What You Need To Make Our Gluten
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The detailed recipe for our gluten-free chicken pad thai is below and printable. It uses a variety of ingredients. Be sure that each ingredient is gluten-free if the meal is for someone following a gluten-free diet.
You will need to prepare both the pad thai sauce and the stir fry.
Is Pad Thai Vegan
No, traditional pad thai is NOT vegan. Not only does it contain eggs, but this Thai noodles dish typically contains meat like chicken and shellfish like shrimp which I mentioned above. Not to mention the fish sauce too! Not exactly a great vegetarian option, but these ingredients can be swapped out and replaced by a bigger dose of vegetables instead! While “authentic”, these ingredients are not essential when you’re making some delicious homemade pad thai!
Pad Thai Sauce Ingredients
- Brown sugar: brown sugar lends sweetness to the sauce and balances the savory, tart, and spicy flavors.
- Rice vinegar: rice vinegar provides the sour element to the sauce. Its definitely not a mouth-puckering sourness, but again it balances out the other ingredients.
- Tamari: gluten free Tamari adds saltiness and savoriness to the sauce.
- Fish sauce: Pad Thai will not taste like Pad Thai unless it contains fish sauce. Its a defining ingredient. That said, Im personally a little light handed with fish sauce as too much can overpower the dish, imo.
- Siracha hot sauce: siracha hot sauce brings the heat! ? Add as much or as little as you like, or none at all. If you like spicy Chicken Pad Thai Id start with 1 Tablespoon in this recipe.
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Variations And Add Ins:
- If you are allergic to peanuts you can use another nut or seed butter such as sunflower seed butter or cashew butter.
- Feel free to add more chicken if you like more protein in your pad Thai.
- If you dont like chicken pad thai, choose another protein that you like including pork, beef or even tofu! You will just have to adjust the cooking time accordingly.
- You can easily add more vegetables or use different vegetables for this recipe.
- If you like hot and spicy pad Thai, add more chili flakes to the peanut sauce.
- Topping ideas: chopped fresh cilantro, peanuts, sesame seeds or fresh lime juice.
- If you dont want meat in your pad Thai, simply omit the chicken and substitute for more vegetables.
- Instead of coconut aminos you could use gluten free soy sauce or tamari.
How To Make The Best Vegan Pad Thai
I told you this was a quick and easy recipe, and I’m not letting you down! A few easy steps and it won’t take you more than 10 minutes!
Super easy and you can’t mess it up! It’s so much healthier than what you’ll get ordering out and top allergen-free so you don’t need to worry about any hidden allergen lurkers! Plus, you can customize the veggies to fit whatever you have in your fridge! When it comes to stir-frys, using up all the odds and ends of veggies you may have forgotten about in your produce drawer is a “no food waste” lifesaver! You can also swap white rice pad thai noodles with brown rice noodles if you prefer!
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Pad Thai For Lunch Or Dinner
A fresh hot plate of easy vegan pad thai that only takes 10 minutes is perfect for a busy weeknight meal. But, when it comes to Asian cuisine, they tend to gain their flavorful magic as day old leftovers! Whether you intentionally make this pad thai ahead of time as a meal prep dish or you use the leftovers for your lunch the next day at work, you’re going to be making your coworkers jealous!
Key Ingredients And Substitutions:
- Rice noodles: traditional pad Thai recipes use thin, flat rice noodles. Perfect for soaking up the delicious peanut sauce.
- Coconut oil: I went with coconut oil because its generally healthier than other oils used to make pad Thai and it adds an additional hint of flavour to the dish. You could replace this with any other cooking oil that you like.
- Chicken breasts: to add some protein to the pad Thai. I personally love chicken pad thai but you could easily choose another protein if you wish.
- Veggies: I went with carrots, bell pepper and green onion but you can use whatever veggies you prefer.
- For the sauce you will need: peanut butter, coconut aminos, honey or maple syrup, fish sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, ground ginger and chili flakes. Instead of coconut aminos you can use gluten free soy sauce or tamari.
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Which Rice Noodles Do You Use
I get asked this a lot and my current favourite are Red Drago Rice Sticks, which I buy on Amazon. If you follow my cooking instructions in the recipe youll find they wont fall apart during stir-frying, as other brands can.
Otherwise, any dried rice noodle brand should work well for these noodles. Simply remember to only cook them al dente before you add them to your wok, otherwise youll end up with a stodgy mess!
Ingredients In Gluten Free Pad Thai
Gluten Free Pad Thai is made from soaked dried rice noodles flavored with fish sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sometimes sugar or sriracha for extra flavor.
We added some bean sprouts, bell pepper, garlic, and carrots to this recipe, but you can leave them out if you like.
While this gluten free pad thai recipe is made with traditional ingredients, we’ve added a few optional ingredients for more flavor.
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Why Gluten Free Pad Thai
There are a number of reasons to make pad thai gluten free, and it’s not just because of a gluten sensitivity. Most soy sauce varieties contain gluten as they are typically made from soybeans, wheat, salt and water. A lot of recipes will substitute tamari, but traditional versions still contain wheat. Both are also very high in sodium and glutamate.
Fish sauce, another common addition, can also sometimes contain gluten. This is made from fermented anchovies, and is also very high in sodium. For people following a migraine diet, this can be a challenge because of the tyramine content. This is the best Pad Thai without fish sauce you’ll find!
My challenge was to make a recipe just as flavorful, but without a lot of these factors. This way readers could enjoy a classic takeout dinner without having to worry about extremely high sodium, gluten, peanuts, and fermented ingredients.
Did You Make This Recipe
Tag on Instagram and hashtag it #strengthandsunshine
These noodles are SLURP-worthy! This vegan pad thai is amazing piping hot or cold! You can’t go wrong any way you decide to serve it up! Your family and your friends are going to be pleasantly surprised by this allergy-free fakeout takeout!
