These Pad Thai Zoodles are a healthy, low-carb alternative to the traditional dish. Spiralized zucchini noodles are cooked with chicken and a classic Pad Thai sauce with all the flavor you love!
If there’s anything on my 2015 To-Do List that I’ve been keeping up with, it’s traveling. In the past week I’ve been all over California, pretty much traversing it from west to east, south to north. I guess sometimes it is pretty cool living smack dab in the middle of the state.
One of my Bostonian friends that I grew up with was in Cali last week for work, and extended her trip to come hang out with me. Since there isn’t much but orchards and dairy farms where I live, I took her on a couple day trips to see the more impressive parts of California.
Our first excursion was to Paso Robles, where we took Laura to some of our favorite vineyards for some wine tasting.
Next up was Sequoia National Park. One of my very favorite day trips, and I love taking visitors because the giant redwoods are so impressive!
The next day we headed down to Orange County, where Laura had to work. Since she had a little free time before her conference, I hung out for a couple days. I did NOT want to leave. Seriously, guys, OC is so, so, so beautiful. There is so much to do there and so many good things to eat. I found my next home. Only $6.5 million. I just need to work on winning the lotto now.
We went down to Balboa Island a few times (there was a gorgeous 2-ish mile walking/running trail around the island I took full advantage of) and visited one the of the famous frozen banana stands (did anyone else watch Arrested Development back in the day??).
We also hit up Crystal Cove State Park for some beach time. Why can’t this be down the street from me?!
And of course, we had some amazing food. Literally every meal we had was phenomenal. We loved True Food Kitchen, The Crow Bar, and especially Haute Cakes, where I got this amazing sourdough toast with mashed avocado, eggs poached to perfection, heirloom tomatoes and rosemary sea salt. Swoon.
Like I said, I really, really did not want to leave. But alas, I had to. I was home for all of 2 nights before I loaded back into the car and headed up north to Napa County! Remember how I mentioned a month or so ago that I was toying with the idea of running another half marathon? Well… I did it!!
And it was HARD. I survived, but, holy heck those hills. It’s hard to train solely on flat roads and then get hit with hills on the longest run you’ve done in almost 6 months. BUT, it was perfect weather and Napa was so, so pretty. I’m glad we did it!
Now that I’m all caught up on life, let’s talk food. I got a vegetable spiralizer for my birthday in February and finally got around to testing it out! I spiralized some beets for a salad, and then once I realized how easy it was, I was on to something more fun.
This is the vegetable spiralizer I got, and I love it! It’s so easy to use and has a bunch of different size blades you can use. I definitely recommend it!
ZOODLES!! Also known as zucchini noodles. Spiralized zucchini in place of noodles. Not only are they healthy and low-carb, they are also super delicious.
Since Pad Thai is one of Nick’s favorite meals, I figured I’d go with those flavors to try to ease him into the idea of zoodles. But guess what? It didn’t even take any convincing. He loved them and proclaimed them even better than rice noodles.
I agree, they were pretty darn good. The Pad Thai flavors worked really well. The zoodles had just enough crunch to stand in for chewy rice noodles. And even gave the dish some extra flavor. We loved this dish and I can’t wait to try zoodles with all kinds of different sauces.
- 1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp tamarind paste
- 4 medium zucchini, spiralized
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 4 green onions, sliced
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- Chopped cilantro, for topping
- Chopped dry roasted peanuts, for topping
- In a bowl, stir together soy sauce, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and tamarind paste, and set aside.
- In a large saute pan over medium-high heat, heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Add the spiralized zucchini and cook, tossing frequently, until just barely tender, about 3 minutes.
- Transfer the zucchini to a colander over the sink so that the excess moisture can drain off.
- In the same pan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until almost cooked through, about 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add green onions and cook an additional 2 minutes.
- Pour eggs into the pan, stir to scramble, and cook until cooked through.
- Add the sauce, zucchini noodles and bean sprouts to the pan, and cook until heated through.
- Serve immediately topped with chopped cilantro and peanuts.
It looks like you guys had a great time and congrats on the half marathon! I’ve been wanting to buy a spiralizer for the longest time, these zoodles look delicious! Love all of the fresh veggies in there too.
It’s seriously so fun! When I got it I wasn’t sure if I’d use it much, but now I want to make tons of zoodle dishes!
This looks delicious! I seriously need to get one of those spiralizer things, I love all the recipes I’m seeing with zoodles lately!
It looks like you have been having lots of fun lately, Jess!! I’ve never been to Sequioa NP, but I have always wanted to go! And I’m always down for a vineyard trip! I love that you used zoodles in this pad thai! So creative and much lighter!
You should go if you ever have a chance! The trees really are amazing in person. That one in the picture is the widest tree in the world!
Sounds like you had a great week, Jess! Your pictures are just gorgeous. I would LOVE to live near a beach like that! And these pad thai zoodles sound delish! Love this dish!
What a fun week you’ve had! We’re so lucky to live in California, so many wonderful places to visit for the weekend. And congrats on finishing your half marathon! You are amazing!
Love this pad thai with zucchini noodles! We just planted zucchini in our garden, and I’m really looking forward to having lots of them to turn into zoodles in the summer : )
Oh you will have plenty! Zucchini plants are so prolific! Our first year we planted like 8 plants and literally couldn’t give them away. Last year we only planted 3 or 4 thinking we were cutting down and we still had way too many! LOL!
We are totally obsessed with noodles! What great idea to make it into a pad thai. Can’t wait to make it tonight minus the chicken we will replace with tofu 🙂
Awesome!! It would be really good with extra eggs in place of the chicken, too! 🙂
Pad Thai is one of my favorite things in the entire world. Such a great idea to lighten it up with zucchini noodles! Can’t wait to try!
You’ve been a busy girl, and congrats on your Napa half marathon! Those runs in Napa are hard with those hills even when you are totally in shape to run that far! These zoodles look awesome and I love the Pad Thai flavors!
The hills were soooo brutal! LOL! But it was so gorgeous up there that it was definitely worth it! 🙂
My mother-in-law bought me a spiralizer (that I didn’t want – I have too much kitchen stuff), and I ended up loving it. I’m always trying to find new ways to mix up the zoodles and this is def something I’ve never seen before. Plus, pad thai is my favorite favorite thing to order from Pei Wei, but it’s probably crazy unhealthy. I’m not sure I could convince my husband to try this. I’m going to wait until he’s in the field to whip it up!
LOL… I didn’t think I’d be able to convince mine either but he loved it! So you never know!? Definitely try it either way… so yummy!