Cheater Pad Thai

At the moment, I'm loving week day dinners that I can prepare in half an hour or less. 

Some days I feel inspired to make more involved meals that Sylvia enjoys helping me with, such as these pierogi with mushroom filling:

But usually, there are so many other things to do like play games with Sylvia or sneak a solitary walk when my partner gets home. Nope, nothing practical like cleaning the house!

This is one such quick and tasty meal.

I started off making the Pad Thai recipe from Vegan Planet. It is a great recipe but over the years I've changed it quite a bit based on our tastes and the ingredients we usually have on hand. This is one of our standard dinners, and is usually a hit with Sylvia too!

Cheater Pad Thai (Serves 4-5)
(inspired by Robin Robertson's Pad Thai in Vegan Planet)

3 tbsp vegetable or canola oil

1 block of tofu (about 350 grams), cut into small cubes

1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce

1 small bunch of scallions/spring onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

half a red capsicum, thinly sliced

1 small head of broccoli, cut into florets

1 carrot, chopped

1 large tomato, chopped

1 packet of rice noodles

Sauce

2-3 tbsp natural peanut butter

Juice of 1 lime

2-3 tbsp tamari or soy sauce

1-2 tbsp brown sugar
about 1/4 cup of water to thin it out

Cook the rice noodles as instructed on the packet, drain and set aside.

Fry tofu in 1 tbsp of oil until lightly browned and add 1 tbsp tamari/soy sauce. Stir around a bit and set aside. 

In a separate large saucepan, fry the vegetables in 2 tbsp of oil until cooked to taste.

While vegetables are cooking, mix together the sauce ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. My measurements for this are not exact - I just taste as I'm going and try to reach a nice balance. 

Add the noodles, tofu and sauce to the vegetables and stir around until heated through.