• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Roots and Radishes

  • Home
  • Recipes
  • About
  • Subscribe
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Subscribe
  • Recipes
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • TikTok
    • Twitter
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Subscribe
    • Recipes
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • TikTok
    • Twitter
  • ×

    Home » Dinner

    Pad Pak (Thai Stir-fried Vegetables)

    July 4, 2022 by Tera Leave a Comment

    Sharing is caring!

    6 shares
    • Share
    • Tweet
    Two gray bowls with pad pak, served with brown rice, with limes wedges and cilantro on the side
    Pad pak in sauté pan with simple Thai stir fry sauce

    Pad pak, or Thai stir-fried vegetables, is the perfect weeknight dinner because it's quick, easy, and SO delicious! This pad pak recipe is flexible, so you can use it with the veggies I use below, or use any seasonal veggies you have on hand.

    Pad pak in sauté pan with simple Thai stir fry sauce this recipe

    So here's what's up: We're in a sort of Thai stir fry obsessed situation over at our household, what with all the CSA veggies we're picking up every other week. And you guys, pad pak is the weeknight dinner of your dreams.

    "Pad pak" simply means "stir-fried vegetables". Whether you're new to Thai cooking at home or you're a pro, this Thai vegetable stir fry is one to put on repeat. With the simplest of stir fry sauce ingredients and combination of essential Thai flavors, this pad pak recipe comes together in 20 minutes TOPS.

    Jump to:
    • Ingredients
    • Instructions
    • Essential Thai Ingredients
    • Substitutions & Variations
    • Equipment
    • Storage
    • Pad Pak FAQs
    • Top Tip
    • Pad Pak (Thai Stir-fried Vegetables)

    Ingredients

    This pad pak is packed with veggies, edamame for plant-based protein, and just a few ingredients for a simple Thai stir fry sauce.

    Pad pak ingredients on gray and white surface
    • Baby bok choy - Bok choy works too!
    • Turnips - OMG you guys, I had no idea how much I liked turnips until I got them fresh from my CSA. They soak up the flavors of stir fry sauce perfectly.
    • Onion - Alliums are foundational for building any Thai meal. I used a basic yellow onion in this recipe, but any kind of onion will do!
    • Garlic - Same as onions, garlic is essential to building a delicious Thai stir fry.
    • Ginger - Fresh ginger root works best here, but I'm not beyond shortcuts 😉 If you have a ginger paste on hand, you can use that too. I always have the kind from the Ginger People in my fridge.
    • Fresh red chile peppers - If you can find Thai red chiles, use those! I only had Fresno chiles at my local grocery store, which will work perfectly. Honestly, any chile pepper you can find will work, or a scoop of chili pepper paste in a pinch.
    • Coconut oil - For the cooking the veggies.
    • Tamari - Provides a delicious umami and salty flavor.
    • Fish sauce - Thai food as about balancing sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, and salty. Rather than salt, we use fish sauce in this pad pak! In the picture above, I combined the fish sauce and tamari in one small bowl.
    • Coconut or brown sugar - Just a bit of coconut or brown sugar balances out the salt and spice.
    • Cashews - For incredible flavor and crunch. I love how cashews soak up the flavor of the soy sauce!
    • Edamame - Preferably the shelled kind, for plant-based protein! I usually find shelled edamame in the frozen section at the grocery store.
    • Green onions, cilantro, fresh lime - All of these are great for serving!

    Instructions

    Check out the easy steps below for how to make this quick and easy pad pak.

    Chopped turnips, baby bok choy, red chili peppers, garlic, ginger, and sliced onions on bamboo cutting board

    Prep your veggies by thinly slicing onions, mincing garlic, grating ginger, and slicing up the chile peppers. You can also dice the turnip and chop the bok choy so you're ready to add them.

    Sliced onions, chili peppers, garlic, and ginger being sautéed in coconut oil

    Heat some coconut oil over medium-high heat in a large sauté pan or wok. Add onions, garlic, ginger, and chiles, and sauté for about 5 minutes, until soft.

    Pad pak veggies in large sauté pan with bamboo spoon

    Turn up the heat to high, and add bok choy and turnips. Sauté for another 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently.

    Pad pak veggies with edamame and cashes just added into sauté pan, with bamboo spoon

    Add edamame and cashews, and stir fry for another 2 minutes. We want the veggies to be HOT!

    Pad pak in sauté pan with simple Thai stir fry sauce
    Two gray bowls with pad pak, served with brown rice, with limes wedges and cilantro on the side

    Add the tamari, fish sauce, and brown sugar straight to the pan, and stir fry for about 2 more minutes. Because of the high heat, the tamari should sizzle as soon as it hits the pan!

    Poke a turnip (or the hardest veggie you used) with a fork to make sure it's cooked all the way through, then remove veggies from heat. Serve with brown rice (or noodles), green onions, cilantro, and lime!

