Vegetarian Pad See Ew

I’m slightly embarrassed to admit just how often I frequented a nearby Thai restaurant when I lived in the DC area. Thai cuisine has long been a favorite of mine and it was just so easy to pop in after a long day at work. However, several moves later, and I now live in an area without a really great Thai restaurant. Which is probably a good thing as it’s forced me to start recreating dishes at home instead!

Pad see ew is one of those items that either my husband or I always seem to order when out. If you aren’t familiar, this popular dish is made of stir-fried noodles, Chinese broccoli and a sweet yet savory sauce. It also typically includes either pork or chicken, along with some scrambled eggs.

For this vegetarian version, I decided to go with portabella mushrooms to replace the meat. The mushrooms are sautéed along with some bok choy, before being quickly tossed together with cooked noodles, eggs and the sauce.

It’s easy, it’s fast, and you can absolutely customize to your own taste. Plus, in my opinion, you just can’t go wrong with a big bowl of slurpable noodles!

As easy as this dish is to make, it can be a bit difficult to find some of the ingredients depending on where you live.

Dark sweet soy sauce is the key component in the sauce. If you don’t have luck finding it at your local stores (some major grocery stores do carry it), you can order online or check out an Asian market.

As mentioned previously, this dish is typically made with Chinese broccoli. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any nearby, so I went with bok choy instead. But you can certainly substitute in the traditional Chinese broccoli if you can get your hands on some. You can also add in some tofu or even other veggies that you have hanging out in the fridge.

And finally, the noodles. If you can’t find wide rice noodles, wide lo mein noodles make for another good option.

One last note. While I normally am a huge fan of leftovers, this dish is best freshly made. So plan to enjoy the night of!