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!
This was one of my favorites from testing! BTW: in the ingredients list right after tofu you have “1/2 teaspoon divided” which should say salt 🙂
Thanks, sweetie! I fixed it.
Oops! What’s the ingredient between tofu and broccoli?
Isa, can I hop on a plane to wherever you’re at to give you the biggest hug ever? Just from the mouthwatering pictures, I can tell I’ll be drooling over this dish!
<3
darn, already preordered elsewhere!
duh, I didn’t read the whole post 🙂
I only have brown miso and don’t think I can find anything else. What exactly is the difference, would brown work?
Yes, that’s fine!
Heyoh~ I’m not a huge tomato fan, do you think that peanut butter would be an okay sub for tomato paste?
Not really! It’s really for thickening and a little tang. Try a little tamarind instead?
I must be using different strengths of ingredients, 5 tablespoons of soy sauce in plus 2 tablespoon of white miso paste is way too much… I TSB of dark soy and 1/2 TBS of white miso is well enough for that quantity… we must also have very different tastes…
my email to them was returned as undeliverable
Ooh this looks good! My partner has a peanut allergy,.. Could anyone recommend a decent sub for the nut butter?
@Ms Scarf, try sunflower seed butter, it’s delicious! Thanks for the great recipe, I am so excited about the new book!
I just made this and it was awesome! It really tastes like good pad Thai. For the commenter about the miso and soy sauce, I followed the directions exactly and it was perfect- it is not too much of either. Definitely adding to my repertoire!
That was fast, thank you!
So the grilled ramen was the best thing ever, but this looks like it could be very close to taking over as my favorite of your recipes. Totally gives me a good “home from work travel” meal idea for later this week. It will be quite a reward.
This is way easier than the ramen! So there’s that.
The pin feature is not working on my Mac..can you look into this? I am up to date and use safari.
I can’t wait for your new cookbook.
Thanks! Me neither 🙂
Wow I just made pad thai a few nights ago and I tried to make up my own recipe using chickpeas instead of tofu and shredded jicama instead of bean sprouts. My chickpeas didn’t get very crispy, the jicama wouldn’t shred, and I used too much sauce. I think I’ll stick to this recipe from now on. Also, I’m so excited for your new book. Whenever one gets delivered to my doorstep it’s always like Christmas.
Followed the recipe exactly (flavor-wise) and it tastes amazing! Thank you! Once I cooked everything, I just tossed it all in a large bowl and stirred it up, as it was too large for my skillet. I then heated all of the sauce in the pan, and poured it over the noodles and veggies. The only thing I’d change in the future is adding a tiny bit of corn starch to thicken the sauce before pouring it over the noodles and veggies.
So excited about the bag! I cancelled my kindle pre order, and ordered the hard cover instead after your description a while back of how awesome it’s going to be 🙂
Whoa I can’t WAIT to make this! So, I can’t do soy… While I’m thinking coconut aminos for the soy sauce, what might you recommend I sub in for the miso?
There are soy free misos! Chickpea miso would be great.
When I go out to Thai restaurants I usually go for curries and fried rice because I can never seem to make it quite like they do. But I tried this tonight and this was as good as any Pad Thai I’ve ever had. I did everything as instructed, except I like everything noodle+sauce to be really saucy so I made a little extra. I kinda winged the second sauce mixture so hopefully I didn’t throw off the balance of flavors too much, but I absolutely loved it. Perfect amount of sour, sweet and spicy (plus I LOVE cilantro so any excuse for me to use it I am in)
I haaaate cilantro… do you think some chopped fresh spinach might be a good sub?
No, I would just do extra scallion.
I was recently looking for a pad thai recipe that tastes amazing without needing to use eggs, and I think this one will do the trick! I really appreciate the time you put into developing your recipes for this blog and your cookbooks. I was a meat and three veg girl until I decided to go cold turkey vegan 5 years ago (pun intended) and of course I found out about you and Terry. Together you have helped me to learn how to cook (properly!). I have all of your books except the cupcake one (because it would just be too much of a temptation) and I just cannot wait for this new one to come out. Thanks!! =)
I love that this sauce is peanut free! I need to try it for sure.
