Pad Thai is an awesome dish. In making it vegan of course, you omit the egg. But my trick for taking vegan Pad Thai to the next level is using a vegan egg substitute. Makes sense right? I’ve never seen it done in a recipe before, so I’ll show you how to take that shit to 11. Get one block of tofu, use half for your protein and the second half gets scrambled and mixed with the noodles.

As always, if you dig the recipe, tag me at @draggedthroughthegarden on instagram so I can personally tell you I am very proud of you.

Eggless Pad Thai. Double Tofu Pad Thai just sounds like paying an extra $2.50 at Noodles & Company.

EGGLESS
PAD THAI

prep time: 30 minutes
cook time: 35 minutes

I promise you won’t die from eating soy.

First, we’re going to take your block of tofu and use half of it for an egg substitute. You can use Just Egg for this part if you really want to, but now your another eight dollars in the hole. Don’t cut the tofu up yet, keep reading.

What you'‘ll need:

tofu
olive oil
salt
pepper
nutritional yeast
kala namak
vegan butter
garlic powder

Press your block of tofu and drain it of all liquid. Afterwards, cut your block of tofu right down the middle. You’re essentially going to be making a scramble with the first half of the tofu. Oil a pan and crumble your tofu in there. Add salt, pepper, a little bit of garlic powder and half a tablespoon of kala namak. Kala Namak is also called “black salt” and will add a sulfuric element to your tofu egg. Add two tablespoons of vegan butter right into the pan. You want the scramble to be on the creamier side.

The vegan butter will keep the tofu on the softer side.

Now optional, you can add a little bit of vegan cheese or turmeric to the tofu egg if you want. Don’t worry, your tofu won’t taste cheesy once it’s mixed in, it’s more to achieve texture than anything.

Once your tofu egg is cooked, set it aside on a plate. Turn off your flame and let the pan cool for a second. Once it’s safe, give it a wipe and a quick rinse if necessary. The less dishes we use, the better.

Now to prepare the second half of the tofu, cut it down into cubes. Or any shape you want. Cubes are easy but if you can carve out little hearts, that would be badass

Now oil your pan again and we’re gonna cook these thangs.

What you’ll need:

tofu cubes
garlic
salt
pepper
red pepper flakes
coconut aminos (or soy sauce)

Cut up some garlic and mince it down as finely as you can. You don’t absolutely need to, but everything is better with garlic. Add the cubes and let them cook out. You want them to be firm and somewhat crispy. Once they are added to the noodles, you want them to keep their texture and not get all mushy.

Add your seasonings and add a generous amount of coconut aminos. Lots of coconut aminos will be used so apologies in advance if you drain your entire bottle.

Keep cooking for a little bit after they look like this, you do kinda want to burn them.

Once your tofu cubes are cooked, set those aside too. You can put them on the same plate as the other tofu if you want. Next, you will add vegetables to your dish. I used broccoli and I forgot to buy red cabbage.

What you’ll need:

broccoli
red cabbage (optional I guess)

Using the same pan, toss your broccoli in there and cook it for a little bit until it starts to brown a little bit. You can add any of the previous seasonings if you want. Once the broccoli looks desirable, add red cabbage (if you remembered to buy it) and toss it a little bit then remove them both and set aside.

Now you’re going to get your rice noodles ready. This part doesn’t take that much time because you want the noodles to remain somewhat firm and not get all coagulated.

Follow the directions on your noodles. They only took about 6-7 minutes for mine to cook out. First, we will start with the noodles and then work our way into the garnishes.

What you’ll need:

rice noodles
olive oil (or sesame oil/peanut oil)
coconut aminos
garlic
teriyaki sauce (or a homemade sauce, which I will list below)
sriracha paste
peanut butter
limes

Here is a picture of the noodles cooking. Not much to see here.

Boil some water in a pot. Add salt to the water and cook the noodles as stated previously. Once they are cooked but still firm, set them aside. Eventually everything will come together in the pan that we started with.

Now in that same pan I keep talking about, add a little olive oil (or sesame oil/peanut oil) and add lots of coconut aminos. You probably went through most of the bottle by now. Add about a little less than a cup of teriyaki sauce right into the pan on a low flame.

If you want to make the sauce yourself — vinegar, coconut aminos, brown sugar, sriracha, peanut butter, garlic, ginger, lime. If you can’t summon your sauce directly from hell, store-bought is fine.

Once your sauce is simmering some, stir frequently and add peanut butter. About a tablespoon and a half. Mixing the peanut butter kinda sucks so just keep stirring. You can add a little oil to help break the peanut butter down. Add half a tablespoon of sriracha paste and a squeeze of lime juice into the mix. Keep stirring! Regular sriracha is fine if you don’t have the pasty stuff. Once your sauce is nice and smooth, toss your noodles right into the pan. Have your flame as low as possible.

Coat your noodles with the sauce to the best of your ability. After your noodles are evenly mixed in, toss in your tofu egg from earlier. The tofu may be somewhat dry but the sauce in the pan will help rehydrate it. After your tofu egg is mixed in, add your broccoli and whatever other vegetables you want to add.

Now you can add the tofu cubes directly into the mix or toss them on top. I did the latter so you could see them in the picture. Whether you did or not, leave your noodles in the pan and you can get your garnishes ready. Toppings. Whatever.

What you’ll need:

crushed peanuts
bean sprouts
lime
cilantro
sriracha
tofu cubes (if you didn’t mix them in)

Rinse and dice up your cilantro. Prepare your bean sprouts. I wanted fresh ones but couldn’t find any. I bought canned ones in the same aisle the rice noodles and teriyaki were in. So like anything else that comes in a can, drain and rinse them and set aside for now. Cut up some limes. Get your crushed peanuts out from wherever you keep your crushed peanuts in the house. If you don’t have crushed peanuts, put regular peanuts in a bag and crush them yourself. No need to get your food processor dirty.

Now that your toppings are ready, plate (bowl) your noodles. Add your tofu cubes if you haven’t already, toss some cilantro, crushed peanuts, bean sprouts and sriracha right on top.

Make sure you wipe the sides of the bowl with a paper towel if you want those instagram likes.