Day 8 - Thailand - World Cup Eating Challenge 2015

Thailand is one of the countries I made last year when I tried to spin off the World Cup Eating Challenge. It's actually a very easy cuisine to do Paleo as it usually uses fresh ingredients and coconut milk. Noodles are really the only obstacle but they are pretty easy to substitute for.

Last year, I made my favorite Thai dishes - red curry and spring rolls. As much as I wanted to create those tasty items again, I knew there were a lot of other great options. My first favorite Thai dish was Pad Thai so that seemed like one good option. A friend also suggested larb which is like a lettuce wrap. They seemed like they would complement each other well.

Zoodle Pad Thai

A friend of mine had actually posted this many months ago. I thought about asking her for the recipe but it was kind of last minute and her birthday so I figured I could just find it easily online. I was super totally wrong. I found some zoodle pad thai recipes that would turn out to use lots of sugar or not have a sauce. I'd find paleo recipes that looked terrible. I'd also find (and I get this a lot actually) "paleo" recipes that would actually be completely regular recipes. I decided I was going to have to do a combination of recipes to make this work. I normally don't mind an odd substitution but for this the substitutions weren't for a flour or bread product (I don't consider zoodles a substition for noodles here because it's something I'm very familiar with) - they'd be core ingredients of the sauce... and I hadn't had Pad Thai in many years.

But isn't that the fun of a challenge?

I used two core recipes - one paleo and one not. I took the ingredients for the paleo version's sauce (4 tbsp almond butter, 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar, 2 tbsp fish sauce , 1-2 tbsp sriracha sauce, 1 tbsp ginger, fresh or ground, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 2 tbsp soy sauce or coconut aminos). This tasted terrible. It was really clearly lacking. I referenced the non paleo version and realized it needed a couple of limes and a tablespoon of honey. That added the necessary acidity and sweetness.

Now it was time to start cooking. I browned my chicken and set it aside. While that was cooking, I julienned some carrots and bell peppers. It said to "matchstick" them. I'm clearly some sort of pyro because my matchsticks were 4 inches long...

When the chicken was ready, I took it out of the pan, added some coconut oil, and sauteed the bell pepper and carrots. I then used a spiralizer to turn my zucchini into zoodles. I added the sauce and zoodles to the pan and then reintroduced the chicken as well as some pre-cooked frozen shrimp.

Spiralizer and/or vegetable torture device

I let that all simmer together and had some beautiful zoodle pad thai. I love the way it turned out and my only suggestion would be for your matchstick peppers and carrots to actually be matchstick size. Mine were kind of out of control and almost seemed like another alternative noodle. I also got a little crazy with my spiralizer and had super long zoodles. If that happens, just cut them every six inches or so. Longer isn't always better.

Larb

The larb was also a mix of two recipes. I basically threw the ground pork into the frying pan while I figured out what I wanted to do. I loved the color of one but the ingredients of the other. I ended up going with fish sauce, lime, shallots, green onions, red onions, lemon grass, chili garlic sauce (which I found!!!), garlic, and cilantro. I chopped all of that up and added it to the cooked pork and let that all simmer together. When it was done, I topped it with some mint and served it on ice berg lettuce leaves.

Seriously - it was all that simple. Thai food is so much about the flavor and fresh ingredients that it's easy to forget how simple it is. Italian food is very similar in that way. It's a big joke how easy it is but really amazing Italian food is spectacular, usually because it hones in on fresh, sharp flavors.

I've been able to have Thai leftovers for a few days now and it makes me want to keep exploring this awesome cuisine! Dan may abstain though. The spice level was definitely a little high for him and he didn't love this dinner as much as others.