Best Pad Thai Recipe with Peanut Sauce (2024)

FAQs

Does authentic pad thai have peanuts? ›

Pad Thai is a Thai noodle stir fry with a sweet-savoury-sour sauce scattered with crushed peanuts. It's made with thin, flat rice noodles, and almost always has bean sprouts, garlic chives, scrambled egg, firm tofu and a protein – the most popular being chicken or prawns/shrimp.

Traditional pad thai sauce includes fish sauce, vinegar, sugar and tamarind paste. Tamarind paste is not easily found at a regular grocery stores so I substituted rice vinegar. If you would like to use tamarind paste, substitute about 2 Tablespoons in place of the rice vinegar in this recipe.

Mix together peanut butter, coconut milk, water, lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce, hot sauce, ginger, and garlic in a medium serving bowl until well combined. Stir in cilantro just before serving.

The dish is mixed with a tamarind sauce and served with lime. The flavors of this dish are centered around a sweet-savory fusion. Salty, nutty, and with that slightly sweet sauce, it's a treat for tastebuds! Of course, every Pad Thai can be different.

You've probably had pad thai in your local restaurant, but what you had may not be anything like the authentic version. First, it should not have ketchup or any tomato product in it. Second, it should not be syrupy sweet. And finally, it shouldn't be just a heavy, soggy clump of noodles with bits of green onions.

A typical pad thai in Thailand contained only noodles, egg, garlic, bean sprouts, ground peanuts, chives, and a protein – the typical mix ins found in American pad thais such as baby corn, carrots, green beans, squash, and zucchini were nowhere to be found.

When it's sold in restaurants outside Thailand, the noodles are sometimes bright orange – that's because sauces or spices, like paprika, have been used instead of tamarind. Authentic Pad Thai is a light reddish-brown colour.

The color of the country style Pad Thai was more vibrant, the taste sourer and a little bit spicier than the regular one.

A More Authentic Pad Thai

Pad Thais can be both sour and sweet, depending on the region they're made in and who is making the dish! Generally, in Thailand, pad thai will include ingredients like dried shrimp and fish sauce which lends tangy umami to the overall dish.

Thai peanut sauce is both a cooking ingredient and a dip. You can spice up any salad, stir fry or noodle bowl with this eclectic sauce. If you're looking for cooking inspiration, Thai peanut sauce is a nutty and sweet pairing for many common vegetables.

How to use peanut sauce? ›

As a dip – Scoop it up with carrots or peppers! On a grain bowl – Try it on this sushi bowl, this gingery rice bowl, or any of these rice bowl recipes. On a simply cooked protein – I love it on this crispy sesame tofu. Or on peanut noodles – Load them up with fresh veggies and herbs!

Simply keep it in a cool, dark place. Generally, an unopened bottle of peanut sauce will last about a year if it's stored correctly. While it's a good idea to keep the “use by” date in mind, it's usually just fine for a few months after that date. Once the bottle is opened, you'll need to keep it in the refrigerator.

The name of this establishment refers to the five flavors (ha/ห้า=five, roat/รส=flavors) which are present in a good pad Thai: salty, sweet, sour, spicy, and savory.

And here are the ingredients that you will need to make the delicious pad Thai sauce: Tamarind concentrate: This is the starring ingredient in pad Thai that gives the sauce its signature tangy, sweet, and fruity flavor.

Pad Thai can sometimes go mushy, so the key is to soak the noodles until bendy but not soft. The wok will do the rest of the cooking for you.

It is often easy to have dishes modified for your allergies. For example, Pad Thai is a dish that almost ALWAYS contains peanuts, but I order it wherever I go because it a legendary Thai dish and can almost ALWAYS be modified to not include peanuts, as the peanuts are usually served on the side or sprinkled on top.

In its traditional form, this is one of the world's most allergenic foods since it contains wheat/gluten, soy, fish, shellfish, eggs and peanuts.

While pad Thai in Thailand might differ in ingredients – some might have eggs, some might have dried shrimp, some might have peanuts, some might have tofu – the thing that stays consistent is the sauce.

Let me try again: food in Thailand does not use peanut as often as you think. In fact, the only dishes we really ended up avoiding were some specific curries and satay!