Vegetable Pad Thai
The problem I have is that I know why I should probably be a vegetarian. I work with animals every day and see their cute little faces and know the way the majority of animals are reared in a disgusting and horrible conditions. I know the devastating effect meat production is having on our environment, I know that it takes 10 kilos of grain to raise 1 kilo of beef. But I also know how delicious a tender wobbling slice of pork belly is, I know how great it is when you bite into crisp shell of fried chicken. I know how good that bloody fennel pork sausage is going to be on top on my pizza. I know too god damn much.
A friend of mine rocked up to my house a few weeks ago and declared he had gone vegan for lent (pretty annoying, as we were making pork and chive dumplings for Chinese New Year but no matter). I gave him a loan of my much loved Plenty More, Yotam Ottolenghi’s book on all that is vegetables, and began to think about idea of going vegetarian.
To be honest, a lot of my diet is vegetarian because a) vegetables are great and b) I’m too stingy to buy meat, but I thought, could I give meat up all together? I decided to set myself the challenge: a meatless March. There has been some, quite a few, a whole lot of slip ups (the aforementioned pork and fennel sausage on my Franco Manca pizza and a drunken encounter with some tasty, tasty chicken wings) but all in all it has been good. I don’t think I will ever have the self restraint to be a vegetarian but it has definitely made me think twice about instantly grabbing the bacon.
On that note, here is a recipe for my vegetable pad thai! Add some firm tofu if you want to bulk it out but I promise you won’t miss the meat.
Vegetable Pad Thai
Serves 2-4
Ingredients
- 250g flat rice noodles
- 1 big bag of stir fry veg mix (I use Sainsbury’s Basic which is a quid for SO MUCH VEG and it saves on all that chopping) or whatever crunchy veggies you have kicking about, carrot, cabbage, onion, bean sprouts, peppers, kale etc chopped up very fine
- 4 tablespoons sunflower or ground nut oil
- 2 red chillies finely chopped (or 2 pinches of chilli flakes)
- 5 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 4 tablespoons light soy
- 1 tablespoon shaoxing wine
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1 small tin coconut milk
- 1 large egg
- small bunch of coriander finely chopped (garnish)
- 4 spring onions finely chopped
- big handful of toasted peanuts roughly chopped (garnish)
Put your noodles in a large mixing bowl and cover with boiling water. Cover with cling film and soak for 10 mins until noodles are nice and springy. Drain and set aside
Put a wok on medium heat and add in your oil
Add in your garlic and chilli, fry until fragrant (1 min). Before the garlic browns add in your vegetables and stir fry for 2-3 mins
Toss in your noodles and add in the lime juice, soy, wine, oyster sauce and toss in
Add the coconut milk and toss in
Make a well in the noodles and mix in your egg. Toss until all the noodles are covered the egg (you want it to kind of look like silky sauce, like a carbonara)
Take off the heat, serve in bowls and top with coriander, spring onions , peanuts, and a wedge of lime!
The Garden Glutton 