This is one of our favorite vegetarian Instant Pot recipes! It’s so easy to pull together on a busy weeknight, and if you decide to prep your veggies ahead of time it’s even quicker to make!
This Vegetarian Pad Thai recipe is made with tofu but you can leave it out or swap it with chicken if you prefer–it’s easy to make both ways.
This meal is a great alternative to takeout and barely requires a trip to the grocery store. I usually have everything on hand to whip up this healthy Pad Thai recipe in my Instant Pot.
Where’s the recipe?
Here at My Crazy Good Life, we have written recipes to be so easy that anyone can make them–no matter what your kitchen experience!
Each post has information about ingredients, detailed cooking instructions, and recipe tips as well as special diet information. If you’re looking for more straight to the point instructions, scroll right down to the easy to print recipe at the bottom.
Ingredients:
For ingredient amounts, please scroll down to the printable recipe.
- Sesame seed oil
- Garlic: Fresh is best here!
- Fresh ginger: Fresh ginger has an authentic Asian flavor that will make this recipe amazing.
- Onion Any color will do
- Extra firm tofu The extra firm part is important so it has more of a meat-like texture.
- Egg If you’re vegan, leave this out or use an egg substitute.
- Rice vinegar If you don’t have it, I’d just skip it entirely instead of using another vinegar.
- Coconut aminos Or tamari, or soy sauce – whatever you have on hand works (unless you’re on a special diet).
- Honey If vegan, use a different sweetener like maple syrup or agave nectar.
- Zucchini See the note below about swapping out veggies if you don’t love the ones listed here!
- Carrots
- Bell peppers
- Rice noodles (brown rice if you can find them!)
- Low sodium vegetable stock Or water if you don’t have any stock.
- Fresh basil
- Optional garnish:
- Crushed red pepper
- Peanuts
- Cilantro
- Limes or lime juice
- Green onions
How to make this Vegan:
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.
Pressure Cooker Instructions:
I love this easy recipes on nights when we are craving Thai food. It’s quick to pull together and tastes like authentic Pad Thai–only lighter!
- Set pot to sauté and add in sesame oil. Once the oil is hot, add garlic, ginger, and onions. Sauté for about a minute, or until you begin to smell the spices.
- Add in your diced tofu and then push the contents of the pot to one side of the pot so you have room to scramble the eggs.
- If you’d like a spray of olive oil so your eggs don’t stick (eggs always stick to the bottom of the Instant Pot!), spray that now. Add the egg and scramble it with a spatula, keeping it on one side of the pot if possible.
- Mix together the tofu, onion, and eggs.
- Add in the rice vinegar, aminos (or soy sauce), and honey. These make up your pad thai sauce. If you’d like to add peanut butter for flavor, I’d add a teaspoon to your sauce ingredients now.
- Add in the zucchini, bell peppers, and carrots and cook until they begin to soften.
- Place the rice noodles (the entire package) on top of the contents of the pot and then pour the vegetable stock (or water if you don’t have stock) over the noodles. The noodles will not be submersed–that’s ok. If you’d like to push the vegetables and tofu to the side so the noodles can sit in some liquid, do that now.
- If you feel that you’d like to cook the noodles for longer, or if you’re using thicker noodles, I recommend pressure cooking for 0 (yes, zero) minutes. This will allow the pot to come to pressure (it cooks while coming to pressure), but it will begin to release pressure afterwards. Immediately release the pressure valve after the pot comes to pressure so your noodles don’t overcook.
- Add the chopped basil and serve immediately garnished with red pepper flakes, cilantro, peanuts, and lime if desired.
Recipe 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. Add diced mushrooms, bean sprouts, snap peas, or your favorite veggies.
- 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 this post.
- If after cooking your veggies, they look perfectly done, I recommend removing them from the pot before steaming your rice noodles :)
Healthy Eating Plans:
Weight Watchers: This Weight Watchers Pad Thai is 12 Blue Plan Points | 14 Green Plan Points | 12 Purple Plan Points per serving, not including garnishes
21 Day Fix: 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.
Looking for more Instant Pot Vegetarian recipes?
- Blueberry Lemon Oatmeal
- Vegan Pineapple Fried Rice
- Amish Baked Oatmeal
- Healthy Spinach Artichoke Dip
- Greek yogurt Mac and Cheese
More Easy Instant Pot recipes?
