Recipe of the Month: Sprout Pad Thai

We're starting 2023 off on the right foot with a new Recipe of the Month that's really focused on the vegetables. Like many of the other recipes we've tried lately, this one uses low-carb veggies in place of starchier foods—in this case, pad Thai noodles. But we had to make some adjustments to the recipe to make it a truly low-carb dish.

Last Thanksgiving, my brother-in-law asked if I would be interested in trying a recipe he had found for sprout pad Thai, made with a combination of Brussels sprouts and bean sprouts in place of the noodles. I enthusiastically assented, but he ended up not making it because he didn't have all the ingredients he needed. Instead he prepared plain roasted Brussels sprouts, which I also love. But I was still curious about the sprout pad Thai recipe, so at my request, he emailed it to me to try at home.

However, he warned that as written, it contained a "ridiculous amount of sugar": half a cup of brown sugar for a full batch, or a quarter-cup for the half-sized batch (about 3 servings) we planned to make. This isn't quite as absurd as it sounds, since the first step in the recipe is to melt the sugar with water and cook it down to form a caramel, which serves as the base for the sauce. But with four teaspoons of sugar in a fairly small serving, it clearly wasn't going to work for us.

To fix this, Brian started by cutting the sugar in half. Then he spread this reduced-sugar sauce over a much larger volume of vegetables by serving the entire mixture over additional cooked bean sprouts. And finally, to balance out the remaining carbs with more protein, he added half a pound of tofu, prepared according to his usual method for stir-fries (diced, tossed with soy sauce, and fried until crisp). With these emendations, he figured I could eat one-third of the half-sized batch without going over my carb limits for the meal.

He also had to make a couple of additional changes. The recipe as written mentioned garlic in the instructions, but it didn't include it in the ingredient list. Brian decided this meant that he could just add as much garlic as he wanted, so he went with two cloves for the half-batch (the equivalent of four for a full batch). And he omitted the cilantro the recipe called for, since we didn't have any and I don't care much for it anyway.

The revised recipe (for a full batch) looks like this:

Sprout Pad Thai

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar and 1/4 cup water and stir over medium-low heat until the sauce until the sauce turns deep amber and has the consistency of caramel (about 15 minutes). Remove from heat and let cool slightly, then stir in 1/2 tsp. ground white pepper, 4 cloves minced garlic, 6 Tbsp. fish sauce, and 2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice. Return mixture to low heat and warm through, stirring until a smooth sauce forms (about 4 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Toss 2 lb. Brussels sprouts with 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil. Arrange on a sheet pan cut side down and sprinkle lightly with salt. Roast, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until tender, golden brown, and charred in spots (25 to 30 minutes).
4. While sprouts are roasting, cut 1 lb. tofu into small cubes. Sprinkle lightly with soy sauce and fry in vegetable oil until crisp. Set aside. In the same pan, saute 4 cups mung bean sprouts until slightly wilted. Finely chop 1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts and thinly slice 3 scallions.
   
5. When sprouts are done, transfer to a large bowl and toss with the sauce. Let the mixture cool slightly, then add in the scallions, peanuts, 1 tsp. chili powder, and 1 cup of the cooked bean sprouts and toss again.
   
6. Serve mixture over the remaining cooked bean sprouts, with the cubed tofu, lime wedges, and cilantro leaves (optional) on the side.

This recipe spanned the full range of flavors: sweet brown sugar, tart lime juice, a little heat from the chili powder, a bit of salt and a ton of umami from the fish sauce, and just a trace of bitterness from the sprouts. All in all, it packed a considerably bigger taste punch than the carb-laden pad Thai we used to make with starchy rice noodles. The texture of the cooked bean sprouts was not the same as the noodles, of course, but with all those different flavors throwing a party in my mouth, I didn't really miss them. 

The only downside of this veggie-packed recipe is that, with not much in it but veggies, it doesn't have a lot of staying power. A big bowlful of bean sprouts, mixed vegetables, and tofu made for a satisfying meal, but a couple of hours later I was hungry again. But on the other hand, I usually end up having a little snack after dinner anyway, so if you look at the total amount of food I ate at dinner and afterwards, I probably ended up taking in fewer calories in total with this sprout-based pad Thai than I would have if I'd dined on the traditional, starchy version. And I certainly consumed a larger dose of healthy veggies.

In short, as long as we can continue to find cheap Brussels sprouts on sale at Lidl and/or Trader Joe's, I think this recipe's a keeper. It will come in particularly handy during the winter months, when there isn't as good a variety of fresh produce available.