Raw Pad Thai

For today’s post, I’d like to share a raw Pad Thai recipe that my mom made for me when I last visited her in Ottawa.

Raw Pad Thai - Vegan and Gluten-Free

She got the recipe from Chatelaine magazine, but it comes from Julie Daniluk’s Meals That Heal Inflammation cookbook. I love how fresh and healthy this dish tastes! In fact, I love it so much that I’ve already made it 3 or 4 times this month. It’s a total “keeper” for me and I hope it will be for you as well.

Raw Pad Thai - Vegan and Gluten-Free
Raw Pad Thai - Vegan and Gluten-Free

I haven’t found any raw almond butter yet, so I used this roasted almond and cashew blend instead. So in my case, this salad isn’t 100% raw. However, I did manage to find this huge bottle of raw organic agave nectar at Homesense for $12.99 though. Score!

Almond Cashew Butter
Raw Agave Nectar

You’ll need a spiralizer, mandoline or julienne vegetable peeler in order to make the veggie “noodles”. I’m normally not a big fan of kitchen gadgets, but I use these all the time and think they’re a good investment for any vegetarian/vegan, or anyone looking to eat more vegetables. Otherwise, check out my Raw Vegan Alfredo Sauce with Zucchini Noodles post to learn how to make wide Fettuccine noodles with a regular vegetable peeler. I used my julienne peeler for this recipe, and my mom gave me this special mandoline glove that prevents me from cutting myself when I use it.

Raw Pad Thai
Raw Pad Thai

Notes – Raw Pad Thai Recipe

  • If you make the dressing first, and then toss the veggies on top, this is  a one-pot meal.
  • I’ve doubled the recipe, because I find that even doubled, it only makes 2-3 servings.
  • The original recipe called for raw honey, but I’ve made it vegan by using raw agave or maple syrup.
  • I didn’t find any fresh sprouts, but this was still delicious, so I’ve marked them as optional below.
  • I also like serving this with crushed peanuts and chopped cilantro, so I’ve added them as options too.
  • As the directions indicate, it’s definitely better after a few hours in the fridge, however, if you leave it at room temperature for about 15 minutes, it should also help to soften-up the veggies and combine the flavors.
Raw Pad Thai - Vegan and Gluten-Free
Raw Pad Thai - Vegan and Gluten-Free

Updates – Raw Pad Thai Recipe

February 27, 2013 – I sometimes like to add tofu to this dish. I simply cut up 250g of organic tofu and lightly fry it in some sesame oil and tamari sauce. I tend to leave-out the cauliflower when I do this. It no longer makes the dish 100% raw, but I like the additional protein punch it delivers this way.

Also, once the sauce has had a chance to break-down the veggies a little bit, I’ve noticed that there’s quite a bit of it left over. I’ve therefore updated the recipe to use 3 carrots and zucchinis instead of 2. I’ve also increased the serving size to 3. Less waste + more servings = even better recipe 🙂

Raw Pad Thai (with sesame tamari tofu) - Vegan and Gluten-Free

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Raw Pad Thai

This easy vegan raw Pad Thai uses zucchini and carrots for the “noodles” / Raw, Vegan, Gluten-Free

  • Author: Angela @ Vegangela.com
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 15 mins
  • Yield: 3 1x
  • Category: Main, Salad
  • Cuisine: Raw, Vegan

Ingredients

Scale
  • 3 medium zucchinis
  • 3 large carrots
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • 1 cup shredded purple cabbage
  • 1 cup cauliflower florets
  • 1 cup mung bean sprouts or radish sprouts (spicy) (optional)
  • 1/2 cup crushed peanuts (optional)
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander/cilantro (optional)

Sauce

  • 1/4 cup tahini
  • 1/4 cup almond butter (or cashew butter, peanut butter)
  • 1/4 cup tamari (gluten-free, as required)
  • 2 tbsp agave (or maple syrup)
  • 2 tbsp lime or lemon juice
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp ginger root, grated

Instructions

  1. Use a spiralizer (or mandolin or vegetable peeler) to create noodles from the carrot and zucchini. Place them in a large mixing bowl and top with the other vegetables.
  2. Whisk sauce ingredients in a bowl. The sauce will be thick, but will thin out after it’s mixed with the vegetables.
  3. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and toss. Best after 1 day in the fridge.

Notes

Adapted from recipe in Julie Daniluk’s Meals That Heal Inflammation cookbook via Chatelaine magazine

Keywords: agave, asian, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, easy, ginger, gluten-free, julienne, low-carb, make-ahead, no-cook, nut butter, one-pot, raw, spiralizer, summer, tahini, thai, under 30 minutes, zucchini, vegan, salad

Did you make this recipe?