- Southwest Egg Roll in a Bowl
- Healthy Crack Chicken Recipe
- Turkey Chorizo Breakfast Casserole
- Instant Pot Mississippi Pot Roast
Instant Pot Vegetarian Pad Thai with Tofu
Equipment
Ingredients
- 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 coconut 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 16 oz
- 2 cups vegetable stock low sodium
- 1/4 cup basil chopped
- 1/2 tsp red pepper crushed, optional
Instructions
- Set your Instant Pot to saute and add in sesame oil. When the oil is hot, add garlic, ginger, and onions. Saute for about one minute or 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's ok if your eggs mix with your tofu and onion. If you feel like a quick spray of olive oil would help you egg to not stick, go ahead and do that now :)
- Once scrambled, mix the egg into the onions and tofu.
- Add in rice vinegar, coconut aminos or soy sauce, honey, zucchini, bell peppers, and carrots. Allow to saute for a few minutes, until the veggies become soft.
- Place the rice noodles (the entire 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 for a minute or two. No need to add time to the pot or cook the noodles–they'll cook perfectly with the lid closed using the heat already in the pot.
- Add chopped basil after noodles are cooked. Serve with cilantro, peanuts, and lime if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Any idea what the cooking time would be if I wanted to use chicken instead of tofu? Thanks!
I’m not–let me look into this a little!
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:-(
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).
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.
Yay!! I’m so glad you all liked it :)
I am not clear about the time. Is the pot on saute the whole time if you do not choose to use 0 minute setting?
No need to saute while the noodles are steaming!
I made this tonight. How long do the noodles steam for?
Just a minute or two :)
Would this fit in a 3 quart? Or should I halve? Just doing veggies and noodles! Thanks!
I haven’t tried to fit this in a 3 qt, I’d halve it to be safe!
Do you need to press the tofu?
I feel like sautéing the tofu makes nit so you don’t have to press it. I also think it’s less likely to stick to the pot if you don’t press it :)
Great recipes, not to cause you any undue extra stress, an idea for you, when printing out the recipes, it prints out on multiple pages, ok so far, the idea, would it be possible to add the heading of the recipe on each page, I would also add your site name of ‘ https://mycrazygoodlife.com/‘ under each heading, I printed out a few recipes and dropped the print out, it was hard to figure out which page went with which recipe.
I have an instant pot, 3 qt, this unit has changed my life, I fix per the recipe, put on the lid, set to seal. set the time, walk away, come back to a hot meal, very cool.
Thanks for posting the recipes.
Jack
Jack, Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention–I don’t print my own recipes much so I didn’t realize this was an issue! I’ll be working on this today :)
Becca, YOU ROCK!!!!! This was the first recipe from your website that I tried. (I bought your book immediately, just based on detail plethora of information; I cannot begin to imagine how much work, time and effort you have done and continue to do for us.) For those who have not purchased
the book, the meal plans alone are worth TWICE the price!)
As for this recipe, it’s devine! At the time I made it, I was pretty new to the Instant Pot. I am just barely a so-so cook, and sometimes, not even that. I have always been intimidated by Pad Thai; perhaps because we have been to over 20 countries, and my husband orders Pad Thai if available, no matter where we are. I went ahead and made it and even Mr. Picky liked it!. I must also confess I am pescetarian, so I used homemade seitan in place of chicken. It was truly easy and delicious. I have made this and other recipes (which I promise to review) and they have all been FABULOUS. Becca, you have given me hope (and dare I say confidence), to try more healthy recipes! I can’t begin to thank you enough.😀
You’ve made my day with your kind words, thank you <3
FABULOUS recipe! One question: I see that crushed red pepper is optional, but if I were to add it, when should I put it in? Thank you Becca for another wonderful recipe. :)
Thanks Dixie!
I’d add it when you add the other spices or even right at the end, before serving!
Steamed my noodles for a couple minutes after adding them to the pot, and when I opened the pot the noodles were hard and all stuck together. Tried to save them, but they ended up slimy and sticky. Dinner was ruined and nobody would eat it.
Hi Jessica, I’m not sure why your noodles were hard? Overcooked if they were in too long, but hard is something I’ve never seen before.