The "Savvy" Pad Thai

Pad Thai is one of my favourite dishes. It has the perfect blend of savoury, sweet and tangy flavour. It also helps that it is so darn easy to cook (my version anyway). It's one of my regular dishes I cook whenever there is a potluck event. People always ask me, how did you make this? And I always reply, "It's easy! You need..." then I blabber on how to make it but I always get interrupted with this response: "Just write down or email me the recipe, ok?" But then I always forget (tsk tsk).

So now, I'm sharing my recipe! And I can tell everyone who asks me how to make this again to check out my blog :)

The "Savvy" Pad Thai

(Please be warned that I don't measure when I cook, some measurement are just "eyeballed")

Ingredients:

1 pkg. thin rice noodles

3 green onions (chopped)

3 to 4 cloves of garlic (chopped)

1 zuchinni (grated)

Big bunch of bean sprouts (rinsed well)

1 lbs of peeled and deveined shrimp (You can use chicken or skip the meat altogether)

1 pkg of extra firm Tofu (sliced into strips)

Sauce:

1/4 cup Fish sauce

1/4 cup Rice vinegar

Photo from Wikipedia

1/4 cup brown or turbinado sugar

1 to 2 tablespoons of Asian hot chili sauce

Toppings (all optional):

Slice of lime

Chopped green onions

Chopped peanuts

(I used walnuts for this batch because I didn't  realize I ran out of peanuts! But it worked great and tasted the same.)

1. 
   
   Cook you noodles first by following cooking instructions in the package. But I usually let my noodles sit in hot water in a bowl for about 5 to 7 minutes. Then I transfer it to a strainer and rinse it with cold water in the sink. Set aside.
2. 
   
   Preheat your Wok or big skillet set in medium and add about a tsp. of oil or a spray of PAM just to coat the bottom of the pan.
3. 
   
   Saute garlic untiil it's fragrant (don't let it burn!)
4. 
   
   Add the shrimp and cook until it's opaque and pink (5 minutes or so)
5. 
   
   Add all the vegetables and tofu, mix and cook for another 5 minutes.
6. 
   
   Dump all the sauce ingredients in the wok, mixing it thoroughly.
7. 
   
   Then add the cooled rice noodles and mix everything.
8. 
   
   You can top it off with peanuts and more greens onions with a side of lime, of course these are all optional.

Eat and enjoy!

Tip:

 Add about 1/2 a teaspoon of the chili sauce at a time and taste to check for spiciness. That stuff is smoking and a little goes a long way. I prefer my food spicy but lately I have been making my food mild because of my DD.

Oh and the fish sauce stinks like garbage but don't be afraid to use it in this dish, if you think it makes it too salty just add more rice vinegar. 

We had this for dinner tonight and it was scrumptious! I expected for my DD to enjoy it since she loves all noodles equally but I was surpried that she wanted seconds!

I do let her get messy during dinner sometimes, she surely enjoy slurping all those noodles!

Now that the weather is getting warmer, I think this dish is perfect for a light summer meal outdoors. And speaking of summer, Fashion meets Food is doing a very cute and summery giveaway! She is giving out lovely Miss Trish Sandals perfect for any of your summer outfits. I have entered myself because those sandals are just too darn adorable.

Just to give you a quick update on my workouts, I have stopped doing P90X in the meantime. My training partner is still injured and I simply can't get motivated enough to do it myself! I have been running 3 to 5Ks a few times since last week to compesate. I usually do ab ripper or Yoga X as well after my runs also. Tonight, I did a 3k with the hubby but skipped out on the ab ripper because I'm just too pooped out.

Let me know if you have your own variation of Pad thai! And if you do try my version, I would love to hear if you liked it (or not)!