Isa! I could write you a lengthy, pages long love-esque letter about how much I adore you and your recipes and books. Instead I’ll make it shorter (and less stalker-ey seeming) and say that I’m so, so, SO excited for the new book. You are the best, congratulations on the book & all your hard work. Only a month left! Amazing.
Thank you so much!!!
This looks ah-mazing! Thank you for being so awesome. Vegan with a Vengeance was the last push that made me go vegan oh so many years ago. This new book comes at a perfect time in my life since I just gave birth a sweet little vegan baby and don’t have as much time to spend in the kitchen. I already pre-ordered!!! Can’t wait!
Aw, how great to hear!
You are putting up a lot of awesome recipes lately.
I try 🙂
Oh my god, pad thai is fantastic. I can’t get the miso (well I can, but it would require an hour and a half drive or days worth of waiting at the mail box) but the rest I can either scrounge up or make at home (sriracha is on my to-make-from-scratch list!).
Ah, great, now I’m drooling a little just at the thought.
Made this yesterday for dinner and it was amazing. I also was wondering about the huge amount of soy sauce and lime juice. But i know from several of your recipes i cooked bevor, i can trust you. 🙂
So it was great! And today the leftovers make my day at lunch.
Greetings from a happy german girl!
fait
Hi Isa,
Would this recipe work without the sugar?
Hmm. Define “work.”
This was very good! I made it last night. I made it ALMOST to the recipe. I used chilli-garlic instead of sirracha, and I added some Tamarind concentrate.
It was very close to authentic. There was….something missing. I think that next time I will use MORE tamarind! I think it needed it. And maybe more lime. And possibly ginger or lemongrass with the garlic
Leftovers were great. People at work were asking me for the recipe and I directed them here 🙂
I really, really love this photo!
Made this last night and it was fantastic!
Can’t wait to try this recipe and I REALLY can’t wait for the new book! Just pre-ordered yesterday! I love your recipes and your unique writing style!
Great recipe! This will be one I’ll do again for sure! yum!
Loved this! Just made it!
Isa, I made this tonight and it was awesome!!! (Even though I left out the sriracha and didn’t have quite enough miso) We are now all pad Thai converts in our house- thanks 🙂 PS: I browned the tofu in the oven and we also had roasted kabocha as an accompaniment.
Love this noodles.. I am going to try with paneer instead of tofu..
Couple of things – can you say whether you used fresh or dried rice noodles! We had to get creative on the fly to adapt. Also we found it very sweet despite cutting down the sugar, although we used light soy sauce which may have unbalanced it.
Still super tasty though!
Had this last night. So delicious! Added a bit of tamarind to the sauce (because I happen to have some and I have no idea what else to do with the jar I bought). Seriously delicious! Thanks for all your delicious recipes and the work you do!
Hey there!
Can i ask why you chose to take of the tamarind paste?
10x and congratulations!!!
Just because this is supposed to be a pantry friendly version.
This was good! I followed advice of a Thai cook, who said do not ever blanch noodles, otherwise they come out gummy. I was doubtful, but she was right! This had a nice balance of sour and sweet.
Sorry, I should have added: rather than blanch rice noodles, soak them for about 30 minutes until they are pliable. Drain well.
Isa, I really appreciate how you are coming up with weeknight do-ables! Thanks.
Tried to pin it but there is no image? Love your books!
I made this last week and it was so delicious !!! I omitted mung bean sprouts and white miso but still the taste was amazing. My hubby loved it!! Keep up the good work dear 🙂
Wow, I’m excited to try this.
This is amazingly delicious but in manhattan, without going to Chinatown, bean sprouts are no longer readily available by the pound (also tofu which used to be 3 squares for $1) so gathering the ingredients is a bit of a hassle but oh so worth it. I regularly order vegan pad Thai from a local vegan Asian joint, but this has them beat by a mile.
And as I’ve been mooning over remembering that fantastic meal, my eggplant bacon almost burned up. Another winner.
Thank you again and again for publishing the most reliable recipes.