Pad Thai is one of the most popular Thai noodle dishes and it is my favourite! It is sold almost everywhere across Thailand. Like many Thai dishes it is full of flavour, sweet, salty, sour and (if you want) spicy.
For Pad Thai you need to use rice noodles which are about 3mm wide (a bit like linguine but noodles), not the vermicelli rice noodles type. They normally come dry in packet and need to be soaked in warm water before use, but you might be able to get ready-to-cook noodles in some supermarkets. In this recipe I have adjusted a few things to make it easier and still give you that Pad Thai taste, sweet, salty with a bit of tang from the tamarind! If you cannot get the tamarind paste, you can replace it with lemon juice but it will not taste as good as it is the tamarind paste that gives you the authentic taste.
Pad Thai is one of those dishes that you have to practice a few times to get the right taste, but once you have got it you will always love it! I use prawns here but you can also use chicken or go meat free. If you have nut allergy, you can also leave out the peanuts.