Thai Green Papaya Pad Thai
No Noodle Pad Thai is a personal favorite of mine, so coming up with a way to make it extra healthy here on the farm is super exciting, and we all ate mounds of it in full knowledge of it’s healthy freshness. Inspired by the success of the previous grated papaya recipe and spurred on to further experimentation, I made this originally with Cat another volunteer. Starving and looking into what appeared to be a hopelessly empty kitchen, we were not discouraged. Grabbing Papayas from the trees, peppers, Zucchini, kale and ginger from the garden, and eggs from the chicken coop we began…
Serves 5
Ingredients
2 large skinned and grated green Papaya
2 large roughly chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
2-3 thinly diced sweet peppers (I used around 10 small red and green sweet peppers we have growing here on the farm, though what ever is available will be fine)
1 1/2 large zucchini
1 large bunch of kale
¾ cup peanuts
1-2 diced and de-seeded jalapeno’s (I like it extra spicy so I put in 3)
5 eggs
Sauce
1 cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
½ cup soy sauce
1 Tablespoon grated ginger
1 Tsp honey
1 ½ fresh limes
1 splash of hot sauce
First for the prep work. Cut the skins off the raw papaya, cut them into chunks and grate into a very large salad bowl. Dice the onions and garlic, roughly chop the kale into bite size slivers and slice the zucchini and then quarter the slices into mouthful size pieces. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat. Mix the ingredients of the sauce together and leave it on the side.
Pan fry the onions in olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper.
When soft add the diced peppers and garlic and fry for 5 minutes.
Add the zucchini and fry for 15 until soft.
Add the eggs and scramble, mixing them in.
Add in half the content of the sauce and the kale, stirring thoroughly leave with lid on for a minutes.
Toast Peanuts in a separate pan until browning.
Add contents of the pan to the large salad bowl of raw grated papaya, mixing thoroughly with the remaining half of the sauce, and toasted peanuts. It’s funny that there was no particular intention behind this farm-creation, because it is as if I had followed a recipe for noodle-less Pad Thai. Sometimes, and if you are me more often than not, you have of where your culinary journey will take you, this time it was straight to the traditional heart of Thailand! Stay tuned for the next adventure.
Note: In the way of herbs, we have cilantro growing here on the farm that I sprinkle on top, but coriander would work just as nicely.
