Vegetable drunken noodles (pad kee mao)
Fiery, garlicky wide rice noodles with peppers, zucchini, tomatoes and a big handful of basil, the spicy Thai noodle you crave after a long day.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $3.04 a serving
- 370 calories
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 8 oz rice noodles
- 3 tbsp gluten-free tamari
- 1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 serrano peppers, thinly sliced
- 1 yellow onion, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced
- 1 zucchini, sliced into half-moons
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup fresh basil, leaves
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp rice vinegar
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
Each serving has about 370 calories, 7 g protein, 61 g carbs and 11 g fat, and costs about $3.04 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No zucchini? Yellow squash works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Soak the noodles in very hot tap water 8 to 10 minutes, until bendy. .
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Timer: 9 min
Dolly’s tip: They should bend but still feel firm, like undercooked spaghetti. They finish cooking in the pan, so don’t soak them soft.Stir the tamari, brown sugar, chili garlic sauce, vinegar and 2 tablespoons water together.
Heat the oil in a large over high heat until it . Add the garlic and serranos and stir 30 seconds, .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
High heat
Dolly’s tip: Serranos are hot. Use one, seeded, if you’re not sure.Add the onion, pepper and zucchini and 3 minutes, until . Add the tomatoes for 1 minute.
Stir-fry. Stir-frying means cooking small pieces fast over high heat in a little oil, stirring almost constantly. It moves quickly, so have everything chopped and ready before the pan gets hot.
How you’ll know: It sizzles loudly the whole time, and the vegetables turn bright and tender-crisp in minutes.
Tender-crisp. Tender-crisp means vegetables cooked until just tender but still with a little snap. They keep their bright color and crunch instead of going soft and dull.
How you’ll know: A fork goes in with slight resistance, and the color is bright, not olive or gray.
High heatTimer: 4 min
Add the noodles and sauce and with tongs 2 to 3 minutes, until the noodles are coated and tender.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
High heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Turn off the heat, in the basil until it just , and serve right away.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
Bún xào (Vietnamese stir-fried rice noodles)
30 min
Vegetable Singapore noodles
30 min
Peanut noodles with cucumber and carrots
25 min
Sweet chili noodles with vegetables
25 min
30-minute dinners ›Vegetarian dinners ›What to make with bell peppers and tomatoes ›What to make with bell peppers and zucchini ›What to make with tomatoes and zucchini ›