This traditional Instant Pot Vegetarian Pad Thai Recipe is an easy Instant Pot Dinner! This recipe is delicious, and it’s easy to add a protein like chicken!
Weight Watchers Points and 21 Day Fix containers are calculated for you at the bottom of the recipe.
This is great for meal prep! Chop your vegetables ahead of time, and dinner will come together in just a couple of minutes.
This meal is a great alternative to takeout. Whenever the craving strikes, I pull out the Instant Pot and whip up this Pad Thai recipe. Another great one to try is my orange chicken…also made in the Instant Pot!
Pad Thai Cooking Tips:
- If there are any vegetables that you don’t like, you can swap them out for something else. Red peppers can be swapped out for other peppers or left out completely. You can use zucchini instead or another vegetable that is similar in density.
- If you’re looking for a Chicken Pad Thai recipe, I recommend sautéing the diced chicken first for 8-9 minutes, drain liquid if necessary, and then follow the directions in the post.
How to make this a Vegan Pad Thai
You can easily make this recipe vegan by replacing the honey with a vegan sweetener such as maple syrup, or agave nectar. Other meat alternatives such as seitan can be used, or protein can be left out entirely.
Also, you’ll want to remove the eggs entirely or use a vegan egg substitute.
How to make Instant Pot Pad Thai:
1. Set your Instant Pot to sauté and add in sesame oil. When the oil is hot add the garlic, ginger, and onions. Sauté for about a minute until fragrant.
2. Mix in the tofu and push all of the contents of the pot to one side of the pot.
3. Add the egg and scramble with a spatula, it is okay if some pieces of tofu and onion get into your scrambled eggs.
4. Once scrambled, mix the egg mixture into the onions and tofu.
5. Mix in the rice vinegar, aminos or soy sauce, and honey. Add the zucchini, bell peppers, and carrots.
6. Place the rice noodles (the whole package of them together) on top of the tofu mixture and pour the stock over the noodles.
You may need to push the vegetables and tofu to the side a bit so that the noodles can sit in the broth.
7. After adding the noodles and stock, close the lid to the pot and allow the noodles to steam. No need to add time to and cook the noodles–they’ll cook perfectly with the lid closed using the heat already in the pot.
Another option is to cook your noodles for “0” minutes. Set your pot to begin cooking as usual, but set the time to zero minutes. This will allow the pot to come to pressure and cook, but won’t overcook the noodles. Immediately release the pressure manually after the pot comes to pressure.
Check out this post to learn how to adjust for altitude differences.
8. Serve immediately garnished with cilantro, peanuts, and lime if desired.
Special Diet information for Weight Watchers and 21 Day Fix
How many Blue Plan Points is this Pad Thai?
This Weight Watchers Pad Thai is 10 Blue Plan Points per serving
21 Day Fix Counts for this recipe:
21 Day Fix Container Count Per Serving (Recipe serves 6): 1/3 tsp, 1.5 green containers, 1/3 red container, 1 yellow container per serving.
Note: If you change this recipe and add chicken, add red containers to account for that.
If you love this recipe, you might be interested in my Instant Pot Beef Pho recipe!
Printable Healthy Pad Thai Recipe:
Instant Pot Pad Thai Recipe | Vegetarian Pad Thai Recipe
Ingredients
Ingredients for Instant Pot Pad Thai:
- 2 tsps sesame seed oil
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 1 tsp ginger grated and fresh, or 1/2 tsp dry ground ginger
- 1/2 onion sliced
- 1 pkg tofu extra firm, cut into cubes
- 1 egg
- 4 tbsp rice vinegar
- 4 tbsp aminos or soy sauce
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 zucchini diced
- 2 carrots peeled and cut into sticks
- 2 bell peppers red and green, sliced
- 1 pkg rice noodles
- 2 cups vegetable stock low sodium
- 1/4 cup basil chopped
- 1/2 tsp red pepper crushed, optional
Garnish with cilantro, peanuts, and lime
Instructions
Directions for Instant Pot Pad Thai:
- Set your Instant Pot to sauté and add in sesame oil. When the oil is hot add the garlic, ginger, and onions. Sauté for about a minute until fragrant
- Mix in the tofu and push all of the contents of the pot to one side of the pot.
- Add the egg and scramble with a spatula, it is okay if some pieces of tofu and onion get into your scrambled eggs.
- Once scrambled, mix the egg mixture into the onions and tofu.
- Add in rice vinegar, aminos or soy sauce, honey, zucchini, bell peppers, and carrots.
- Place the rice noodles (the whole package of them together) on top of the tofu mixture and pour the stock over the noodles.
- After adding the noodles and stock, close the lid to the pot and allow the noodles to steam. No need to add time to and cook the noodles–they’ll cook perfectly with the lid closed using the heat already in the pot. Another option is to cook your noodles for “0” minutes. Set your pot to begin cooking as usual, but set the time to zero minutes. This will allow the pot to come to pressure and cook, but won’t overcook the noodles. Immediately release the pressure manually after the pot comes to pressure.
- Serve garnished with cilantro, peanuts, and lime if desired.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Christine Murphy says
Any idea what the cooking time would be if I wanted to use chicken instead of tofu? Thanks!
Becca says
I’m not–let me look into this a little!
Jamie says
Looks great! I’m following the thread also, as I have the same question about using chicken instead of tofu. My husband won’t eat the tofu:-(
Laura says
I cut raw chicken in thin strips and used the browning setting, then cooked it for 5 minutes (that’s my fish setting). But I’d recommend adding the noodles afterwards or placing on top and mixing them in after the pressure is released, stir and cover for a few minutes until the noodles are soft.
Thanks for this recipe is was good (and I cut the honey in half).
SarahMc says
This is SO good! Seasonings are spot on. I leave the egg out and replace the honey to make it vegan. My kids prefer their noodles and vegetables softer than I do so I cook as directed and it’s perfect. Ours never comes out mushy (but I cut big pieces of vegetables, that helps to keep them firm). If I were making it just for myself I’d decease cooktime to 2 minutes. Possibly even 1.
Becca says
Yay!! I’m so glad you all liked it :)