Making restaurant-quality meals at home is a great way to curb any cravings, adhere to your dietary needs & save money too! Instead of going out to a Thai restaurant or picking up takeout, our friend Heather Englund from @fitmamarealfood created this delicious Beef Pad Thai recipe that you can easily make at home in 30 minutes! Loaded with authentic flavors, Sweet Bell Peppers and a simple sauce, your family won’t be able to tell the difference!
As much as we all love heading out for dinner or picking up delicious Thai takeout, I’m here to share this easy and delicious recipe to make a healthy homemade Beef Pad Thai in the comfort of your own kitchen! You’ll love the authentic flavors that are highlighted in this 30-minute meal. With rice noodles, stir-fry beef, loads of greenhouse grown veggies, eggs, and the perfect simple-to-make Pad Thai sauce, it’s a winner of a dinner you’ll want to enjoy on repeat!
QUICK TO MAKE –
I love to make just about anything with authentic flavors. While this less than 30-minute recipe doesn’t use a creamy peanut sauce, the crunchy dry-roasted peanuts & a touch of peanut flavor in the Pad Thai sauce give a slight nod towards it flavor-wise. This dish is packed with fresh vegetables like Pure Flavor® Sweet Bell Peppers and thinly sliced flank steak or sirloin steak that take this dish to the next level. Thai rice noodles just soak up the delicious sauce and make this a complete dish that my whole family loves!
The best thing about this dish is that it’s perfect for busy weeknights! So many parts of this dinner can be prepped ahead, making it come together quickly on those nights when time is tight.
Here are two ways to make this dinner even faster for busy days:
- Mix the Pad Thai sauce ahead of time and store it in a mason jar in the fridge until it’s time to use
- Prep and slice all the vegetables in advance so they’re ready to go when you are ready to cook
THE KEY INGREDIENT –
Pure Flavor® Sweet Bell Peppers slice up perfectly for Pad Thai! They have a rich, sweet flavor and are great for enjoying fresh or adding to a savory dish like this one. I like to keep them on hand at all times to elevate any weeknight dinner. When making Beef Pad Thai at home, you can add as many vegetables as you’d like to help increase your family’s daily intake of vegetables and tailor it to their liking.
One way I love to start conversations around the table with my family is to talk about what we are eating. It helps us notice the flavors in the food and opens up a dialog around what we enjoy. My kids love the different colors of the Sweet Bell Peppers and how each color adds a dynamic taste to this dish. Coming together to eat nutritious food as a family is something we look forward to every day.
Along with the Pure Flavor® Sweet Bell Peppers, there are a few more things you’ll need to make this dish come together. You can easily find all of these at your local grocery store!
BEEF PAD THAI INGREDIENTS –
- For the dish:
- 1 Pure Flavor® Red Sweet Bell Pepper
- 1 Pure Flavor® Yellow Sweet Bell Pepper
- 4 green onions, sliced & divided
- 3 eggs
- 2 large carrots, peeled & cut into matchsticks
- 8 oz Pad Thai rice noodles
- 1.5 lb stir fry beef strips
- 3 tbsp peanuts, roasted & chopped
- 2 tbsp avocado oil, divided
- Lime wedges, for garnish
- For the sauce:
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup coconut aminos
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp peanut butter
HOW TO MAKE IT AT HOME-
You can easily make this restaurant-quality dish at home in less than 30 minutes. Follow these easy steps below to create it yourself!
Start by bringing a large pot of water to a boil, and cook the rice noodles to al dente. Once the rice noodles are done cooking, drain and rinse them in cold water. This will help with the noodles from sticking and end the cooking process. If you aren’t using the noodles soon, you can toss them with a little sesame oil to prevent sticking.
While the noodles cook, prepare the Pad Thai sauce by combing the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Mix them together fully and set the sauce aside. Next, you’ll want to crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them slightly. They can be set aside as well until you are ready to assemble the dish. In a large skillet or wok, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat. Saute the beef for 6 minutes, until cooked, then remove from the skillet and set aside.
In the same skillet, add the remaining oil followed by bell peppers, carrots, and onion. Saute for 8-10 minutes, until the vegetables are slightly softened. After the vegetables are cooked, move them to the edge of the pan and add the beaten eggs to the center of the pan. Scramble the eggs for 3 minutes until cooked, then stir in with the vegetables. Return the cooked beef and noodles to the pan along with the Pad Thai sauce. Stir together and warm through for a couple of minutes, allowing the flavors to combine. Top your Beef Pad Thai with chopped peanuts & a squeeze of lime juice – then sit down at the table and enjoy!
RESTAURANT QUALITY RESULTS –
There you have it; a healthy restaurant-quality Beef Pad Thai that the whole family will love! While it may be easy to opt for takeout on busy nights, it’s just as easy to have the same (if not better!) results at home. By recreating it yourself you control the ingredients to know exactly what’s in the food you are serving yourself & your family. Always having greenhouse grown vegetables on hand makes it that much easier to create any recipe you are craving. Whether you are on a budget or trying to eat healthier there are plenty of recipes that can be made at home to suit the needs of your family.
~ Heather
