NO-NUT PRAWN PAD THAI

I often find myself craving Thai takeaway, so learning to make a healthy, low-fat pad thai is super essential to me (and my waistline). I have made various pad thai’s in the past, however they have been quite high in fat and enormous in portion size. Here is my version of pad thai that contains no nuts and no sugar. Some of you may stop reading here, as this recipe is clearly not going to be for an authentic pad thai dish. For those of you still with me, bless you for staying. The hard cold truth is that sugar and nuts contain a great deal of fat and well, to state the obvious, sugar. And with this comes a great deal of extra calories. Without them in this dish more rice noodles are available per serving as well as more vegetables, more prawns (or tofu if going for a vegetarian option) and a tastier dressing/sauce.

Ingredients

• 100g rice stick noodles
• 3 free range eggs (177g), beaten
• 2 teaspoons rice bran oil / sesame oil 
• 250g prawns, peeled, deveined, tails on or off
• 1 small red capsicum (155g), thinly sliced
• 200g buk choy, base removed and roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon Mirin seasoning 
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 50g bean sprouts
• 1 green shallot (3g), finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped (10g)
• 1 lime (50g), cut into wedges 

Cooking 

1. Bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil and add noodles. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until the noodles are tender but not mushy. Remove from the stove and drain well under cold running water. 

2. Meanwhile, heat 1 teaspoon oil in a wok or large, deep frying pan over medium heat and swirl to coat. Pour the eggs into the wok/pan and leave to set for 2-3 minutes. Once set, remove from heat and place on a plate. When cool enough, cut the omelette into small pieces. 

3. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a wok or large, deep frying pan over medium heat (it is a great idea to use the same wok/pan that you cooked the egg in, as it will have traces of oil left in it) and swirl to coat. Add the prawns, capsicum and buk choy. Cook, stirring often, for 4 minutes or until the prawns are pearly pink in colour and cooked through. Add the garlic to the pan and stir-fry for 1 minute. 

4. Put the egg pieces back into the wok/pan as well as the cooked noodles, fish sauce, mirin seasoning and 1 tablespoon lime juice. Stir gently to combine with tongs. 

5. Remove from the heat and divide the noodles, prawns and vegetables into 2 bowls. Serve warm with half of the bean sprouts, shallots, coriander and lime wedges on top of each bowl. Squeeze lime juice onto the noodles for a citrus dressing / sauce. 

Serves / 2 

Total Preparation time / 15-20 minutes (extra if you are peeled & deveining the prawns yourself)

Total Cooking time / 15 minutes 

Total Calories / approx. 434 per serve 

x Emily