Easy peasy Pad Thai

As long as you’ve got the basics in your cupboards, this is a rather superb mid-week meal that can be rustled up super quick. You only need one pan so it doesn’t create a sinkfull of mess either.

I don’t know about you, but I feel like I spend my life loading and unloading the dishwasher, the washing machine, the dryer… but enough of my domestic drudgery and more about the delicious dinner I made for the boys…

10 minute Pad Thai (Good Food May)

Ingredients

• 200g raw prawns
• small pack coriander , stalks finely chopped, leaves roughly chopped
• 2 x 200g packs straight-to-wok pad Thai noodles
• 85g bean sprouts
• 1 egg, beaten with a fork
• juice 1 lime, plus wedges to serve
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp roasted peanuts, roughly chopped, to serve

Method

• Dry-fry the prawns and coriander stalks in a non-stick frying pan for 1-2 mins until the prawns are just pink. Add the noodles, beansprouts, egg, lime juice, fish sauce and sugar. Quickly toss together for 1 min more until the egg is just cooked and everything is well mixed – you might want to use a pair of tongs to make this easier.
• Remove from the heat, mix in most of the coriander leaves, then divide between 2 bowls. Scatter with the remaining coriander and the peanuts, and serve with lime wedges for squeezing over.

Prepping the coriander is the faffiest bit of the entire recipe, so I got Sam to help. He was great at picking the leaves off the stalks.

We put the stalks and leaves in two separate glasses, and then chopped them using scissors. I learnt this at a cooking class I did years ago and have done it ever since. It keeps the herbs contained as you snip and means it’s safer for Sam to help.

I used frozen prawns and just cooked them for a few minutes longer. They produced quite a lot of excess water in the pan so I drained them just before they’d fully cooked and then added the coriander stalks for the final minute or so.

Frozen food is so brilliant for last minute meal decisions when your plans suddenly change or you’re having extra people for tea.

I couldn’t find pad thai noodles, so I used fine rice noodles instead. These are much messier than the bigger ones so it was just as well we were eating dinner in the garden.

The meal went down really well with everyone. The boys really liked the prawns, and noodles are pasta as far as Sam is concerned. Matthew added a good glug of soy sauce to moisten it up a bit. He’s having the leftovers for his packed lunch tomozza.

I just love the flavours of fresh lime juice, fish sauce and coriander. And any meal that gives you the excuse to sprinkle crushed peanuts on it has got to be a winner!