Pad Thai is a popular Thai dish that is made up of rice noodles, meat such as chicken or beef, egg, greens such as bean sprouts, green onions and cilantro, peanuts and a sauce made up of spices, oil, chili and fish sauce. Pad Thai is usually high in calories, especially if ordered from a restaurant. It can however, be made in a low-calorie way.
Restaurant
Pad Thai from a restaurant can contain around 700 to 1,400 calories. For instance, a whole bowl of chicken Pad Thai from Pei Wei Restaurant is 1,440 calories. For the average American looking to consume around 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day, that is over half the allotted calories in just one meal. The serving sizes for the dish from a restaurant are usually large and can easily be two meals. The serving size for Pad Thai from Pei Wei is half the amount, which would provide 720 calories. Noodles and Company's regular serving of Pad Thai contains 700 calories.
At Home
Pad Thai can be made at home. There are many recipes for Pad Thai, and all have slightly different optional ingredients with the usual noodles, meat or tofu, and vegetables. Typically, Pad Thai recipes to make at home are less calories than from a restaurant. For instance, Eating Well's Pad Thai recipe contains only 385 calories per serving. That is almost half the amount of calories from a serving from a restaurant.
Ingredients
The ingredients for Pad Thai are part of the reason for the high calorie content. One cup of rice noodles has about 200 calories. How much noodles there are will determine the calorie content. The type of meat used in this dish also affects the caloric density. Beef will usually be higher in calories than chicken. Tofu or vegetables-only will have less calories. Added oil for the sauce also contributes to the calorie count. The vegetables added such as bean sprouts, cilantro and green onions only contribute minimally to the calorie amount. The amount of added peanuts will also contribute to calorie density, as nuts are high in calories.
Preparation
The Pad Thai that is popular in the West may be different compared to the traditional Pad Thai prepared in Thailand. Traditional Pad Thai is suppose to be light and dry, not heavily oiled as some dishes can be in restaurants. Typically in the West, the ingredients are stir fried together with some oil and other seasoning for the sauces. This addition of oil can make the dish high in calories.
Substitutions
To make this dish lower in calories when cooking, replace some ingredients with lower calorie substitutions. Use less noodles than recommended and add more vegetables such as bean sprouts. Use low fat meat or meat alternatives such as chicken breast, shrimp, or tofu. trim excess fat before cooking. Use only a small amount of oil. Eating Well recipe only uses 2 tsp of oil for the recipe. Eat the recommended serving size for the recipe. If eating at a restaurant, eat half or less than half of the Pad Thai dish. Ask the server to go easy on the sauce. Share the order with someone and add a broth-based soup for a low calorie option.
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