How to Make Thai Vegetable Stir-Fry | Pad Pak Ruam

Are you looking for an easy to make, but also authentic Thai vegetable stir-fry? This recipe for stir-fried broccoli with ginger and Thai oyster sauce is made for you!

It has easy to find ingredients, even if you don’t live in Thailand. And if you are nervous about cooking Thai food, don’t worry!

I teach beginning Thai cooks at my Thai cooking class every week, so I’m happy to help guide you the whole way, just like if you were at my Thai cooking class at my home.

I can’t wait to teach you how to make one of your favorite dishes you either had in Thailand or at your favorite Thai restaurant, and share my story with Thai Vegetable Stir-Fry

Thai Vegetable Stir-Fry Ingredients

• 2–3 tbsp. cooking oil
• 2 in. piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped (optional)
• 1 onion, sliced into strips
• 5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 small stalks of broccoli, cut into bite-size pieces (or veggie of choice)
• 2 carrots sliced into rounds, (or veggie of choice)
• 1 cup green cabbage, sliced into 3 in. long and 2 in.wide pieces, or so
• 1/2 cup mushrooms
• 2–3 tbsp., to taste Thai Oyster Sauce
• 2–3 tsp. to taste, fish sauce
• a few dashes of White Pepper Powder

How to Make Pad Pak

• Bring a pot of water to boil, and add salt to make it taste salty. Add all the vegetables, and cook for only about 1 minute so they lose just a bit of the rawness, but are still crunchy.

• Drain them, and reserve ¼ cup of the blanching liquid.
• Warm the cooking oil over high heat in a wok.
• Once the oil is almost smoking, add the garlic, ginger and onion. Take off the heat for a moment to stir it all up until it smells amazing.

• Return to heat and toss in the veggies, oyster sauce, fish sauce and sugar to taste.
• Stir-fry until veggies are vibrant and crisp, adding blanching liquid at the end to help make the brown sauce.
• Turn off the heat and sprinkle on white pepper to taste.
• I like to serve it with steamed Jasmine rice, and this dish goes great with any Thai main entrees! Enjoy!

Feel free to add tofu or meat of your choice to make this a main dish!

FAQs

How do you make vegetarian Thai Vegetable Stir-Fry?

Use vegetarian oyster sauce, which is usually made from mushrooms.

Leave out the fish sauce and use Thai thin soy sauce instead.

What are common Thai vegetables used in Pad Pak?

The most common Thai vegetables used in Pad Pak are:

• Chinese broccoli
• cabbage
• baby corn
• carrots
• oyster mushrooms
• snow peas

But really Thai cooks will use 2.5 cups or so of whatever they have on hand.

In America, we have trouble finding Chinese broccoli, so that’s why I sub broccoli.

In the traditional dish there isn’t red pepper or ginger, but I think the red pepper makes it pretty, and the ginger adds another layer of flavor, but feel free to adjust it to your liking!

What’s my favorite oyster sauce to use in Pad Pak?

The iconic brown sauce in Thai stir-fry vegetables comes from using Thai Oyster Sauce, and fish sauce.

My favorite Thai oyster sauce is Maekrua , but if you can’t make it to the Asian market, you can also use Lee Kum Kee Panda brand, which you can find at most grocery stores on the International aisle.

How do you cut vegetables Thai style?

When I was in Thailand, I noticed that a lot of Thai street vendors cut their carrots super cute with little lines on the sides.

They used a papaya peeler or mandolin to peel the carrots, and then cut them into coin sized pieces. You don’t have to do that, but it’s a fun way to cut vegetables Thai style.

What is the difference between Pad Thai and Pad Pak?

Pad means stir-fry in Thai, so Pad Thai means stir-fried Thai-style, and Pad Pak means stir-fried vegetables because Pak means vegetables in Thai.

Many Thai dishes start with Pad because it means stir-fry, so to tell the difference between them is to look at what words follow Pad.

Is Pad Pak healthy?

Pad Pak is packed 🙂 with vegetables that have antioxidants and vitamins that help your body stay healthy, so if you want to help your body fight and prevent diseases, eat some Pad Pak!

What can you serve with Thai Vegetable Stir-Fry?

Our favorite Thai dishes that we serve with Pad Pak Ruam are:

• Thai Omelette
• Thai Cashew Chicken Stir-Fry
• Instant Pot Thai Sriracha Chicken

Sherri’s Thai Vegetable Stir-Fry Story

Thai Hubby had never seen or heard of broccoli growing up.

Broccoli is a foreign veggie and never made it to his little town of Sukhothai, Thailand.

When he was 12-years-old, his grandma bought broccoli for the first time from the market and made it for dinner.

It was a big deal since it was double the price of Chinese broccoli, long bean or morning glory, which are common Thai veggies.

Broccoli had just started making the rounds in Thailand, and was “hi-so”, something that high society people in Bangkok could afford, but not someone from the backwoods of Thailand.

Thai Hubby liked it, but still only ate it on special occasions.

Then when he moved to Bangkok, and started to work out, he began to cook it almost every day since his American workout books and magazines he read said that it was good for him to eat.

But of course his American workout reading materials translated into Thai didn’t mention the Thai veggies he ate were probably just as good.

He decided to follow what the book said and bought lots of expensive broccoli to help get his muscles big and strong.

And now we buy it almost every week because he still thinks it’s cool to eat broccoli, but now we have the opposite problem of Chinese broccoli being more expensive than broccoli!

When we get a craving for a Thai vegetable dish, stir-fried broccoli with ginger and Thai oyster sauce is our go-to lately.

I’d love to hear your Thai vegetable stir-fry story!

Where was your favorite place you’ve ever had it? And if you made it with this recipe, who did you make it for?

If you like veggies, you might also like my Pad See Ew Recipe Vegan!

My favorite place to hang out is on Instagram, so send your pic to me @thaifoodie, and I’d love to share it in one of my Instagram stories!

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