    Essential Thai Ingredients

    Part of the reason Thai food is so delicious is that it's a balance of spicy, salty, sour, bitter, and sweet all at once! To achieve these flavors, I always keep the below ingredients on hand.

    • Alliums - Onions and garlic form the base for most Thai recipes and add incredible flavor.
    • Chiles - Fresh chiles are what make Thai recipes spicy! Spicy chile pastes will work, but you can also use fresh chiles like we did with our Thai stir-fried veggies.
    • Fish sauce - Rather than using salt in Thai recipes, you can add saltiness via fish sauce.
    • Tamari (or soy sauce) - A common ingredient across most Asian cuisine, soy sauce adds a salty, umami flavor.
    • Coconut or brown sugar - Because Thai food has a lot of salty, spicy, or even sour flavors, it's typically balanced out with a little coconut or brown sugar.
    • Coconut milk - We didn't use any coconut milk in this pad pak recipe, but it's worth noting that coconut milk is an essential for many Thai soups and curries. Full fat canned coconut milk is the best for flavor and convenience!
    • Curry paste - Various types of curry paste form the base for many a Thai curry! Thai red, green, or yellow curry paste are essential and impart such incredible flavor. You can make your own, but I like the Thai Kitchen products by McCormick, which are available in most stores.
    • Cilantro - One common fresh herb for fresh Thai cooking. I especially love using fresh cilantro to top Thai dishes like curry, stir fry, or peanut noodles!
    • Thai basil - OMG Thai basil is so good! Where I live, it's a lot easier to find it at the farmers market or as a full plant to grow at home (at the grocery store or wherever you buy plants for your garden). You could use regular sweet basil if you can't find Thai basil, but Thai basil will get you that truly authentic Thai food taste.
    • Ginger - Ginger is one of the most commons spices found in Thai dishes, and it's delicious with all of the above ingredients. I love to use fresh when I can, but I also frequently use a store-bought ginger paste for convenience.
    Pad pak in sauté pan with simple Thai stir fry sauce

    Substitutions & Variations

    Thai vegetable stir fries are SO flexible! Pretty much any veggie will taste good with Thai flavors, so feel free to use up what you have. Below are some substitutions and variations you can try to make this recipe work for you!

    • Veggies - Keep the base of onions, ginger, garlic, and chile peppers, but feel free to replace the bok choy and turnips with what you're craving or have available to you. You can add sugar snap peas, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, eggplant, broccoli, green beans... the options are endless! I especially love making stir fries with spring, summer, and fall local produce as it comes in season.
    • Peanuts - While I used cashews in this pad pak, peanuts would also be delicious! I love the added slight crunch that nuts add to a Thai veggie stir fry.
    • Vegetarian - the beef hamburger can be replaced with a plant-based burger to make this vegetarian
    • Protein - Add a protein of choice to your pad pak! For meat, sauté that first and set aside while you stir fry the vegetables. Add the meat in 1-2 minutes before the end of stir frying -- I recommend adding the cooked meat back in at the same time you add the edamame and cashews. You also try adding in additional plant-based protein, like tofu or chickpeas. Or, try topping it with a fried or hard-boiled egg!

    Equipment

    If you have a wok that you use for stir fries, that would be perfect for pad pak. I don't actually have a wok, but rather I use a large, heavy-bottomed sauté pan! Your sauté pan needs to be large so that you have enough room to stir the veggies around and get all sides exposed to the heat and flavors.

    Two gray bowls with pad pak, served with brown rice, with limes wedges and cilantro on the side

    Storage

    Store the stir fry ingredients in your fridge in an airtight container for up to a week. You can store toppings like green onions and cilantro in a separate container to keep them fresh. It's up to you whether you store noodles and/or rice separately -- sometimes I just mix them in 🙂

    You can also freeze stir fried vegetables for up to three months an airtight container. Allow the pad pak to cool completely to avoid any condensation freezing inside the container.

    Pad Pak FAQs

    Is pad pak vegan?

    Pad pak is veggie-based, but it will only be vegan if you remove the fish sauce. Feel free to omit and add in more tamari or soy sauce to make it vegan!

    What is pad pak?

    Simply put, it's Thai stir fried vegetables. To make stir fry vegetables "Thai" flavored, we use essential Thai ingredients like alliums, ginger, red chiles, tamari, fish sauce, fresh cilantro, a touch of brown sugar, and lime.

    Top Tip

    The best stir fries are flash-fried, i.e. stir fried for a short period of time over high heat, which saves your veggies from becoming overcooked or mushy. That's why we got our pan & veggies super hot before adding the tamari and fish sauce, which quickly cooks them down a bit before we remove them from the heat.

    Print

    Pad Pak (Thai Stir-fried Vegetables)

    Print Recipe

    This pad pak is SO delicious, healthy, and easy to make! Use the veggies I used here, or use whatever you have on hand, and get a better-than-takeout weeknight dinner on the table fast.

