Sweet Potato Peanut Pad Thai
This Sweet Potato Peanut Pad Thai a fun twist on a classic pad thai, and a tasty gluten-free dish that can help add more veggies to your diet.
Ok, if we are being nitty gritty about it, this recipe isn’t exactly a pad thai. I mean, it is certainly inspired by a pad thai, but I took a bit of a leap with the sauce ingredients. A traditional pad thai sauce is more on the sweet side of things and I really went more of the salty and savoury route with this particular dish. As opposed to using the more traditional tamarind paste I opted to use salty peanut butter as the base of this recipe to give it a rich and creamy flavour, and as opposed to rice noodles I opted to use fun sweet potato noodles instead!
Although sweet potato noodles might look and sound fancy, they are super simple to prepare and cook. Very similar to zucchini noodles, they can be made by using a spiralizer, peeler or julienne peeler, in fact, sweet potato noodles have become so popular you can actually find them at many grocery stores in the produce section. (Shh, don’t tell anyone, but that’s actually where I bought mine.) So, if time permits make your own noodles at home for this Sweet Potato Peanut Pad Thai, or when life gets busy, just buy them in the grocery store to help get dinner on the table in a hurry.
Sweet Potato Peanut Pad Thai
To make this dish paleo-friendly, simply swap the peanut butter for almond butter or cashew butter. You can also add some cooked chicken or shrimp to the pad thai for extra protein.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Mains
- Cuisine: Paleo, Vegetarian, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and spiralized (or buy them pre-cut)
- 1 red bell pepper, julienned
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 2 green onions, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup peanuts, roughly chopped, to serve
- Lime wedges, to serve
Sauce:
- 1/3 cup peanut butter, almond butter or cashew butter
- 2 tbsp. tamari or soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. fresh lime juice
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1-inch fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tbsp. honey
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp. chilli flakes (optional)
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Begin by preparing the sauce. In a bowl, whisk together sauce ingredients and set aside. (Depending on the consistency of your peanut butter, your sauce might be thick. It is best to start with 1/4 cup water and add more if needed during the cooking process when you add it to the sweet potato noodles.)
- Peel the sweet potatoes, and create noodles by spiralizing them into long strands. If you don’t have a spiralizer tool you can also cut the sweet potatoes into really thin, long strips.
- In a skillet on medium-high heat, heat oil and then add in sliced bell pepper, bean sprouts, green onion, garlic and allow to cook 2-3 minutes until the bell peppers are tender but not mushy.
- Once the vegetables have softened, add sweet potato noodles and cook for 5-7 minutes, tossing occasionally, or until cooked through.
- While the noodles are cooking (with about 2-3 minutes remaining), add the sauce and stir well to combine. Check the sauce at this point, if you find it is too thick as it cooks with the noodles simply add a couple of tablespoons of water to help thin it out.
- Portion the pad thai to serve and top with chopped peanuts, fresh cilantro, and a lime wedge.
- Enjoy!
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I made this last night for me and my mom – SO GOOD!
I’m new to the spiralizer so I went all out and added zucchini noodles as well (in addition to the sweet potato noodles)
The sauce was just right! I added a dash of fish sauce as well just because I like it, I don’t think it was necessary though.
Thank you for a recipe that I can come back to again and again!
Amazing! Isn’t the spiralizer fun?! You can honestly use it for so many veggies; zucchini, carrots, sweet potatoes, beets, etc..
SO happy you liked it Alex. I like the addition of the fish sauce too, I thought about that one myself so it’s good for other people to know!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
This was delicious! Sure it’s not “authentic” pad thai but who cares! Something doesn’t have to be traditional to taste awesome. I also added some fish sauce as well as some garlic chili paste for extra spice. I received a spiralizer as a gift and have been looking for recipes ever since. This is definitely one that my family and I will come back too.
Thank you!
Wonderful! I’m so happy you liked it, and love the addition of the fish sauce and chili paste too 🙂 Thanks for sharing Kirsten!