How much do you love pad thai? Because if you love it as much as I do, then you’re totally going to dig these particular vegan lettuce wraps. Crunchy bib lettuce cradles peanut pad thai vermicelli rice noodles, on top of which rest ribbons of fresh, colorful vegetables and rice-flour coated, pan-fried crispy tofu.
If that sounds appealing to you, then all board! Whisk your taste buds away on a these pad thai lettuce boats, and set sail for the land of delicious thai flavors with refreshing raw veg, all contained in a hand-held, slightly messy but always worth the mess, vegan lettuce wrap.
Continue reading to discover several secrets to preparing the perfect pad thai lettuce wrap, or click on the links below to delve into specific question you may have.
The Rice Noodle Illusion
An important part to nailing this recipe is to obtain a healthy ratio of cooked rice noodle to sauce. That’s what I’m here for: to remind you that half a pack of rice noodles is more than enough pasta to make four, packed-full-of-noodle pad thai lettuce wraps.
Isn’t it so often, in regards to uncooked pasta, that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs? When we’re hungry, we have a tendency to dump an entire box or bag of pasta into the boiling pot water, convinced that it may just be enough to sate our appetite. But it behooves us to remember that dry pasta is never the same going in as it is coming out; it expands and inflates when boiled in water, and so a seemingly insufficient amount of dry pasta can double or triple in size once finished cooking.
This goes for the rice noodles, especially. Though they seem light and brittle and potentially un-fulfilling upon first glance, once boiled they become quite adept at filling out, as well as filling us up, and faster than you may have expected, initially.
For this reason, half a standard pack of vermicelli rice noodles ought to do (a standard pack of 8.8 ounces), and even then, you don’t have to use all of the cooked noodles in the recipe – two-thirds of the entire cooked amount is often the perfect ratio in combination with the peanut pad thai sauce. But, you can add the total amount of rice noodles, if you wish.
The trick to rice noodles is to rinse them in cold water immediately after you’re done cooking them. This helps to prevent the noodles from sticking and clumping together, so that you maintain the texture of the beautiful, silken strands of translucent rice pasta.
Bippity Boppity Boo Tofu
Yes, tofu is a wondrous ingredient, but a misunderstood one, too. You have to invest to time to transform, transmute, and transfigure it! It’s basically like the Cinderella of vegan staples, and you the fairy god mother. I’ll show you one way to do that here.
We’ll be using extra-firm or firm tofu – like this Nasoya Extra-Firm Tofu – for these pad thai vegan lettuce wraps. I find that extra-firm is the most reliable kind of tofu for most savory dishes. While extra-firm or firm tofu can be prepared deliciously in a variety of ways, i.e. marinated, baked, blended, rubbed, coated, fried, ect., I almost always press it first. Pressing tofu removes excess moisture and helps to alleviate some of that initial flubbery-ness that can sometimes put people off from it.
How To Press Your Own Tofu Without a Tofu Press
It’s easy enough to press tofu at home without having to buy any fancy equipment. All you need is two cutting boards, dish towels/padded cloths, and some heavy object(s) that can evenly distribute their weight over a surface.
1. Remove the tofu from the container, drain it, and then cut it into even slabs. Place the slabs on a cutting board, and pad them with a some paper towels followed by a couple evenly folded dish towels.
2. Place the second cutting board evenly on top of the dish towels, and then your heavy object(s) – I use a couple cast-iron pans – on top of the second cutting board, directly in the center so as to evenly distribute the weight, and thus press the tofu evenly.
3. Allow the tofu to press for 30 minutes for a drier tofu, but less if you want a more moist tofu.
Once you master the technique of pressing tofu, you’ll see an immediate transformation in your ability to impart flavor to it via marinades, as well as an overall more pleasant texture of the tofu after it’s cooked.
This is the prerequisite before you bippity boppity boo tofu for a perfect vegan lettuce wrap garnish.
Bib for Your Bib
Here, bib lettuce is the vessel for this particular vegan lettuce wrap. It’s soft, tasty, beautifully colored, and has plenty of space for the other ingredients to nestle comfortably along its inner rib.
Admittedly, the problem with bib lettuce is that it does not hold its shape as well as a stalwart leaf of romaine lettuce would. Therefore, the contents of the wrap can at times spill out and roll around. Be sure not to overload the boat when you’re assembling the vegan lettuce wraps if you’re using a softer lettuce like bib or butter. With a smaller portion of everything, they’ll be easier to eat.
That’s one solution to a more eat-able lettuce boat, while the other is to use a heartier, more structurally sound type of lettuce. The most important is to choose the kind of lettuce that looks freshest and most edible, be it bib, butter or romaine.
Additionally, another step you can take to ensure that your lettuce boat stays afloat is to double up on the lettuce; two layers of lettuce bolsters and reinforces the wrap even more, so that it won’t flip and flop everywhere. Doubling up on the lettuce works especially well for long, thin strips of romaine lettuce, more so than bib or butter lettuces. I would heartily recommend this method of eating these vegan lettuce wraps.
Vegan Pad Thai Lettuce Wraps
Truly, these pad thai vegan lettuce wraps are a lighter way of eating pad thai. Lighter in the sense that you have easily edible vermicelli rice noodles, cool rather than hot, inside a crisp, cooling lettuce wrap.
I encourage you to give these a try, especially if you’re in the mood for a pad thai that’ll refresh and delight as you casually eat it hand-held on hot summer day.
Pad Thai Lettuce Wraps with Crispy Tofu
Ingredients
- A couple leaves of bib lettuce, big or small leaves, romaine may also work
- ½ (~ 4.4 oz.) pack vermicelli rice noodles
- ½ cup green onions, roughly chopped
- 1 large carrot, sliced thinly
- ½ orange bell pepper, sliced thinly
- ½ red bell pepper, sliced thinly
- ¼ red onion, sliced thinly
- Some unsalted peanuts, for garnish
- Some cilantro, for garnish
- Some lime wedges, for garnish
For the Pad Thai Peanut Sauce
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons seasoned rice wine vinegar
- ¼ cup low-sodium tamari
- 1 – 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, finely grated
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar, coconut sugar works too
- 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
For the Crispy Tofu
- ½ (~7 oz.) pack extra-firm tofu, pressed for 30 minutes and cut into ½''-inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons white rice flour
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Begin by cutting the tofu into a couple sections and pressing it for 30 minutes. Then, once pressed, cut the tofu into ½-inch cubes.
- Boil a couple quarts of water in a large pot, and prepare the rice noodles. Vermicelli rice noodles only take 2 – 3 minutes until tender.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together all the pad thai sauce ingredients until smooth.
- Prepare the vegetables, including slicing the peppers and carrots and onion, but also washing and drying the bib lettuce.
- Heat ½ tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, and then coat the cubes of pressed tofu in rice flour. Drop the tofu into the skillet, and fry until they become crispy, about 3 – 4 minutes.
- Assemble the lettuce wraps by combining about ⅔ of the total rice noodles with the pad thai sauce. If it seems like you need more, then add the rest of the noodles. Next, lay out the lettuce, top with the noodles and veggies, and then with the garnishes, as well as with sriracha or whatever other sauces you'd like.
Nutrition
I sincerely hope that you enjoyed these pad thai vegan lettuce wraps. If you did, rate the recipe, as well as comment down below to let me know how it went for you!
Also, if you’re looking for more fresh and low oil plant-based recipes, check out the category, Oil-Free Vegan Recipes.
May you have good food in good company,
That Vegan Nephew
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