Best Pad Thai Recipe with Peanut Sauce (2024)

FAQs

Does traditional Pad Thai have peanut sauce? ›

Traditional Pad Thai usually combines tamarind paste, fish sauce, dried shrimp, and palm sugar, creating a sweet, sour, and salty taste balance. It commonly includes tofu, dried shrimp, bean sprouts, and peanuts. However, Americanized versions might swap tamarind for ketchup, making it sweeter and less complex.

I love adding peanut butter to make the sauce a little bit creamy, plus peanuts pair really well with pad thai. But you can also use almond butter or sunflower seed butter. You could leave out the nut/seed butter completely, but I find it more satiating and satisfying with it.

Pad Thai Adaptations

But the backbone of the dish remains the same – rice noodle, eggs, tofu and dried shrimps. As for the all-important sauce, it consists of a balanced nuance of three tastes: saltiness from either fish sauce or soy sauce, sweetness from palm sugar, and sourness from tamarind juice.

Mix together peanut butter, coconut milk, water, lime juice, soy sauce, fish sauce, hot sauce, ginger, and garlic in a medium serving bowl until well combined. Stir in cilantro just before serving.

You've probably had pad thai in your local restaurant, but what you had may not be anything like the authentic version. First, it should not have ketchup or any tomato product in it. Second, it should not be syrupy sweet. And finally, it shouldn't be just a heavy, soggy clump of noodles with bits of green onions.

Very similar to pad thai, right? The only two differences here are the noodles and using cashews instead of peanuts. Left to right, top to bottom: Garlic chives, beansprouts, mee krob noodles, pressed tofu, lime, shrimp, roasted cashews, egg.

It contains all the essential amino acids, is an excellent source of manganese and calcium, and is a good source of selenium and phosphorus. It's also suitable for vegans and vegetarians. For additional fiber, vitamins, and minerals, enjoy pad thai with pad pak (stir-fried vegetables).

In Thailand, Peanut Sauce is most often used a as a dip to accompany skewers of barbequed meat (satay), although it is sometimes served as a side dish in its own right as part of a larger meal.

The crisp vegetables, savory noodles, and tangy sauce come together for its distinct taste. The eggs add a dash of protein. You'll get a helping of many foods, all in one dish. If you're looking for a delicious new meal to make for dinner soon, you'll love our spicy pad thai recipe.

Rice vinegar: Mix rice vinegar or white wine with an equal amount of brown sugar to replace tamarind paste in recipes. The rice vinegar or wine adds acidity and some sweetness, while the brown sugar enhances that sweetness. Use this as a one-to-one substitute for tamarind paste in recipes.

What are the 5 flavors of Pad Thai? ›

So, collect all the ingredients, but most importantly, remember the sweet brown sugar, the sour and tangy tamarind, the salty Thai fish sauce and the crunchy roasted peanuts. To really achieve the full and classic taste, add Thai basil and fresh lime to really engage all the senses.

When it's sold in restaurants outside Thailand, the noodles are sometimes bright orange – that's because sauces or spices, like paprika, have been used instead of tamarind. Authentic Pad Thai is a light reddish-brown colour.

Typically Pad Thai sauce is made with fish sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar, Sriracha (or another hot sauce) and peanut butter. But because I needed a peanut-free Pad Thai, I changed up my sauce, beginning with the nut butter.

If the sauce is too thick, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it reaches your desired consistency. Use as a dipping sauce for spring rolls or on peanut noodles.

Thai Peanut Sauce can be refrigerated for 2-3 weeks, or put in the freezer for 3-4 months. It usually thickens over time, so I recommend warming it on the stove, and adding a few tablespoons of water to help thin it out some.

Pad Thai is made with rice noodles, which are stir fried with eggs and chopped firm tofu, flavored with tamarind juice, fish sauce, dried shrimp, garlic, shallots, and sometimes red chili pepper and palm sugar, and served with lime wedges and often crushed roasted peanuts.

Pad Thai contains crushed peanuts on top as a garnish. Since it is a popular dish and there is the issue of allergies some restaurants will not add the peanuts, rather they will be in a condiment dish on the table. Massaman Curry contains peanuts in the curry sauce, sorry, you just don't get to try it.

Also just called peanut sauce or satay sauce, this dipping sauce is a flavorful part of Southeast Asian cuisine, especially Indonesian cuisine, where it's called bumbu kacang or sambal kacang. (These translate literally to “nu*t bumbu spice” or “nu*t sambal.”)

Panang Curry tastes like a more intense version of Thai Red Curry. While it has similar ingredients, Panang curry is a bit stronger, richer, sweeter and thicker than Red Curry, as well as slightly nutty thanks to the addition of ground peanuts in the paste. The curry paste is a quick 30 second stick blender blitz!