Tofu Pad Thai with Zucchini (courgettes) and Carrot Noodles

The following recipe is from Mindful Chef.   Their full recipe is here. For those of you who have not heard of Mindful chef – Mindful Chef is a British meal kit retailer, headquartered in Battersea, London, founded by three friends, Rob Grieg-Gran and Myles Hopper, Giles Humphries. Mindful Chef supplies subscribers with recipe kit boxes which include ready-measured, fresh ingredients and easily followed healthy recipes.  We like using it as it has meal kits for vegetarians as well as vegans.

Some of you may ask why someone like me would use the kits from MIndful Chef.  Well, it was introduced and ordered for me by my sons who likes using them for lots of  reasons – one of which is their vegan food range.   In my case, they ordered them for me to ensure that I was cooking and eating something healthy every day.  Some of you may be aware that I lost my husband early this year and I lost my mojo for cooking as he was a foodie and really liked suggesting what we should cook.  He did a lot of shopping online for my recipes and I just didn’t have the energy to shop or cook.  My sons know that if there was food in the fridge – I would not waste it and it would encourage me to cook.  They chose to order Mindful chef vegan recipes that could be cooked in 30 minutes.  I really liked these unusual recipes as I am such a traditional cook who thinks  that one needs rice or bread to be included in a meal.  I found these recipes easy to cook plus filling.  I thought that I would share them here with you.

In this Pad thai recipe, Mindful Chef have swapped fish sauce for lime and tamari – to keep it vegan – and used nutritious, peanut-saucy Zucchini (courgettes) and carrot  rather than noodles.

Ingredients as they arrived in the box:

• 3 x carrot
• 1 red chilli
• 2 courgette (Zucchini)
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 lime
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• 2 spring onion
• 30g deep roast peanut butter
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp tamari
• 1 romano yellow pepper
• 280g naked tofu

Method:

 

1. Grate the garlic and chop the chili (remove the seeds for less heat). Slice the spring onions and pepper. Halve the lime.

 

2.   To make the veg noodles. Peel the courgette and carrots into ribbons using a peeler or spiralizer if you have one.

 

3.  Drain the tofu, pat dry with paper towel and cut into 2cm cubes. Heat a frying pan with 1 tbsp sesame oil on medium heat, add the tofu and cook for 5 mins.  Add half the tamari and cook for another 5 mins, until crisp and golden.

 

4.  To make the sauce: Take a mixing bowl and  combine the peanut butter with the remaining tamari, maple syrup, 1/2 tbsp sesame oil, juice from half a lime, 1 tbsp water and half the chili (or to taste).

 

5.  Heat a frying pan with the remaining sesame oil on medium heat. Cook the garlic and remaining chili (to taste) for 1 min. Add the spring onions and pepper, then cook for a further 2 mins. Finally, add the veg noodles and sauce.  Cook for a further minute or two.  The veggies cook really quick.

5.   Serve the noodles topped with the tofu. Finish with a squeeze of lime juice.

Thanks to my sons and Mindful Chef for such an interesting and tasty dish.  MC’s  instructions were easy to follow and the dish was ready in less than 30 minutes. When you order meal kits from Mindful Chef, you get a recipe book with all of the dishes for that week, not just the ones that you have requested which is quite helpful as you can create their meals without having to subscribe.  They also share their recipes online.

Please note that I am not promoting Mindful Chef.  I used their meal kits and am sharing the recipe and my views in my blog.

You may also like to try the following dish using Courgettes (Zucchini):

• Courgette spaghetti in tomato basil sauce

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