Easy Tofu Pad Thai Bowls

The holidays are a busy time, so today I’m sharing with you a recipe that I make often when life is busy, and I want to be able to have something that’s nourishing, but quick and easy to whip up at the same time.

These easy tofu pad Thai bowls with almond butter sauce were something that I made on a fly one night for Mattie and I. We were on the hunt for a good peanut sauce to pair with tofu and pad Thai noodles. We tried this sweet & spicy almond butter sauce from More with Less and fell in love. This almond butter sauce is finger licking good, and so good that we were both dipping our broccolini and green beans into the sauce.

This is an easy meatless “girl” dinner and a lot of the components (marinated tofu, almond butter sauce) can be made ahead, so when you get home from a busy day, all you just have to sauté up the tofu, cook up the noodles, and roast a side veggie, as we all could use a bit more veggies in our diet. The veggies only take 7 minutes to cook, so no excuses. 

Below is a video that I shared on my instagram stories when I was trying to think through dinner for a busy weeknight. It kind of shows you how I think through meal prep, and how I use what I have already.

There are so many options to this bowl, you could use my black forbidden rice instead of Pad Thai noodles, you could also substitute shredded chicken for the tofu, as we’ve done on occasion. The chicken can be roasted and shredded ahead of time, think Sunday menu prepping.  

Easy Tofu Pad Thai Bowls

For the Bowls

• Crispy Tofu – see my recipe for quick and easy sautéed tofu – this tofu can be marinated in the morning and then set aside in the fridge all day, or 20 minutes prior to sautéing, as it only needs 20 minutes to marinate. You could also use shredded chicken in lieu of the tofu.
• 1 package Pad Thai noodles – we used Lotus Organic Brown Rice Pad Thai noodles – you can also make use my oven baked black forbidden rice instead of pad Thai noodles. It’s amazing too!
• 2 bunches brocollini, ends trimmed – you can also use green beans and cook them using the same method I show below

Sweet & Spicy Almond Butter Sauce – recipe adapted from More with Less

makes 1/2 cup of sauce – feel free to double batch the sauce if you want more

• 1/4 cup smooth and creamy almond butter, or peanut butter – I used Sam’s Adventure Snacks almond butter, as it’s my absolute fave
• 2 tablespoons coconut aminos, or tamari
• 2 tablespoons organic brown rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 thumbnail size piece of ginger (roughly 1-inch), peeled
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons raw honey
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil, or hot pepper toasted sesame oil
• roughly 2-4 tablespoons filtered water

For the Tofu. Follow the recipe for my quick and easy sautéed tofu. You can make this up as early as 20 minutes prior to cooking, or make it in the morning. It’s totally up to you, and when you want to fit this step in. It literally takes under 7 minutes to put the marinade together and uses 3 ingredients, tofu, tamari and garlic. 

For the almond butter sauce. This is another make ahead sauce, or you can make it right before serving. Again, totally up to you. I usually make it the morning of or the day or two before. Add to a Vitamix, or a small food processor, the almond butter, coconut aminos, brown rice vinegar, lime juice, ginger, garlic, honey and sesame oil. Blend away until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. You may also have to scrape around the blades of the Vitamix if the almond butter is sticking. 

Add 2 tablespoons filtered water, process again. The sauce may seem thin, but will thicken as it sits. As I said above, I usually make this sauce ahead of time and store in the fridge and then take out 1/2 hour before I use it. You will have to use a wire whisk to combine the sauce, as it can separate. If you feel like it’s too thick after sitting in the fridge, feel free to add a bit more water to get it to the consistency you like. The sauce can be stored in sealed container in the refrigerator for 5 days.

For the roasted broccolini. I love adding roasted vegetables to this bowl, as they’re super easy and quick to whip up and taste amazing with the almond butter sauce. See my below video to see how quick and easy it is.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss prepared broccolini onto the baking sheet, drizzle it with some avocado oil, a few pinches of Celtic sea salt and freshly ground pepper, and mix it all together. Note: The amount of oil, salt and pepper you add is really to taste.

Roast the broccolini in the pre-heated oven for 7-8 minutes. We tend to like our broccolini a bit on the al dente side, so we only roast our broccolini for 7 minutes.

Dinner time. When it’s time to assemble dinner, sauté up the marinated tofu, prepare the pad Thai noodles according to the package.

Assemble the bowls. Slice the tofu strips into squares, add the noodles to a bowl, top with some sautéed tofu, roasted broccolini and then drizzle over the almond butter sauce, give everything a good stir and dig in!

Like I said above, these bowls are also amazing with my oven baked black forbidden rice.