Vegan Thai Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao)
A vegan take on a classic spicy and fragrant Thai street food noodle dish.
Ingredients
- 350 g Cheung fun rolls or 300g dried wide rice noodles
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 4 Thai bird’s eye red chillies minced - use less for a milder dish
- 125 g shiitake mushrooms sliced
- 1 red pepper sliced
- 150 g tofu puffs see notes for using extra firm tofu
- 4 tbsp mushroom sauce
- 3 tbsp light soy sauce
- 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 inch piece of palm sugar grated – or 2tbsp brown sugar
- 2 spring onions separate the whites and greens
- Handful of Thai basil
- 3 tbsp neutral oil e.g. sunflower, vegetable, rapeseed
Instructions
- First prepare your noodles. If using cheung fun rolls, cut into 1” thick pieces and steam on a greased tray for 5-7 minutes. Unravel each roll whilst warm to get long wide rice noodles. If using dried rice noodles, soak in boiling water until al dente
- Sauté the garlic and chilli in the oil for around 30s or until fragrant, ensuring they don’t burn
- Then finely slice the spring onion whites and add these in and continue to sauté for a further 30s. Leave the greens for garnishing
- Add in the mushrooms and red pepper and continue to cook for a further minute
- In a separate bowl mix together the mushroom sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and the grated palm sugar. Mix to combine
- Add the tofu to the pan along with half of the sauce mixture and mix to combine
- Next add in the noodles along with the remaining sauce. Toss to combine and continue to cook until the noodles are fully cooked
- Add the Thai basil and finely sliced spring onion greens. Best served immediately
Notes
Instead of tofu puffs, firm/extra firm tofu can also be used. I’d recommend pressing out as much water as possible by wrapping the tofu in a kitchen towel and placing a weight on top for 30-60 minutes. Then cut the tofu into cubes, toss in some oil and cornflour and bake/air fry until crisp.