It’s hump day again! Get through the rest of your week with this Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai. If you’re lucky enough to have any leftovers, they make for awesome meal prep lunches (or dinners for that matter)! Pad Thai is normally made with rice noodles, but I cut out those complex carbs in favor of the ever-versatile spaghetti squash noodles. Honestly, I think it was a great swap! The spaghetti squash is a great imposter here and works perfectly with the Pad Thai sauce.

The key to recreating your favorite restaurant/take-out Pad Thai is incorporating the funk. What’s “funk,” you say? I’m talking about fish sauce and tamarind paste here, people! You’re not going to get that distinctive Pad Thai flavor without them, and they’re both pretty funky. Fish sauce? Smells terrible but tastes amazing. You can find fish sauce in most grocery stores, but I had to go to the bougie grocery store (Central Market for my Texas peeps) to find the tamarind paste. Or you can just get it on Amazon.

Tamarind paste tastes super tangy on its own but does some kind of witchy magic in the sauce here. In my mind, you simply can’t skip this ingredient (or the fish sauce). Store-bought tamarind concentrate comes in two main types: Thai/Indonesian and Indian.

• Thai/Indonesian: Despite labels claiming “tamarind concentrate” or “nuoc me chua,” these versions aren’t actually concentrated. They’re more like tamarind pastes, made by diluting tamarind pulp with water. For pad thai, this is the style you want.

• Indian: Tamarind concentrate from the Indian subcontinent is more of a true concentrate. It’s been cooked down into a thick, almost black paste with a molasses-like consistency. Compared to Thai or Indonesian versions, it has a deeper, more intense flavor—less fruity, more rich and caramelized.

If you can only find the Indian style, you can dilute it yourself to get closer to the Thai version. It’s not a perfect substitute because the flavor isn’t as fruity, but you can definitely still make it work!

Some bean sprout connoisseurs probably noticed that I used soy bean sprouts in my Pad Thai, which is not at all traditional. Normally you’ll see mung bean sprouts, but for whatever reason NO ONE had them in stock. Not my regular grocery store, not the bougie grocery store, and not the Asian grocery store. So I settled for the soy bean sprouts…not amazing, but they worked.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Recipe