Shrimp Pad Thai

I came home from yoga last night wanting noodles. Badly. It was a power yoga class and she worked us hard … I could tell because my legs were sore already. So it was clearly time to make the Pad Thai I’ve been wanting to make. A while ago I had found these beautiful brown rice noodles with a Pad Thai recipe on the back. I THOUGHT I had also picked up some bean sprouts, but discovered rather quickly that I hadn’t. I had already shredded a bunch of carrots and chopped up the greens, though, so I thought to just add in some onion.

I do not claim this to be truly authentic Pad Thai (the Pad Thai police would surely come and get me!), but oh it was delicious. This Pad Thai soothed my craving for noodles and Thai food all in one fell swoop.

Shrimp Pad Thai

This recipe serves 2 – 3 people. If you have bean sprouts, just cut down the amount of other veggies to add in some sprouts. Pad Thai does usually have bean sprouts in it … I was just out of them!

For the sauce:

• 2 Tablespoons lime juice
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 1/2 – 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon Hoison sauce
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon Sriracha

• 4 oz. brown rice noodles (1/2 the package)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 Tablespoon canola oil
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
• 1 cup thinly sliced onion
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup chopped fresh spinach leaves
• 1 cup medium shrimp
• a splash of white wine

For the top:

• Fresh cilantro leaves
• Chopped peanuts
• Chopped green onions

Directions:

1. Mix up the sauce ingredients in a bowl, adjusting the amount of sugar and Sriracha to your liking. The spicy heat will get soaked up by the noodles, so I would recommend making it a tad hotter than you think it should be. Set the sauce aside.
2. Put some water on to boil for cooking up the noodles.
3. While the water is cooking for the noodles, whisk the egg in a bowl and add a teaspoon of water. Scramble it in a frying pan or wok sprayed with cooking spray very briefly … take it out of the pan while it’s still wet. It will finish cooking when you add it back into the hot noodles. Speaking of noodles: are they done? Drain and set them aside.
4. Clean out the egg from the frying pan (unless you are a neat scrambler … I always have some egg residue when I scramble), heat the  pan to medium heat, and add the oil. Add the garlic, onion, carrots and spinach and sautee for a minute or two, then add the shrimp and sautee until the onion is limp and the shrimp turns pink. If the pan gets a little dry, add a splash of white wine and cook till the wine evaporates. Add the noodles and the sauce and stir to mix everything up. The noodles might not want to mix in too well, but that’s okay. You can put the “extras” on top of the noodles when you serve it.
5. Serve hot, garnished with fresh cilantro, chopped peanuts, and chopped green onion.

Enjoy!

This recipe was shared at Cast Party Wednesday, It’s a Keeper Thursday, Full Plate Thursday, Tastetastic Thursday, and Fit & Fabulous Fridays.