Thai Yum Pad Thai

Yum Pad Thai ( ยำผัดไทย ) combines the typical flavor and some of the most important ingredients of the well-known noodle dish with the sour-spicy freshness of a Thai yum salad. The carrot adds a touch of freshness to the whole dish.

In my recipe, I am using pre-cooked shrimp that only need to be pan-fried. If you are using fresh shrimp, you should prepare them differently, of course.

If you like, you can also substitute the shrimp with chicken or omit animal products entirely. You can also expand the salad with other typical ingredients for Pad Thai, such as firm tofu, pickled radish, sliced egg, or dried shrimp.

Preparation

Preparing the Salad

First, we soak the rice noodles in lukewarm water for about ten minutes. Then we cook them according to the package instructions. After that, we drain and let them cool until they are at most lukewarm.

While the rice noodles are soaking, we can peel the carrot and cut it into fine strips using a julienne knife or a kiwi peeler. Then we peel the shallots and cut them into thin rings.

Next, we briefly rinse the mung bean sprouts under cold, clear water and let them drain thoroughly. Finally, we roughly crush the peanuts in a mortar.

As the last step, we pan-fry the shrimp in a little oil until they are lightly browned and then let them cool down.

Preparing the Dressing

For the dressing, we first squeeze the lime into a small bowl and then mix its juice with the fish sauce and tamarind paste. We then completely dissolve the palm sugar in this mixture by stirring vigorously.

Next, we peel the garlic and chop it into fine pieces. Then we remove the stems from the Thai chilis and cut the rest into fine rings. We add both to the other ingredients in the bowl and stir the dressing thoroughly once more.

If you prefer it even spicier, you can also stir a teaspoon of coarse chili powder into the dressing.

Plating the Salad

Now we add the rice noodles together with the shrimp, shallots, carrot, and mung bean sprouts into a bowl and pour the dressing over them before thoroughly mixing the Yum Pad Thai.

We then plate the finished salad on a large plate and arrange the crushed peanuts on the side, just as you would know it from “real” Pad Thai.

Finally, we pluck the cilantro leaves from their stems, chop them, and sprinkle them over the salad.