One of the problems with an undertaking such as Dinner is Served! is that it doesn’t leave much time for me to try recipes that are decidedly not retro. Which is a shame because I really enjoy cooking foods outside of the 1970s canon. So I finally took the time tonight and tried a recipe that I have wanted to for a couple of weeks.
It is a vegetarian Pad Thai from FrugalFeeding which is another choice food blog that I’ve been following. I was drawn to this recipe because I already had a good number of ingredients in my cupboard, it looked easy, and fairly healthy (me and Cleve are attempting-AGAIN!- a joint Weight Watchers run).
Also, it gave me a reason to finally use the little peanut packets that accompany the caramel McDonald’s sundaes that Cleve brings home for me every once in a while (he does this because there is NO soft serve in Baltimore. NONE. And I love me some soft serve).
Since I didn’t want to shell out almost 6 dollars for real Thai rice noodles, I got by with some mung bean (cellophane) noodles and I think it turned out just fine.
Long story short–this was good. Not terrible points-wise just because of the new system (from 18 daily points to 29–WTF?) and because it was a lot in a bowl. Yeah, I estimate the entire thing at about 16 points, but it was really filling and it was also rather tasty.
If you like Pad Thai, this isn’t an exact replication, but it’s a damn fine one to make with the stuff you already have in your house and without a lot of bother. It’s easy to adjust for all types of diets–gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, etc. with a few modifications. I liked this a lot. Like I said, it wasn’t a restaurant-type dish, but it captured the essence of the dish quite well.
Main ingredients: garlic, ginger, scallions, sesame oil, soy sauce, fish sauce, chili pepper, chunky peanut butter, and eggs. Oh, and the noodle of your choosing.
Here’s the quickie recipe:
1. First you need to make an omelette. Heat up some oil in a wok until very hot, drop in a whisked egg and cook until golden brown on each side. Roll up the omelette and cut into slices.
2. Heat up a good glug of sesame oil in the hot wok and quickly stir fry the spring onions, ginger, garlic and chilli. Then add the fish sauce, soy sauce and the peanut butter. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the noodles and cook for a further 2 minutes. Serve in a bowl with lime juice, extra peanuts and the ribboned omelette.
Here’s how mine turned out:
Get the entire recipe for Vegetarian Pad Thai with pretty photos and all HERE.
Also, you should just hop on over there anyway because it is a practical, real-world collection of recipes. Mr. Frugal gone done things good. With no Jell-O. Or at least none that I’ve noticed.
Gonna have to make this…I have some cellophane noodles I need to use up! Thanks for the share…and your souffle looked cute!