11/28

Easy Pad Thai Soup

Comfort Foods, Food, Healthy, Hot, Meal Ideas, Savory, Soups
By Emma Chapman

There is almost nothing more comforting on a cold, wet day than a big bowl of warm soup. I have been on a soup kick lately, so I’ve been turning some of my favorite meals/flavors into easy-to-make soups—which is exactly how this pad Thai soup was born.

More often than not, I tend to gravitate toward vegetable (or bean) based creamy soups like this 10-minute tomato soup or white bean and dill soup. Yum! But there is something to be said about brothy soups that still manage to fill you up like this pad Thai soup with baked tofu. It has a super flavorful broth packed with brown rice noodles and crispy tofu. Totally tasty and totally filling.

If you can’t find brown rice noodles, you can use traditional white rice pad Thai noodles (or any other broad noodle is OK, too.) I also think you can easily change up which vegetables you include in this soup to make it your own or use up what you may have in your refrigerator.

Prep the tofu ahead, because once you get started, this soup can come together really fast. I personally love adding baked tofu here (as opposed to just “raw” or even sautéed), but you could change it up. If you don’t cook with tofu often, here are my favorite ways to prepare it. You can also air fry tofu if you have an air fryer.

I added a note to the printable recipe below, but I did want to just mention that this soup (although super delicious) doesn’t save well. I had eaten the leftovers of this soup the next day (just to see how they would hold up because I had a hunch …) and the noodles and tofu tend to absorb the broth overnight. It was still tasty, but not really like a soup unless you add some more stock or broth. Warmed up it’s more like a stir fry. Therefore, I would recommend eating all or most of this soup the day you make it. Most soup recipes work well for meal prepping, but this one would probably work OK if you keep the noodles and tofu separated from the broth mixture. But that may be more work than it’s worth. Idk. Just wanted to mention. Happy soup making! xo. Emma

5 from 1 vote
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Easy Pad Thai Soup

Servings 4

Ingredients

  • 1 package of tofu baked (see post for link)
  • 7-8 ounces brown rice noodles
  • 1 bell pepper chopped into sticks
  • 2 cups bean sprouts
  • 3 cloves of garlic minced
  • 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce vegetarian version if preferred
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon ketchup
  • 1 tablespoons sesame oil divided
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
  • 1 lime

Instructions

  1. Bake the tofu. Cook the rice noodles according to the package.

  2. In a small bowl or drinking glass, combine the fish sauce, soy sauce, ketchup, 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes. Whisk well and set aside.

  3. In a large skillet or stir fry pan, add 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil over medium, high heat. Stir fry the bell pepper and garlic for a couple minutes. Add the baked tofu and prepared noodles. Toss with the prepared sauce. Then pour in the broth and add the bean sprouts.

  4. Once everything is hot, sprinkle on the cilantro and squeeze a little lime juice over everything. Serve hot.

Recipe Notes

This soup is best the day it is made. Leftovers can be rewarmed but the noodles and tofu tend to absorb moisture, so it may be more like a stir fry than a soup depending how long you store it for.

Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.

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