Vegetable Pad Thai Recipe w/ Cabbage EASY HEALTHY | White On Rice (2024)

FAQs

How healthy is Pad Thai? ›

While pad thai includes many nutritious ingredients, its sodium content is considerably high. You can reduce its sodium by requesting the eatery go easy on the sauce and salt-contributing condiments. If you make your own, though, you can manage the amount of ingredients and seasonings used.

Pad Thai Sauce is made with fish sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar and tamarind. Tamarind is the ingredient that is the heart and soul of Pad Thai sauce, giving the sauce the sour flavour that Pad Thai is known for. It's an ingredient used in South East Asian cooking, like this Malaysian Beef Rendang.

A restaurant serving of vegetable Pad Thai can have 800 calories, 32 g protein, 19 g of fat and 2,505 mg of sodium per serving, according to the Rochester Institute of Technology.

TAMARIND SUBSTITUTION

Although ketchup is a common replacement for tamarind paste, we prefer this tasty mixture: 1/4 cup (50 mL) tomato paste, 2 tbsp (30 mL) rice vinegar or freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice, 2 tbsp (30 mL) Worcestershire, 2 garlic cloves, minced, 1 tbsp (15 mL) brown sugar and 1 tbsp (15 mL) water.

Most traditional Thai dishes do not use dairy products like butter, cheese, or cream, so it is also a friendly diet for those who want to lose or maintain a healthy weight.

Worst: Red or Green Curry

Thai curries are usually made with a hefty dose of coconut milk, and that won't do your diet any favors. One cup of the creamy milk packs in 400 calories. It also has 36 grams of saturated fat -- more than three times the recommended daily amount.

If it's only made of those ingredients, what then makes it so unique? A Pad Thai has tamarind, fish sauce, garlic, dried shrimp, palm sugar, and red chili pepper. These simple ingredients make Pad Thai a bowl of five tastes—salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami.

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.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons cold water until smooth to make a slurry (see note). Whisk the slurry into the tamarind sauce and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, whisking continuously, for 2 minutes. As the cornstarch cooks, it will thicken up the sauce.

What is the lowest calorie Thai food? ›

Pad Thai and other noodle dishes are high on carbs and a lot of sugar is usually added too, not to mention oil.

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.

Although both dishes are stir fried noodles, they are different in the aspect of taste. Pad thai is made from stir fried rice noodles while Chow Mein is made from stir fried noodles. Pad Thai is a common street food cuisine of Thailand, for which there is only one version available.

Traditional Thai cuisine is quite healthy and largely based on vegetables, lean proteins, and fresh herbs and spices. Certain Thai dishes are high in refined carbs and may contain deep-fried foods, added sugar, or high amounts of salt.

Pasta and rice noodles are just about tied when it comes to calories, fat and fiber, as well as on the carb front (if you're on a low-carb diet like keto, stick to zoodles). Regular pasta has about 2 grams of sugar per serving while rice noodles are virtually sugar-free. Both are also free of cholesterol.