Share a photo and tag me — I can’t wait to see what you’ve made!

Raw Pad Thai - Vegan and Gluten-Free
Raw Pad Thai - Vegan and Gluten-Free

71 thoughts on “Raw Pad Thai”

  1. Made this today and fell in love with the flavors! I used soy sauce as I didn’t have tamari, and used almond butter with maple already in it. Thank you for sharing. I hope to try more of your recipes and have the same success.

    Reply
  2. I just found your site a few days ago and I decided to try this recipe. While I felt it took a long time to make it was well worth it and I will make it again. My husband really liked it to and said he would enjoy eating it again. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!

    Reply
  3. This was delicious! I used a box grater (don’t have a spiralizer) and was pleasantly surprised that the zucchini was so noodley. Though I wouldn’t really call it pad thai as it does not contain tamarind

    Reply
  4. Wow was this good! I have really missed Pad Thai since I developed a peanut allergy. I used to buy a bottled gluten free sauce that I loved. This tasted almost the same using some peanut free cashew nut butter I found. 🙂 Thanks so much for the delicious recipe!

    Reply
  5. Love the recipe. I don’t add the agave and I use a little less tamari. One nice addition is raw kelp noodles.

    Reply
  6. I tried this last night and it was a great addition to a growing raw diet. I only julienne cat the zucchini only until I reached the seedy core. I added the cores to the sauce before blending. I also added a few Thai chili peppers to the sauce for some kick. I’ll definitely make this again very soon.

    Reply
  7. I’m eating this right now at my desk at work. This is my first fully raw meal thats not lettuce and tomatoes! It is SOOO GOOD!!!!! Yes I have sauce splashing all over my computer everytime i try to slurp up the noodles (it’s starting to get seriously messy actually), but its worth it!
    Although I didnt expect it to melt down to so little when i opened it up just now. Last night when I made it, I wondered how I was going to get thru all these veggies, but now its a pretty perfect size. I feel bad about all this sauce thats going to get left back tho. What else can I throw it on next time?
    Either way, thank you for this. Lunch today is great!

    Reply
  8. THIS RECIPE IS FANTASTIC!!!! It is soooo good. My favorite so far and I make it all the time now! Thanks for such tasty recipes!!

    Reply
  9. So as there was an abundance of zucchini in my life recently, I googled vegan zucchini recipes and decided to
    try this one out. I would like to say Bravo!!! So delicious and amazing and refreshing and how many other adjectives are there to describe how much I enjoyed this 🙂 Healthy and full of veggies, I do believe it will be a frequent rotation. Thanks so much for sharing your talents with everyone, if
    It weren’t for you food bloggers my diet would be so boring and processed, instead it’s bright and delicious… I can cook but sadly cannot create, so I truly do thank you 🙂

    Reply
    • Hi Ashley! Thanks so much for your kind words! I agree that this recipe is fantastic. I wish I could take the credit for actually creating it! Again, thanks for the kind words and let me know if you make anything else from my site 🙂

      Reply
  10. Just tried this today… So tasty, the sauce is DELICIOUS!!! Thank you so much for this amazing recipe! 😀

    Reply
  11. V-A…stumbled a upon yer site last nite when adds looking for vegan summer recipe saw. I jammed on your theme and created something INCREDIBLY delicious. Used some nice organic brown rice pad Thai noodles and basically merged it with an Asian slaw kind of thing: some lovely young fresh local cabbage green & red; a pepper, chives & jalapeño from the garden; peanuts we chopped up. Tossed it all with a not too sweet but spicy vinegrette: soy sauce; hot chili oil; lime juice; peanut oil; rice vinegar;. Then, riffing on a chicken Caesar, topped the pad Thai salad with some nicely panko crusted & pan fried tofu triangles. Poured an awesome peanut butter sauce: ginger (lots grated on our microplane); garlic; rice vinegar + some balsamic I think. You get the drift, I’m sure. Accompanied by a nice Harpoon UFO and verrrrrrry local massachusetts peaches for desert. We were sated beyond belief!!! . Can’t wait to hit the leftovers for lunch ;-))). BTW: we had a guest over who pitched in on the prep. 3 chefs brought the dish together quickly. Big fun activity to chit chat over.

    I plan own making your apricot/coconut/oat bars soon, and really enjoy your site. Will be passing you on to my neighborhood veganistas. Thanks for the inspiration.

    Reply
  12. I made this for my family and they absolutely LOVED it. There were no left overs and they wanted to slurp up the sauce off their plates.

    Reply
  13. This is really good! Just finished making a giant pot of it for my husband and I. I added some crushed red pepper and cayenne because we love hot food. So nice! Thank you!!!!

