Wow Your Mom This Mother’s Day! Try This Easy Turkey Pad Thai

turkey pad thai

This is a sponsored post with Canadian Turkey. But as always, recipe and opinions are my own.

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This year we are celebrating Mother’s Day a little differently. We can’t go out to a nice restaurant to celebrate Mom, but the next best thing is to cook for Mom at home or deliver it curbside so she doesn’t have to lift a finger on her special day. But let’s be honest, you want to WOW her, don’t you? Don’t worry, I got you covered!

Let me introduce to you to an EASY, tasty, and impressive meal that will blow your Mom away! Try making Turkey Pad Thai, and trust me, you can get all the ingredients at your local grocery store. I will give you some ways to substitute if you cannot find something.

What is Pad Thai?

You have probably seen Pad Thai on the menu of your favourite local Thai restaurants. Typically it is a street food that is served in Thailand. It consists of rice noodles, vegetables, a protein like turkey and a basic sweet and sour type of sauce. Many restaurants have added ketchup to their Pad Thai recipe but I can assure you that is not the traditional way to make this delicious dish! The main ingredient that gives Pad Thai its signature sweet and sour flavours come from tamarind paste.

What is Tamarind Paste?

Tamarind paste is actually made out of tamarind fruit. The fruit is shaped like a large bean pod that is brown. You can buy tamarind paste with seeds, without seeds and even in a sauce format in most large grocery stores. You can also get tamarind paste in all Asian grocery stores. I would recommend getting the paste without the seeds.

What is a Substitution for Tamarind Paste?

If you really cannot find tamarind paste, you can sub in equal parts lime juice to equal parts sugar to mimic the sour/sweet combination. It is not exactly the same but a great way to substitute if you cannot find it at your local grocery stores.

Other Substitution You Can Make

Since we are living in a world with COVID-19, we are buying our groceries a little differently these days. Whether you are buying 2 weeks earlier for a grocery pick up or getting a produce box delivered to you, remember this Pad Thai recipe is super versatile and you can change it up. I will be using bean sprouts, carrots, onions, and green onions in the recipe as the vegetables. But if you don’t have some of those ingredients, you can use really whatever vegetables you have on hand.

If you cannot find rice noodles, you can use any noodles you have on hand, even pasta noodles. The flavours really comes from the sauce so using a different noodles will not ruin it!

Why I Choose Turkey for This Recipe

turkey pad thai

Turkey has become one of my favourite go-to proteins for any Asian recipes. I find that turkey is really easy to cook and since it doesn’t have a strong flavour itself, it really works well with strong, bold Asian flavours. Turkey is also low in fat and high in protein so it really checks off all the boxes for me!

Can You Freeze Pad Thai?

You can definitely freeze any leftovers of this recipe but keep in mind that the rice noodles textures might change a little bit when you freeze it. I would recommend fully defrosting it before you heat it up if you do freeze any leftovers. Turkey also freezes really well.

turkey pad thai

Turkey Pad Thai

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Thai
Servings 4 servings
Calories 431 kcal

Ingredients
  

Pad Thai Sauce

  • 3 TBSP fish sauce
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 TBSP Garlic powder
  • 3 TBSP Tamarind Paste (without seeds)
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • pinch Salt

Pad Thai Noodles

  • 1/2 pack dried rice noodles (about 227 gram)
  • oil for cooking
  • 1 medium onion diced
  • 3 cloves garlic finely diced
  • 1 tsp Ginger (roughly chopped or grated)
  • 2 carrots (peeled and thinly sliced)
  • 1 lb Turkey Breast, cooked & sliced
  • 2 eggs (scrambled and thinly sliced)
  • 2 sprigs Green onion (finely sliced)
  • 1 cup bean sprouts
  • 1/4 cup peanuts (roughly chopped)
  • 1 lime (wedged for garnish)

Instructions
 

Pad Thai Sauce

  • Combine all ingredients in the pad Thai sauce and bring to a boil. Whisk until sugar is dissolved, and let the sauce reduce, and then turn off heat.

Pad Thai Noodles

  • In a large bowl, pour enough warm water to cover half a pack of dried rice noodles. Let sit for 10-20 minutes (or until the noodles are soft. The soaking time may vary depending on the humidity of your kitchen and how "fresh" your dried noodles are). If you don't want to use the soaking method, you can boil the noodles for about 1 minute and drain.
  • In a large skillet, heat oil to medium heat and cook onion, garlic, carrots and ginger until the onions are soft
  • Add cooked turkey breast to onion mixture
  • Remove onion, garlic, ginger and turkey and set aside on a plate
  • Scramble the eggs and cook an omelette. Remove from pan once cooked and cut into strips.
  • Add softened noodles, onion, garlic, ginger, and turkey to a large skillet (medium heat)
  • Stir fry the noodles and gradually add the Pad Thai sauce. Add a little at a time to give the noodles a chance to soak up the sauce.
  • Add green onions, bean sprouts and mix until combined. Before serving, sprinkle with chopped peanuts for some crunchiness. You can also add lime for garnish!

Nutrition

Serving: 4portionCalories: 431kcalCarbohydrates: 57gProtein: 34gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 3gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 143mgSodium: 1411mgPotassium: 741mgFiber: 5gSugar: 24gVitamin A: 5316IUVitamin C: 15mgCalcium: 95mgIron: 3mg
Keyword authentic pad thai, easy pad thai, pad thai, thai food
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

What is your favourite way to use turkey? Comment below and let me know. If you are looking for more turkey recipes, check out canadianturkey.ca