    • Author: Tera
    • Prep Time: 10 minutes
    • Cook Time: 10 minutes
    • Total Time: 20 minutes
    • Yield: 4 servings 1x
    • Category: Dinner
    • Method: Stir Fry
    • Cuisine: Thai

    Ingredients

    Units Scale
    • 1 tablespoon coconut oil
    • 1 small onion, sliced thinly into half moons
    • 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
    • ½-inch fresh ginger, grated
    • 2-3 fresh red chiles
    • 1 bunch baby bok choy, chopped
    • 3 turnips, diced medium-sized
    • 1-2 cups shelled edamame
    • ½ cup cashews
    • ⅓ cup tamari
    • ½ teaspoon fish sauce
    • 2 teaspoons brown sugar (or coconut sugar)
    • Green onions, cilantro, and limes for serving

    Instructions

    1. Sweat onions, ginger, & chiles. Heat coconut oil over medium-high heat in a large, heavy-bottomed sauté pan. Add onion, garlic, ginger, and red chiles, and sauté until softened, about five minutes.
    2. Bok choy, turnips, edamame, & cashews. Turn up the heat to high, add the baby bok choy and turnips, and sauté for another minute, stirring frequently. Then add edamame and cashews, and sauté for another minute, stirring frequently. You want the temperature of pan to be nice and hot before adding the sauce.
    3. Add sauce. Add the tamari, fish sauce, and brown sugar directly to the veggies in the sauté pan. Allow it to sizzle and start to cook the veggies down a bit more. Continue to fry the veggies for 1-2 more minutes, stirring frequently to coat everything in the sauce. Careful not to overcook the veggies!
    4. Remove from heat & serve. Poke a turnip (or your longest cooking veggie) with a fork to make sure it's cooked all the way through, then remove the pan from heat. Serve the pad pak over jasmine rice or rice noodles!

    Notes

    1. Edamame. I recommend using frozen shelled edamame and 
    2. Rice & noodles. Depending on the kind of rice you use, you may need to start the rice earlier than the pad pak because some rice takes longer to cook than the pad pak itself.

    Keywords: pad pak, Thai stir fry vegetables

    Did you make this recipe?

    If you loved this recipe, please consider giving it a star rating (below)! Star ratings help Roots and Radishes recipes reach more people, which helps support the continued production of our content. Also, we'd LOVE to see what you make! Tag @rootsnradishes on Instagram and hashtag it #rootsnradishes

    More Healthy Dinner Recipes

    • Lemon dill salmon pieces topped with lemon slices, on dark gray plate with fork
      Weeknight Lemon Dill Salmon
    • Pesto pasta with spring roasted veggies in beige bowl with golden fork on gray and white surface with parsley sprinkled around
      Pesto Pasta with Spring Roasted Veggies
    • Two healthy white chicken enchiladas on dark gray plate with cilantro and fork
      Favorite Healthy White Chicken Enchiladas
    • Three chorizo tacos and three lime wedges on gray plate, on light blue and white surface
      Simple Chorizo Tacos

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe rating ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    Yum

    Welcome to Roots and Radishes! Here you'll find healthy, simple whole foods recipes for home cooks. I'm Tera -- the author, recipe developer, and photographer behind this site. Have a look around!

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Popular Right Now

    • Simple coconut chia granola on parchment paper lined sheet pan
      Simple Coconut Chia Granola
    • Chickpea flour pie crust in clear glass pie dish on pastry mat
      All Butter Chickpea Flour Pie Crust
    • Vinegar cucumber salad in small white bowl with freshly cracked pepper on top
      Vinegar Cucumber Salad
    • Spelt flour banana bread with chocolate chips in loaf pan lined with parchment paper
      Spelt Flour Banana Bread

    Make this for Spring

    • Lemon dill hummus in beige serving dish with olive oil drizzled on top, with golden spoon
      Easy Lemon Dill Hummus
    • Lemon dill salmon pieces topped with lemon slices, on dark gray plate with fork
      Weeknight Lemon Dill Salmon
    • One skillet chicken with leeks and farro in cast iron skillet fresh out of the oven with lemon slices on top, wooden spoon, teal linen around the handle, on white and blue surface
      One Skillet Chicken with Leeks and Farro
    • Healthy egg salad sandwich, open-faced with top slice of sourdough on the side, on dark gray plate, on light gray surface
      Healthy Egg Salad with Greek Yogurt
    save 20% at feastdesignco.com

    Connect with me

    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Snapchat
    • TikTok
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    Info

    • About
    • Privacy Policy

    Newsletter

    • Sign Up! for recipes and updates

    Contact

    • Contact
    • Services

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2023 Roots and Radishes on the Foodie Pro Theme

    Copyright © 2023 Roots and Radishes on the Foodie Pro Theme

    6 shares