I used to live about a block away from a Thai restaurant in a loft apartment. We would frequent the restaurant with family, to celebrate, or to grab an easy dinner. Luckily, we still live close by, but these days I cook at home more. This pad Thai sauce recipe allows me to make my restaurant favorite at home.
You only need 4 ingredients, one for each flavor: sweet, sour, salty, and spicy. The tamarind paste is your sour flavor, and it varies greatly from brand to brand in my experience. You might have to do some trial and error with the specific brand you can get to figure out just how you like it, but it will be worth it!
Tamarind comes in both a liquid form and a solid form. I always get the liquid because it is easy to use. The solid form can be used but it need to be softened and thinned in water first. The one I bought was actually labeled as a soup concentrate. The ingredients should be tamarind and water (and perhaps a preservative).
Substitutes for the Pad Thai Sauce recipe:
- You can use lime juice if you cannot get tamarind, but you will only need about 2 TBS, and you will want to increase the other ingredients slightly (it’s not a 1:1 substitution).
- The next flavor you need is sweet. I use brown sugar in my sauce but honey can also be used.
- Sriracha checks the spicy ticket in my sauce. Use as much or as little as you like, or substitute with chili oil to taste.
- For the salty flavor I use fish sauce because it is the most authentic flavor, and it adds a little bit of funk as well. You can use soy sauce or tamari to make a vegan version instead.
How to Make Pad Thai Sauce:
Making pad Thai sauce could not be easier. Just stir together all the ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil just long enough to dissolve the sugar.
The recipe makes enough to coat 4 oz of pad Thai noodles, or wide rice noodles, which is about 2 servings. Double the recipe to make a batch with 8 ounces of noodles, or 4 servings.
- 3 TBS liquid tamarind
- 1 TBS brown sugar
- 1 TBS water
- 1 ½ tsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp sriracha
- Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and simmer sitrring until the sugar melts, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
- Stir the sauce into your cooked pad thai noodles in a skillet over medium low heat, stirring as you do to get the noodles to soak up the sauce instead of letting it evaporate and thicken around the noodles. You should have enough to cover 4 oz of noodles, or 2 servings.
