guys. There’s something so motivating about putting up a recipe and having someone far away prepare it only hours later. It warms my cold, gothic heart.
In addition to saying “thank you”, I’m giving away this cool Isa Does It tote for preodering the book (USA only.) All you have to do is forward your preorder receipt and your mailing address to littlebrown@hbgusa.com and boom, the perfect vehicle for hauling your veggies in your hot little hands.
Full details here. So if you haven’t already, please do preorder, and if you already have, no worries, you can still get the tote. Yay!
And now….back to the Pad Thai.
Usually Pad Thai is made to serve, one order at a time. But if I have no one to impress, I’m not going through the trouble. It isn’t exactly authentic, but it gets the job done with common ingredients and has a great balance of sweet, sour, spice and salty. And if Sriracha and miso are not common ingredients to you, they definitely will be after digging in to this!
You’ve taken the eww fish sauce out of the Pad Thai but somehow kept the essence of the dish with a nice tang. I judge dishes by whether or not I would serve it to guests and this one fits comfortably on the list. Make this recipe!
More like pain Thai it was so spicy!
So, so good. Made this for dinner tonight and was so much better than even anticipated.
I made this last night and it was amazingly delicious! Thanks, Isa!!!
Everytime I make rice noodles, lots of them stick to each other and become hard…any tips on how to prevent this? Thanks!
This is so freaking good! THANK YOU! I just follow the sauce recipe and wing the rest of it depending on what I have on hand. So moreish!
ISA. You are a GODDESS. I just made this. I just ate this. MY LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME. Thank you a million times over, I have long been a fan, but now I am going to build a shrine to you in my kitchen!
Oh. my. goodness.
I just made this for the first time last night for my husband and I for a belated valentines day dinner. It was so incredibly scrumptious and easy! My husband, self-proclaimed meat-atarian, LOVED it, too.
Thanks so much for this recipe!
That was deLISH!!
Do you think this recipe would come out okay if I used chickpea miso and coconut aminos? I can’t eat soy, but I miss Thai food.
Sure!
OMG My stomach is RUMBLING. This sounds freakin’ amazing. Can’t wait to make it.
I’ve made this recipe quite a few times and it has become one of my favorites. Simply amazing and not intimidating. I’ve never had success with Asian dishes until now. Thanks!!
I’ve FINALLY learned to double the recipe because my crew here love their Isa!!! We ALL loved it which is pushing it because my youngest is quite picky. It helps that there are no onions……shhhhh, don’t tell her that green onions are onions 🙂
Great recipe, but it might be a good idea to warn readers that they have to be careful what kind of sriracha they use. I bought Lee Kum Kee brand at Whole Foods only to discover after I got home that it is made with anchovies!
This is my favourite thing right now!!!!
Made this tonight. Not sure why, but its very limey and not balanced. Perhaps the 1/4 C fresh lime juice was too much?
I made this last night for dinner – it was fantastic! The sauce is the perfect blend of sweet, sour and salty. I was out of limes so I used lemons instead. I also subbed granulated maple sugar in place of the brown sugar and it turned out great.
This was a huge, huge hit at my house! My roommate and my boyfriend (both meaties) ate it all up and looked at me like they wanted more. I think next time I am going to add some bell peppers at the end of the broccoli for some crunch. Thanks Isa!
I made this yesterday and it was fantastic. I’ve tried making pad Thai from scratch, from a box, and from a jar. From scratch was woeful, the box and jar attempts were ok, but still fell well short of what I expected from a good pad thai. This one, however, was fantastic! Genius as always, Isa. I didn’t add any extra salt (miso and soy sauce were enough), and I only used about 1.5 tbsp of tomato paste, and threw in a tbsp of tamarind paste because I had it in the fridge from a previous, failed attempt. I reduced the sriracha right down because my husband has a very low spice tolerance, and I coated the noodles in a bit of peanut oil after rinsing and draining them to prevent them sticking while they waited. Compliments all around! Thank-you!
This is one of my families favorite recipes 🙂
Hey there! I’m off to a vegan pot luck this week and am dying to give this recipe a go, do you reckon there’s any way to make any of the components ahead and assemble at the dinner or is it best to do everything “to order”?
Can you substitute the brown sugar with coconut palm sugar, which is what they usually use?
I made this again tonight. It’s part of our regular rotation. It’s better than pad Thai in restaurants here. Thanks for the recipe! I also appreciate the fact that so many of your recipes are budget friendly. 🙂
This is one of my family’s favorite Isa recipes. We make it once a week and my 10 year old daughter absolutely loves it.
This was sooo great. Tofu instructions finally gave me perfect brown tofu. I found a palllet knife in a cheap storebthat was just the right thickness for flipping the tofu. I also used some tamarind. this recipe is part of my life from now! Thank You!
Made this tonight! Amazing! Did not have miso so added some miso ginger broth. Added a little fish sauce and rice vinegat and red pepper flakes (I do not have a clue what I am doing just added ingredients from other recipes). It was excellent! I followed her perfectly browned tofu recipe as well and it was perfect (never made tofu before). Can’t wait to purchase the cookbook.
This recipe is AWESOME! The sauce is KICKIN!!! I used zucchini and yellow squash as my noodles and OMG! I can’t stop stuffing my face. Thanks again for another great recipe.
I have tried different recipes for pad Thai sauce…but now that I’ve tried this one my search is over. It is the best ever!! I make a large batch of pad Thai (16 oz pkg of noodles) so I doubled the sauce recipe. Texture and taste is perfect. Adding fresh ginger to sauce is a great addition too.
The best sauce ever! And no searching for tamarind. Just perfect!
When do I use the garlic? Did I miss that part?
Thank you
This was awesome. I didn’t have miso, it didn’t seem to matter. There were way too many noodles than I needed, so I only ate half. But the flavour was wonderful!
I love Pad Thai and eat it all the time when I go out. I’m very critical of vegan Pad Thai and this was great! My omnivorous husband and step-daughter loved this!
The kids can’t handle anything spicy. Can you recommend a substitute for siracha?
This is the best Pad Thai ever. I can’t believe how much my 3yo son loves this. It doesn’t seem like it would be a kid-friendly food, but he loves the stuff.
This is by far the best pad thai recipe I’ve ever made. It turns out perfectly every time. I substitute tahina for the miso and often add a bunch more vegetables. It is hard to share.
So easy to make, and so delicious!! Thank you! 🙂