    Reply
  14. Thank u so much for this wonderful recipe , it will be my favorite one from now on. Made a huge bowl and ate everything by myself:)

    Reply
  15. Recipe looks great! I’m in the market for a julienne peeler and would prefer not to buy online if possible (I’m in Toronto). The ones I’ve narrowed it down to are: Zyliss (can only find online so far), Titan, and the Kuhn Rikon. I wonder if you can tell me where your mom got the mandoline gloves from and which brand of julienne peeler you used?

    Reply
    • Hi there! My Julienne peeler is from OXO. I think my mom picked it up for me at Homesense/Winners. The mandoline gloves were purchased at a kitchen supply store in Ottawa. You should be able to find some fairly easily in Toronto. Good luck!

      Reply
  16. I loved this recipe. The flavors worked amazingly together, the veggie noodles were very fresh tasting. The sauce thinned out a little too much for me once everything was combined but a delicious dish overall.

    Reply
  17. I have made this twice now and it’s amazing! The second time, I put slightly less tamari and it was perfect. I’ve been sending the recipe to all my friends. Thank you so much for sharing. 🙂

    Reply
  18. Hi Angela,

    A quick note on chopsticks (the photo at the top of the page) in Japanese culture (maybe other Asian cultures too?) Chopsticks are only left in food if it is being offered to the dead-

    I am sure I will get some slack for mentioning this- Nothing against your awesome recipes- just the photo

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Thanks for stopping by! I’ve just added you to my “Toronto Vegans” RSS subscription folder so we can keep in touch. I see that you’re doing Vegan MoFo too, that’s awesome. I love this time of year! 🙂

      Reply
  19. Everyone seems to be making the raw pad thai lately. I love Julie Danyluks book, I’ve made many recipes from there and there is few that I like

    Reply
  20. I’ve now made this twice. It was delicious! The only tweak I made was reducing the soy sauce a bit. The “noodles” stayed nice and crunchy and the fresh cilantro gave it a really fresh taste.

    Reply
  21. I’m so pleased we found your recipe. We had a giant patty pan from the garden and were about to make vegan zucchini bread when we ran across your creation. Made some mandolin noodles and whipped up the dressing in no time. Delicious! Thank you.

    Reply
  22. I just put this together and it looks so good!! I can’t wait to eat it later. My sister and her husband recently went vegan and I am so inspired by their commitment to their health. My boyfriend and I have decided to also change our diets. I am also gluten free so that can make things a bit complicated. I was very happy to find this recipe and I am looking forward to finding more!

    Reply
  23. I am about a year in to vegan eating and love Pad Thai, but this has to be the BEST Pad Thai I’ve had, EVER!!

    Reply
  24. So glad that you’re back and that you had a wonderful trip! I had been intermittently checking for new posts and was so happy to see an overview from your trek across the world, both because the photos were beautiful and that that meant more delicious recipes were forthcoming. This Pad Thai is on my to-do dinner list for next week. I’m very excited to give it a try! This has sort of been a Vegangela week (perhaps in celebration of our return?) as I made the enchiladas, tangled salad dressing (both fantastic) and am going to give the spicy quinoa and bean salad a try. I have been eating a vegan diet for a year, and have never enjoyed food so much in my life as I do now (I just celebrated one year of a vegan diet in NYC eating some of the most incredible food I have ever tasted). Exploring interesting ingredients and preparing new recipes has become a real interest and passion of mine since changing the way that I eat, and your blog has been an integral part of the fun! Thanks for sharing such tasty, healthy and easy recipes!

    Reply
    • This just totally made my day – THANK YOU! I’m so glad to hear that my recipes are of use! My life has changed so much lately and it’s hard to keep up, but I promise to get new recipes up as soon as I can 🙂

      Reply
  25. This looks fantastic! Love raw recipes and this is a keeper for sure! Thanks for sharing…excellent blog by the way. I love Toronto – Such a beautiful, clean city. Enjoy it and keep sharing…Stormy ( wickedlydeliciousfoods.blogspot.com & atwistoflife.blogspot.com )

    Reply
  26. I feel kind of weird saying this, but I’ve never made a raw pad thai. I went to raw food school in California and we made all kinds of incredible, mind-blowing meals, but not Pad Thai, not even in my own curious home experiments. Totally adding this recipe to my excessive Pinterest collection! And I can’t wait to hear about some Toronto restaurants so I can drool over them a year before I move!

    Reply
    • Hi Allysia! Yeah I’m kind of surprised that I’ve never made a raw pad thai before either. I’ve been on the veggie “noodles” kick for some time, and I love thai-style peanut-based sauces, so you’d think that I would have put two and two together at some point! Anyway, I love this recipe and just had to share it. You’re going to love Toronto. There are so many good vegan options here and I’ve only begun to scratch the surface!

      Reply

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