Today’s recipe post actually happened a bit by accident. I was planning another recipe post and quickly whizzed this up for lunch without noticing how delicious it actually is!
I am a big Pad Thai fan from all my trips to Thailand but find sometimes it can be a bit tricky to digest.
Even if I can find a restaurant that offers gluten-free pad thai recipe; it still has lots of oil, fibrous peanuts and beansprouts.
Today I’m offering a much easier to digest, gluten-free Pad Thai recipe that I make time and time again.
It uses gluten-free soy sauce, courgettes instead of bean sprouts and peanut butter (which for many is easier to digest for some than raw peanuts). Like the sound of this recipe? You can also read my 10 gluten and dairy free thai recipes.
I know lots of my readers have different diets so please read the below and how you can adapt this recipe if you’re on the low fodmap diet, the low fibre/residue diet or just want to make some tweaks.
Nutrition Notes: gluten-free pad thai recipe
I have included the nutritional breakdown for this gluten-free pad thai recipe too as I know lots of you are interested in that aspect of things.
The key points here are…
-If you are trying to include more vegetables in your diet but find them hard to digest, courgettes are a good place to start. If you’re on the low residue diet, just eliminate the courgettes or replace with soft, well cooked vegetables such as sweet potato.
-Courgettes are fairly low in fibre and break down easily. They contain soluble fibre which is kinder to the gut- to begin with, peel them, slice them finely and use 1/4-1/2 courgette per person. Make sure they’re cooked well.
-The recipe is high in protein, low in sugar, contains anti-inflammatories (from the ginger, turmeric and black pepper).
-It also contains Vitamin B12 (from the Nutritional yeast)
-The only thing to watch for this recipe is the fat content. I’ve used coconut oil but you can just as easily use a lower fat oil to bring this down.
-The cashews are much easier to digest in cashew butter form but do contain some fats so use sparingly.
-You can use brown rice noodles or white noodles.
-Brown noodles do have a higher amount of fibre so I usually use white ones (easily available in the Thai aisle of a supermarket) when my gut is flaring.
-A note if you’re on the low FODMAP diet: Much of this recipe will not need changing but you’ll need to make the following amendments: use garlic oil instead of garlic, replace cashew butter for peanut or almond butter and make sure courgettes are a maximum of 65g.
Gut Friendly Gluten Free Pad Thai
This gluten and dairy free pad thai is great for your gut and super quick to make.
Ingredients
- - 2 cups of rice noodles (pre-cooked or dry depending on preference)
- - 2 chicken breasts, diced
- - 1 courgette (max 65g if on the low FODMAP diet)
- - 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, or olive oil if preferred
- - 1-2 tablespoons of chicken seasoning (check label if on the low FODMAP diet)
- - 2 tablespoons of gluten-free soy sauce.
- - 1 thumbsize piece of ginger.
- - 1 garlic clove (use garlic oil if on the low FODMAP diet)
- - 1-2 slices of lime
- - 1 teaspoon of cashew nut butter (swap for peanut butter or almond butter if on the low FODMAP diet)
- -Nutritonal Yeast, optional
- - 1 teaspoon of turmeric, optional
- - Black pepper for seasoning, optional
Instructions
- Add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil to frying pan and heat.
- Finely chop ginger and garlic and add to pan. Cook until they brown.
- Peel and finely slice courgette and add this to the pan.
- Add diced chicken, and chicken seasoning. cook until lightly browned (around 6-8 minutes)
- Add in noodles (if you buy dry rice noodles; you'll need to boil these in water beforehand for five minutes) and stir fry with chicken and courgette for 2 minutes.
- Add soy sauce, turmeric and squeeze over the juice of 1 slice of lime.
- Add 1 teaspoon of nut butter and melt in pan, stirring through.
- Turn pan off heat. Add in a sprinkle of black pepper, nutritional yeast and a final squeeze of lime.
Notes
Calories 328.5g per serving (this can easily be lowered by replacing coconut oil with frylight spray)
If on slimming world, switch to frylight and syn the cashew nut butter (2.75 syns per serving). Everything else is syn free!
Before you go, why not read...10 GLUTEN AND DAIRY FREE THAI DISHES.
And if you’re cooking for a family and want a restaurant-style Pad Thai with all the traditional flavours, Paola’s family Pad Thai chicken recipe is the first instalment of our new Raising Adventurous Eaters series, brought home from a Saturday trip to Rosa’s Thai Oxford. This one uses tamarind, bean sprouts and fish sauce for the authentic weeknight version, rather than Jenna’s gentler, easier-to-digest adaptation on this page. If you’re having a flare, stick with this recipe, it’s the one your gut wants. Save Paola’s for a better week.
