When I was little, my entire family would go out to dinner every Sunday night. My grandparents would come down from Miami Beach in the early afternoon and we would all proceed to argue over the restaurant choice for about 5 hours. (I fought for Italian food every time, surprise surprise!) The sun would set and when the selection came down to the wire, more often than not, we would end up at a Thai restaurant. Everyone loves Thai food, right?
My love of Thai cuisine continued through adulthood where I found great Thai restaurants during my college years in D.C. and later, in New York City. Then, in 2006 I actually moved to Thailand for a bit and let me tell you, that American Thai food has nothing on the real thing.
I still dream about spicy Vegetable Massaman Curries, crispy fragrant street food and fresh papaya salads…
I have definitely made my fair share of Thai-flavored foods, especially because I love cooking curries with coconut milk…a staple of the Thai cuisine.
The other night, a friend of mine (another lover of Thai food) came over and I decided to try out a new recipe: raw vegan refined sugar free “almond” Pad-Thai. I know it sounds sad….but the result was anything but!!! It was ah-mazing! I paired it with spiralized zucchini and carrots (and a bit of grilled tempeh on the side). I had actually made a little too much pad-Thai “sauce” so the following day, I used it as a dip with veggie sticks for my daughter’s snack. She wolfed it down as well. I think there’s a family trip to Thailand in the near future. 😉
Raw Almond Pad-Thai (serves 2)
Ingredients:
For the Pad-Thai sauce:
- ¼ cup almond butter (mine is homemade)
- ½ inch piece of fresh ginger chopped
- 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 3 pitted dates
- ½ clove garlic chopped
- ½ tbsp Himalayan salt
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes (or more or less depending on taste)
- ¼ cup water
For the “noodles”:
- 2 medium zucchinis
- 1 medium carrot peeled
Tools:
- Food processor or high-speed blender and a spiralizer. (If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can julienne the vegetables with a knife but it will take you much longer!)
Instructions:
- Combine the almond butter, ginger, lemon juice, dates, garlic, salt, red pepper flakes and half the water in a food processor. Blend until creamy. Keep adding water until desired consistency is reached. Set aside.
- Clean and slice off the ends of the carrots and zucchini. Spiralize according to the directions of your particular spiralizer (I have a Lurch Attila Spiralizer and I love it!).
- Mix the vegetables with the sauce
- Sprinkle toppings (I used sliced almonds and edible flowers but fresh cilantro would probably be great with it!)
- Serve and enjoy!
*The original recipe for the sauce was from Kris Carr’s book “Crazy Sexy Diet” named “Thai ‘peanut’ sauce.” Her cookbook with chef Chad Sarno can be found here: Crazy Sexy Kitchen book
Morganic Kitchen 