So tell me:
+ What is your favorite Thai recipe? Although this is not an authentic Thai recipe, this Raw Spiralized Thai Salad is always a popular one on Strength and Sunshine!
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What Is A Pad Thai
Pad Thai is a Thai noodle dish made of rice noodles, protein, and stir-fry vegetables all tossed in an amazing sweet and sour Pad Thai sauce! It is one of my favorite Asian-inspired dish ever and probably the one I order the most when I go for Thai food. I love everything about this dish: the sweet and tangy flavors, the stir-fried veggies , the crushed peanuts, and the rice noodles of course. Oh, and also I love the rainbow color effect: isnt it a pretty dish?
How To Make This Pad Thai
Cook the noodles according to packaging instructions – they usually require around 5 minutes of soaking in warm water. However, ensure that they are al dente.
Meanwhile, add the ginger, garlic, carrot ribbons and bell pepper to a non-stick frying pan and sauté for around 4-5 minutes, until fragrant and softened.
Prepare the sauce by stirring together the tamari, rice vinegar, maple syrup, lime juice and water. Add around ½ of the sauce to the frying pan and stir for around 1-2 minutes, giving it a chance to warm up and bubble.
Add the noodles to the frying pan together with the rest of the sauce. Stir until well-combined and the noodles are evenly coated.
Transfer to serving bowls and serve immediately with the red chilli, peanuts, coriander, black pepper and green peas.
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How To Make Gluten
- Make Sauce: Combine all of the ingredients for the sauce and set aside.
- Prepare Noodles: To prepare the noodles, fill a medium pot two-thirds of the way with water. Bring to a boil . Add the noodles and cook as directed. Strain and add a bit of oil to prevent sticking. Set aside.
- Cook Vegetables & Shrimp: Using a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat and saute the onion, garlic and ginger for 4-5 minutes or until the onion is lightly translucent. Add the carrots and bok choy and saute for another 3-4 minutes or until the bok choy is wilted and the carrots are soft. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set the vegetables aside. Using the same pan, add more oil if needed and add the shrimp to the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, seasoning with salt and pepper until the shrimp are pink and cooked through.
- Combine & Serve: Reduce the heat to low and add the vegetables, cooked noodles and sauce to the pan with the shrimp. Stir for 1-2 minutes to fully coat the Pad Thai with the sauce. Remove from heat. Add the beans sprouts, green onion, cilantro, and serve!
Prepare The Rice Noodles
First, prepare rice noodles according to package directions. For this brand I dropped the noodles into a pot of boiling water Id just taken off the heat then let them sit, stirring occasionally, until al dente, 10-12 minutes.
Tip: If cooking two things simultaneously stresses you out, feel free to soak the rice noodles first then drain and run under cold water until cool. Place the colander inside a bowl of cool water so the noodles are submerged until ready to use.
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Make Your Own Pad Thai
The safest option is to make your own pad thai from the comfort of your home! All you need to do is:
Gluten Free Pad Thai Recipe
This gluten free pad thai recipe is better than any takeout gluten free pad thai. This recipe uses a handful of ingredients and it’s simple to make.
You can use my favorite gluten free pad thai noodles, or yours.
Pad thai is typically made with wide, flat rice noodles. We personally like to use the wide flat noodles or the angle hair rice noodles in pad thai.
There’s something about the texture of angel hair rice noodles that really adds to the pad thai.
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Special Diet Notes: Chicken Pad Thai
For soy-free chicken pad thai, substitute coconut aminos for the soy sauce. Salt, to taste, if needed. The aminos are usually a little sweeter and quite a bit lower in salt than soy sauce or tamari.
For peanut-free chicken pad thai, substitute sunflower seed butter for the peanut butter and omit the peanuts. If you dont have one handy, whisk 2 teaspoons cold water, 1 teaspoon flavorful, preferably Asian-inspired oil , and 1/2 teaspoon non-GMO cornstarch or arrowroot starch into the sauce until smooth. Bubble the sauce for a minute in a separate saucepan to slightly thicken before adding it to the rest of your ingredients.
Why Youll Love This Recipe:
- This healthy pad Thai recipe is has the most incredible flavour.
- Its comes together quickly and easily.
- Not only is this pad Thai recipe delicious, but its healthy and gluten free.
- This pad Thai is perfect for meal prep. Store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- The peanut sauce can be used for a variety of other dishes as well. Perfect for dipping spring rolls or egg rolls.
- You can use any vegetables youd like. I used carrots, bell pepper and green onion but you could also use broccoli, baby corn, snap peas, mushrooms, etc.
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Reheating This Pad Thai
This gluten free pad thai can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week.
Reheat in a skillet over low-medium heat to allow it to heat slowly and thoroughly. If it seems a little sticky or your sauce seems thick, add a bit of water or chicken broth to the pan to thin out the sauce.
Don’t overheat – the sauce will thicken and everything will get too sticky.
Freezing This Pad Thai
You can freeze this pad thai in an airtight container for a few months.
Keep in mind a couple of things – your veggies will not be crisp tender if you mix them in and cook them before freezing.
Your sauce may also get a little thick and sticky . If that happens, add some water.
I definitely had to add more water to the pan when reheating the frozen batch vs. the refrigerated batch.
A fresher option to simplify the recipe would be to make the sauce, cook the chicken, and cook the noodles, and freeze all 3 separately.
Then, when you’re ready to make this dish, defrost them and get your fresh veggies and toppings ready. Heat the chicken in a pan, then follow the recipe as written.
It’ll take you less time because your most time consuming parts are already done, but it will still taste fresh with crisp-tender vegetables.
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