Vegan Thai Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao)

Vegan Thai Drunken Noodles features rice noodles with vegetables and soy meat, all covered in a spicy, deep and delicious sauce. The perfect weeknight meal that is easy to make and comes together in just 20 minutes!

Hands down Thai cuisine is one of my favourite cuisines. There’s just so much flavour going on in their food and Thai Drunken Noodles AKA Pad Kee Mao is no exception. It’s the perfect balance of salty, sour, sweet and SPICY. And as the name implies, this is the kind of dish you crave with a nice cold class of beer. If you’re not into super spicy food, don’t worry! You can totally control the heat of the dish to how you like it.

What’s in Thai Drunken Noodles?

So what goes into Thai Drunken Noodles anyways?

NOODLES: Well first we start off by soaking some wide rice noodles. When you go to the asian grocery store, you probably see pretty decent selection of rice noodles! Thin, medium thin, medium and wide. You want to get the wide rice noodles for this dish.

SAUCE: Next up, you want to mix together the sauce. Thai Drunken Noodle sauce is deep in flavour thanks to the dark soy sauce. I highly recommend in investing in a bottle of dark soy sauce and vegetarian mushroom sauce– especially if you love asian food! I would also recommend getting your hands on some vegan fish sauce, or making your own.

ADD INS: Typically, I have seen Thai Drunken Noodles served with chicken, but we can easily switch up the protein source with tofu or my personal favourite, soy meat! We of course need some aromatics such as garlic, ginger, chili and scallion stems (or shallots). As for the vegetables, my personal favourites and common ones used are peppers and baby corn! Because this is a vegetarian dish, I also decided to add in some carrots and Chinese broccoli for more colour and to bulk it up.

Lastly, don’t forget about the Thai Basil! I would quite honestly say you cannot skip this ingredient because it adds to this sweetness of this dish’s flavour profile. If you have the luxury of getting your hands on some Holy Thai Basil, I highly recommend doing so! If not, Thai Basil is your next best option (and more easily found).

How is Thai Drunken Noodles made?

Another thing I love about this dish is the fact that it’s SO simple to make. Soak the noodles and soy meat (if using). Prep the vegetables. Fry the aromatics. Fry the soy meat. Fry the vegetables. Add in the noodles with the sauce and let it cook for another minute or two. Add in some roughly chopped basil and thats it! Honestly just as fast as driving to your local Thai restaurant and ordering food.

I really hope you guy’s try this Vegan Thai Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao)! I know this will become one of your new favourite Thai dishes! It’s:

• mouth watering-ly flavourful
• chewy from the noodles
• crunchy from the vegetables
• the easiest weeknight meal
• adjustable to your liking of spiciness
• & so incredibly delicious!

Looking for more Vegan Thai Recipes? Here are some of my other favourites!

• Vegan Massaman Curry
• Mango Coconut Tofu Curry
• Summer Vegetable Thai Green Curry
• Vegan Red Thai Curry

If you recreate this Thai Drunken Noodles (Pad Kee Mao) dish please share it and let me know what you think by tagging me on Instagram @okonomikitchen, I love seeing all of your tasty recreations!

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