What is Pad Thai?

Pad Thai is Thailands National dish and likely the most popular order at the majority of Thai restaurants here in the U.S.

It is a noodle stir fry dish traditionally made up of rice noodles, shrimp, tofu, eggs and a deeply flavored, sweet and sour sauce. The sauce is usually consists of ingredients such as fish sauce, tamarind paste, dried shrimp and palm sugar.

Is This Authentic Pad Thai?

I'll be the first to admit this is not the typical Pad Thai you'd find in Thailand. My version uses common ingredients found in the U.S. with a similar, and equally as delicious flavor to an authentic version.

So, you won't have to make a special trip to the Asian grocery store that may be 30 miles or more away from home.

In this Pad Thai you'll find tender pieces of chicken and lots of fresh vegetables and it's all tossed with the most crave-worthy sauce, and of course, finished with an abundance of crunchy peanuts.

You'll see based off of the reviews and comments this has been a reader favorite!

Seriously, what good is that going to do :). Then it also had maybe 3 peanuts throughout the entire dish. Being an annoying foodie, I simply went and asked for more of both and it did offer much improvement once I added them.

The thing I think I will have a hard time getting used to is the texture of rice noodles. I'm so used to Italian pasta that the rice pasta seemed soggy to me. The texture kind of freaked me out.

Then there were the scrambled eggs that had the texture of rubber but in the first place they seem strange to me there anyway. I was sure a dish like this could grow on me but it would definitely require some tweaking, at least to that version I had tried at the restaurant.

With that said, what I've made here is something very similar to pad thai but also much different. I left out the fish sauce (another ingredient that's going to take me a while to want to reach for), left out any shrimp or chicken as well as eggs, and I didn't plan on leaving out tamarind paste but I couldn't find any at the store (but after all is said and done I don't think this needs it anyway), then of course I left out the rice noodles and replaced them with quinoa.

This is a vegetarian meal that doesn't lack the flavor presence of protein, like chicken or shrimp (although you could definitely add them on if you'd like). I've eaten so much junk food lately that I was in the mood for making something healthy and nutritious, and this is just so.

And like I said, I wanted to make something pad thai like, that I actually liked. One of the best parts of making food at home is that you can make it just how you like. This recipe makes quite a bit so if you are making it, say for two people, you could definitely get away with making half of the recipe. Enjoy!