This easy pad Thai recipe comes together in no time, and is a dish you'll love for both it's delicious flavors and incredible ease!

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Pad Thai is a dish with humble origins, being a popular street food. These days you'll find it around the globe as people dig in to the comforting, tasty noodles.

This easy pad Thai recipe makes use of a couple of shortcuts making an already easy dish super quick. It's fresher, healthier, probably quicker and I'd argue better than take out.

I'm sure to many Thai, the fact that pad Thai is a staple in even smart restaurants is a little funny with it's street food origins. I can understand why it's so popular to pick up on the street as it's so quick to cook to order, keeping all the flavors fresh.

Despite the quick cook, though, there is usually a little bit of preparation in chopping up vegetables and soaking the noodles. This version uses a couple shortcuts to skip over those bits, but without losing any of the delicious flavors.

The first 'cheat' is the vegetables, and I'll admit my choice is not totally authentic but it is so much easier and quicker. I've made use of Mann's Broccoli Cole Slaw which is a great mix of broccoli, carrot and red cabbage, all chopped up ready to use.

While a traditional pad Thai would use bean sprouts and other ingredients that are less easy to find like banana flower or Chinese chive, this gives you lots of tasty vegetable goodness that keeps a nice texture, with no prep work.

Not only do Mann's grow some great veggies, they also have lots of really handy prepared options, like the slaw I have used here. You may remember I made use of one of Mann's nourish bowls when I shared my Southwest steak bowl where they also added some tasty sauce to mix through. It's the sort of shortcut that you don't really have to feel guilty about as there are no weird ingredients - in fact the slaw is just vegetables.

The next shortcut is I have used some noodles that go straight in the pan rather than having to be pre-cooked. If you can't find these, even regular rice noodles don't take long to soak before cooking, but it does cut down on one more step.

How to make this easy Pad Thai

With the bit of help, all that's left to do is a quick cook of the shrimp, warm through the noodles along with some garlic then push them to one side. Cook the egg, mix it through the noodles along with the broccoli coleslaw and the sauce then let it all soften a minute.

You might want to taste as you add the sauce ingredients as different brands can vary - you want a nice balance of sweet, sour, salty and umami going on between the tamarind, fish sauce, sugar and lime. Then add back the shrimp and serve it up.

When I say this is an easy pad Thai recipe, I'm really not kidding, it takes mere minutes to make, but is full of delicious flavors, and lots of healthy vegetables. Quicker, and better, than take out.

Try these other quick meals:

Steak foil packets
Spinach feta salmon burger
Seared tuna and veggie bowl
Plus get more 30 minute meals in the archives.

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Easy pad Thai recipe

Super quick to make, with lots of great flavor and fresh vegetables - perfect for an easy meal.

Prep Time2

Cook Time10

Total Time12

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Thai

Servings:

Calories: 478kcal

Author: Caroline's Cooking

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Ingredients

2 tablespoon vegetable oil or peanut oil
¼ lb shrimp 125g, or more, to taste - weight without shells and de-veigned
7 oz straight to wok/stir fry rice noodles 200g, 1 pouch
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 egg lightly beaten
12 oz Mann's Broccoli Cole Slaw 340g (1 packet)
1 tablespoon tamarind paste see below
1 tablespoon fish sauce see below
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice see below

Instructions

Warm the oil in a wok or large skillet over a medium heat. Add the shrimp to the pan and cook a minute or two on both sides until cooked through (they will go pink). Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the noodles to the pan and cook a minute, stirring to coat them in oil and avoid sticking. Add the garlic and mix through.
Push the noodles to one side of the pan and add the egg to the other side. Cook the egg, stirring now and then so it becomes scrambled, then mix the egg through the noodles.
Add the slaw to the pan and mix through. Mix together around half of the tamarind, fish sauce, lime juice and all of the sugar in a small bowl and add to the pan (or add all directly, you'll just need to make sure you get the sugar dissolved and mixed in). Mix the sauce through and cook a minute then try a little bit of vegetable or noodle to see what you need more of to get a good balance in flavor. I used the full amount of each listed above, but it will depend on both strength of the brand you use and your taste.
Once you've adjusted the sauce, cook another minute to soften the vegetables a little then serve. If you like, add a little squeeze of lime over the top and you can also sprinkle over some roasted peanuts (whole or partly crushed).

Notes

Note if you can't find straight to wok noodles, follow the instructions on regular rice noodles soaking them in hot water for a few minutes first. You will also need to cook them just a minute or two more in the pan.

Nutrition

See some of my favorite cooking tools and ingredients in the Caroline's Cooking Amazon store.