This version of Pad Thai is a delicious warm noodley stir fry salad. Perfect on a summer evening. You can add cooked prawns or chicken to this recipe, if you want to, it’s totally versatile, but stands alone as an outstanding vegan recipe. I love that it’s a tangy mixture of flavours and it’s a variety of textures. It was a great hit at dinner with my vegetarian boy pals (it can be made with white noodles too).

Serves 2.

Ingredients:
300g of flat brown rice noodles or brown rice tagliatelle or fettuccini
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 minced cloves of garlic
200g of smoked tofu or plain firm tofu cut in to smallish pieces
4 tablespoons of soya sauce (gluten free if appropriate )
2 tablespoons peanut butter
Juice of one lime and another cut into wedges
3 tablespoons of maple syrup
Chilli sauce to taste
3 finely chopped salad onions
½ red chilli very finely sliced
Handful of chopped peanuts to garnish
A sprig of chopped coriander

How:
Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet, rinse in cold water to cool, and then drain (this stops them sticking together). Put aside.
In a large frying pan, heat the oil over a medium heat and add the garlic and tofu pieces. Stir fry gently with one tablespoon of the soya sauce for about five minutes.
In a bowl whisk the peanut butter, lime juice, maple syrup, chilli sauce and the rest of the soya sauce.
Add this to the pan with the noodles and heat through. Sprinkle with the coriander, the chilli, the chopped salad onions, and peanuts and serve with the lime wedges.

Lastly……I prefer to use brown rice noodles instead of white as they stay firm, and are more like wheat noodles in texture. They even stay firmish after the pad Thai has been in the fridge overnight. White noodles tend to go a bit too soft. You can also add crunchy raw vegetables like bean sprouts, peppers, snow peas, grated carrot, finely sliced red cabbage or whatever you fancy.

I shop at
Waitrose
Sainsbury’s
Tesco
Lidl