How to Make Pad Mama | Instant Ramen Stir-Fry

In need of the quickest, easiest Thai meal ever that kids adore and also magically uses up all your leftovers? Pad Mama is right here my dear! Yay!

How to Use Up Leftovers with Easy Instant Ramen Noodles Stir-Fry

“What’s your kids favorite Thai meal?” my Thai cooking class students often ask me.

Even though 80 percent of our dinners are Thai, much to my dismay, my kids often prefer pizza over Pad Thai (even though all their friends prefer my Pad Thai!).

My friends who grew up in multicultural families say that’s totally normal, and that one day when my kids are eating pizza at their college dining hall, they will long for my Pad Thai.

Crossing my fingers that’s the case!

But every Saturday when I tell the kids the next day is Sunday they say,”Yay! Tomorrow is Pad Mama day!” Because their favorite Thai meal is Pad Mama, Stir-Fried Thai Ramen Instant Noodles made by their Paw.

On Sunday my Thai Hubby gets to play around in the kitchen cooking up Pad Mama, an instant ramen noodle stir-fry with whatever is leftover in the fridge, and the rest of us get to rest and delight in a new Pad Mama creation every week.

When there is something on the brink in our fridge that I haven’t used up, my Thai Hubby is adamant that we use it, and don’t waste it, it’s a gift!

Agreed! So hopefully this will help you use up your lovely leftovers and make some mouth-watering easy instant ramen noodles at the same time.

Instant Ramen Noodle Mix-In Ideas

Feel free to use my suggested recipe directions, or add in your own bits of sauces leftover on your fridge shelves that might taste amazing on your Pad Mama or sometimes people who are trying to remember the name get confused and call it Mama Pad!

Pad Mama Sauce ideas:

Instead of using the Mama instant ramen noodle spice packets, sometimes we will use leftover Thai sauces instead like:

• Pad Thai sauce
• Thai peanut sauce
• Pad Se Ew sauce

Pad Mama Veggie Mix-In Ideas:

We rarely use the same veggies each week. It’s really just whatever we need to use up, but here are some ideas that we’ve loved:

• Purple cabbage
• Spinach
• Red, yellow and orange peppers
• Broccoli
• Fresh bean sprouts
• Fresh green beans
• Green onions
• Cilantro
• Kale

Pad Mama Protein Mix-In Ideas:

We rarely use the same protein each week. It’s really just whatever we need to use up, but here are some ideas that we’ve loved:

• Sausage
• Rotisserie chicken
• Ground turkey, pork or beef
• Fried tofu
• Eggs: scrambled or fried and put on top

What is Mama in Thai food?

You might be confused if you hear your Thai friends saying they want Mama, and maybe you are even wondering if that’s the Thai word for mom? Nope! Mama is the most popular brand of Instant Ramen Noodles in Thailand and has been around since 1972 when the Thai Presidents Foods Company started to produce them.

Pad Mama vs. Pad Thai

If you’ve traveled to or lived in Thailand or even had Thai friends in your own country, you might have heard them talking about Pad Mama, or sometimes people get confused and call it Mama Pad, which is a Thai stir-fry dish that uses Mama noodles, the popular Thai instant ramen noodles brand.

But what’s the difference between Pad Mama and Pad Thai?

Pad means stir-fry, so Pad Mama means stir-fried Mama noodles, and Pad Thai means stir-fried Thai noodles. 

Pad Thai can be made with Mama noodles, but typically it’s made with rice noodles. 

How to Make Mama Noodles Better

You might wonder how to make your Mama Noodles taste even better than they do. My Thai Hubby has taught me a tip if you are a Mama Noodle Newbie:

Cook Mama noodles for only 1 minute!

Especially if you are stir-frying them, make sure they aren’t super soft because then the noodles will have too much moisture and goop together. You really only need to boil them for about 1 minute and then they are cooked.

Sherri’s Mama Instant Ramen Story

I was never a fan of tasteless American instant ramen noodles, aka the ridiculously cheap Maruchan Ramen that give legit Japanese ramen a bad name.

So when I saw the variety of Thai instant ramen noodles called Mama sitting on the shelf at the one of the many 7/11’s that sits at every corner in Bangkok, I thought, “Ew, they have instant noodles here too??”

But I forgot I was in Thailand, where even instant ramen noodles have flavor that makes your tongue dance with delight.

One of my Thai co-workers in Bangkok, was about to head to the break room to make a quick lunch of Mama noodles, and asked if I wanted to try some too. 

II had no idea what she was talking about, but said, “Sure!” and was on the edge of my seat to see what easy Thai meal she was about to let me try.

She heated some water in an electric kettle, opened the colorful, crinkly Mama instant ramen package, put the hard, crinkly ramen noodles in a white plastic bowl, poured over the steaming water, added the seasoning packets, stirred and then offered me a bite—like all good Thais do whenever they have food and friends in front of them.

After that bite, a big smile lit up my face. Somehow the steaming bowl of noodles before me that took 3 minutes to make tasted just like Tom Yum soup that I would get from a Thai street vendor.

How could I have ever thought Thai instant ramen would be like America’s?

Where to Find Thai Mama Noodles

If you go to any Asian market, you will find one aisle packed from the top to the bottom with a rainbow of Instant Ramen Noodles packages from every Asian country with flavors like Mama Thai Green Curry or Mama Tom Yum. mind-blowing spicy Samyang Buldak Korean noodles to refreshing Indonesian Indomie Mi Goreng noodles.

You can use this Pad Mama recipe with any instant ramen noodles, so go try out a few different brands and see what’s your fav!

If you make easy Thai instant ramen noodle stir-fry, let me know what you put in yours! We are always looking for new creative ideas! Share with me on Instagram @thaifoodie, I wanna see!

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