#19 Kid Friendly Pad Thai (gluten free)
Life is hard, food doesn't have to be [vol1, 8.3]
The first time I ever heard of pad thai was when visiting Maureen in Oregon. I grew up on a farm in Kentucky eating meat and potatoes. She offered to make it for our dinner and I was game to try something new.
It was a fantastic meal! And from that day forward anytime I was in a bigger city I would order pad thai at the Thai restaurants.
Never have I ventured to make it until this week. I was so excited to see Kate at Venison for Dinner has a kid friendly recipe that is spot on and super easy for any level of home cook.
The recipe is well written. It requires a bit of prep by way of chopping (that you can do in advance) but comes together quickly once everything is chopped.
Additional Notes
Before this, I can’t remember ever using rice noodles. If you haven’t either - don’t be scared. Just follow package instructions. I removed mine from the water on the earlier side of the suggested time so they would be al dente. The traditional recipe is with wide noodles but I used spaghetti sized rice noodles and it was fine. If in a pinch you could use regular pasta noodles. Look in the asian section of your grocery store for rice noodles and fish sauce. Fish sauce sounds gross (and is gross by itself) but it is a salty umami addition to Asian meals.
A red bell pepper was beginning to shrivel in the fridge drawer so I sliced it and added. You could definitely add most any veggie to this dish. It might not be a “traditional pad thai” but hey, I’m all about adding more veg. I’ve found that if I chop them fine enough my little people are less likely to complain. Or at least they go through less effort to pick out the small stuff.
Kate writes the recipe and uses 1 pound of chicken breasts and predicts it’s enough for 10 people. I used 2 pounds of chicken (everything else the same). It was so good I probably ate 3 portions! Our family of 5 had enough, plus we gifted 2 servings and had a lunch portion the next day. It is a lot of food.
Kate also recommended adding half the green onion and half the cilantro. Then offering the remainder as garnish. I added ¾ of both -- knowing that my little people would not add more. Sneaky mom I am.
We have a peanut sensitivity in our home so we substituted cashews.
I used a wok to make the dish but certainly a bigger pot could be used as well.
I enjoy food on the spicier side and will add some pepper flakes to the sauce the next time I make it.
Kate made a fun YouTube video of this recipe and makes a double batch in a cast iron skillet. She makes her sauce in a blender; I stirred mine in a measuring cup.
I also love following Kate on Instagram. If you try her pad thai, let us both know!
Life Update
My kids went back to school yesterday and I was so enjoying my freedom this morning, I completely forgot to send this out!
Would you want to talk school lunches next week? Lemme know.
Julie