Vegan Pad Thai with Tofu

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Who doesn’t love a flavorful bowl of Pad Thai? This is one of my favorite meals! This Vegan Pad Thai is incredibly flavorful, savory, and slightly spicy — a healthy version of the popular Thai dish! So tasty, it’s hard to put your fork down! For bonus points, I like to serve this over a bed of thinly sliced kale.

What makes it vegan?

Making Pad Thai vegan is really simple! Traditionally it’s made with fish sauce but I swap this out for Tamari. Easy peasy. It’s just as delicious and doesn’t taste like it’s missing anything! Well, it’s missing that faint fishy aroma, but I honestly think it’s far better without it!

What’s wrong with fish sauce?

Do you know how fish sauce is made? I didn’t until recently, and even then my knowledge was vague. I heard it involved fermenting fish in salt — so, it was the essence of fish? That was enough for me to ditch it, but before typing this I decided to watch a video on the process so I had more information. Let me say, that had such an impact that now I won’t order Pad Thai anywhere unless it can be made without fish sauce. Which is probably nowhere, unfortunately, but I can easily make this better version at home!

The video was informative and horrifying but I’m glad I watched it.

The upbeat background music seemed out of place as the narrator guides the viewer through the fish sauce-making process, screechy violins would have been more fitting for presenting this content since it appeared to be straight out of a sci-fi horror film. One single factory uses 100 tones of anchovies per day, scraped up from the Gulf of Thailand. This shocking volume of fish are pushed down chutes like garbage rather than the individual beings that they are, and sent into a rotating drum where they are mixed with salt. The fish and salt mixture is then dumped into one of the 3,000 wells on site and will then be covered and left to ferment.

The whole process is disturbing. Seeing it in action rather than merely reading about it really hit home for me and I don’t want to support this kind of industry. Pulling out 100 tones of anchovies per day for one factory to use merely for a flavoring sauce is taking away the vital food source of animals that depend on these fish! Dolphins, whales, seals, birds, and many more animals rely on this food supply, which we are removing from the ocean at an alarming speed.

The fishing industry has been killing dolphins because the dolphins are “competition” for this type of fish, and you can see why this would be an issue when one factory is removing this sheer volume of fish from the ocean every single day. And it’s not just that particular sea life that the fishing boats are catching, when you eat salmon or shrimp or fish sauce, the other sea life caught in the crossfire is massive. The amount of sea life that humans pull from the ocean every day is in no way, shape, or form sustainable. We need our oceans to be healthy in order for our own survival!

I usually don’t go on such a long tangent about the ethical reasons of being on a plant-based diet, but the video was fresh and unexpectedly impactful. I’ve gotten rid of each animal product one by one as I learned how and what was behind it. If you haven’t seen it, Seaspiracy is a very eye opening and well-produced documentary about the reality of commercial fishing.

Broccoli

This cruciferous vegetable is thought of as a superfood for good reason, it’s loaded with vitamins, minerals, and fiber!

One cup of raw broccoli contains:

Carbs: 6 grams
Protein: 2.6 gram
Fat: 0.3 grams
Fiber: 2.4 grams

% of the recommended daily intake:

Vitamin C: 135%
Vitamin A: 11%
Vitamin K: 116%
Vitamin B9 (Folate): 14%
Potassium: 8%
Phosphorus: 6%
Selenium: 3%

I eat broccoli almost every day, it’s delicious in pretty much any dish and sometimes I just open the fridge and snap off a little broccoli tree to nibble on.

Did you know that broccoli has cancer-fighting properties?

Sulforaphane is thought to be the main active ingredient in broccoli, protecting our bodies from free radicals, protecting our brains and eyesight, and helping to prevent and treat cancer.

But here’s the thing – there isn’t any sulforaphane IN the broccoli UNTIL you bite into it or chop it, which then creates a chemical flare reaction. When the sulforaphane precursor (glucoraphanin) mixes with the enzyme myrosinase when chewed or chopped, ta-da! Sulforaphane is formed.

Unfortunately, the enzyme myrosinase is destroyed while cooking (while glucoraphanin and sulforaphane are resistant to heat). But there’s a loophole! If you chop broccoli and let it sit for 40+ minutes before exposing it to heat, it gives for the heat-resistant sulforaphane time to form.¹

Eat all the raw broccoli you want, the sulforaphane will form while in your stomach waiting to be digested. But if you’re cooking it, try to plan ahead so it has time to rest before exposing it to heat.

Easiest way to make sure your broccoli is always loaded with sulforaphane? As soon as you return from the grocery store, wash and chop your broccoli and store in a container in the fridge – it’s conveniently prepped and ready to go!

What about soy in tofu?

Tofu is an excellent source for protein, vitamins, and minerals. Tofu contains ample amounts of all 9 amino acids making it a solid complete protein! It’s rich in calcium, manganese, selenium, phosphorus, copper, magnesium, iron, and zinc. But all of this seems to be overshadowed by the misconception that soy is rocket fuel for breast cancer. This couldn’t be further from the reality! Soy consumption has been shown to greatly reduce breast cancer occurrence, reoccurrence, and death.

Soybeans contain natural plant compounds called isoflavones, and this is what’s responsible for most of the health benefits. Isoflavones are phytoestrogen, but don’t let the name fool you: phytoestrogen is much weaker than the mammalian estrogen and doesn’t function entirely as estrogen, it also has anti-estrogenic properties.²,³ What does that mean? When you consume phytoestrogens, your body produces less active forms of estrogen and therefore lowers breast cancer risk; an anti-estrogenic effect. Phytoestrogens can also help reduce menopausal hot flashes and potentially increase bone density; a pro-estrogenic effect.⁴

Tofu also helps keep our bones strong and healthy! Studies have found that soy isoflavones may reduce the risk of bone loss and fractures by increasing bone mineral density.⁵ This is incredibly important for postmenopausal women when bone loss and osteoporosis can occur due to to the decline in estrogen. ⁶,⁷ Tofu is an excellent source of calcium, magnesium (which helps to regulate calcium levels), and phosphorus (another mineral that helps build and maintain strong bones)⁸

And that’s not all! Isoflavones can reduce blood vessel inflammation and improve their elasticity, reducing risk of stroke and heart disease—the #1 killer in the U.S.

Soy foods help fight cancer, reduce risk of heart disease, help with menopause symptoms, help build strong bongs, and is loaded with protein, vitamins, calcium, and iron. Tofu can be considered a super food for good reason—dish up!

For an extra antioxidant boost…

I intentionally don’t cook the red bell pepper with the rest of the veggies to preserve the nutritional value! Bell peppers are packed with vitamin C, vitamin A, and potassium and also contain iron, folate and fiber. But bell peppers are vulnerable to heat so cooking them will quickly reduce the amount of antioxidant capacity. Red bell peppers contain the most nutrients, with 11x more beta-carotene and 1.5x more vitamin C than green bell peppers.⁹