Healthy Pad Thai

Ordering pad Thai in a restaurant could be more damage to your waistline than you’d suspect. You might not realize that 950 calories and 35 grams of fat lurk in those sweet and spicy, stir fried noodles! What?!  Isn’t all Asian food healthy??

Sadly, not so. But don’t worry, I’ve got a delicious solution.

Using shirataki noodles instead of carbohydrate-dense rice noodles is one way to drastically cut calories and carbohydrates. Skipping the generous amounts of oil helps, too. Plus, I added lots of vegetables for color, texture and nutrition. Despite the kinder nutritional numbers, this dish is incredibly flavorful, with mingled tastes of ginger, garlic, soy sauce, spicy sriracha, and peanuts.

I know some purists will cringe at putting ketchup in Pad Thai, something that you’ll commonly see on the web.  You’ll also see a lot of pad thai recipes that call for palm sugar, fish sauce, salted radish, and other stuff I just didn’t have on hand. I never said it was authentic. Once I subbed in shirataki, I figured all the traditionalists had left the page anyway. You could also add a scrambled egg, which is usually found in pad Thai. When I was creating this (on the fly as usual) it just skipped my mind.

Another good thing to point out: this recipe only took me 25 minutes, start to finish. Really, it’s a basic stir fry with a yummy sauce. Nothing you can’t do.

Sauce:

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sriracha hot sauce
• 2 tablespoons peanut flour (or finely chopped peanuts)*
• 2 tablespoons granulated Splenda (or sugar)
• 2 tablespoons organic ketchup
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Other Ingredients:

• 2 (8-ounce) packages of shirataki noodles
• 6 ounces frozen raw shrimp
• 12 ounces raw chicken breast, cut into small pieces
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
• 1½ cups red, yellow and green bell pepper strips (can use frozen)
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 6 green onions, sliced into 1-inch pieces

1. Mix all sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
2. Drain shirataki in a colander and rinse very thoroughly. Drain well (you want them as dry as possible).
3. Place a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and add shrimp and chicken. Cook until shrimp and chicken are opaque. Drain excess liquid, if any.
4. Add garlic, peppers, mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until soft.
5. Add noodles, green onions, and sauce. Continue to cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until sauce has boiled for a few minutes and thickened somewhat.

Serves 4

Per serving: 194 calories, 2 g total fat, 0 g saturated fat, 12 g total carbohydrate, 4 g dietary fiber, 31 g protein

* You can also use peanut butter. Add 50 calories and 4 grams fat to each serving.