This is the dish that got us on the Auckland food map, showing up in a few magazines and topping the Metro list as one of the cityís favourite takeout dishes. While not a traditional pad thai, like lots of Thai food it uses an abundance of fresh vegetables and herbs, which we have paired with a spicy almond and cashew sauce. Southeast Asian flavours work especially well with raw foods.

Serves 2–3
Make time 30 minutes
Soak time 2 hours
Equipment required blender

INGREDIENTS

pad thai sauce
3 tbsp raw almond butter or 40 g (1½ oz/¼ cup) almonds (soaked 12 hours)
40 g (1½ oz/¼ cup) cashews (soaked 2 hours)
1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 crushed and chopped garlic clove
1 small deseeded and finely chopped red chilli (or 1–2 tsp dried red chilli flakes – depending on how hot your chillies are)
1½ tbsp tamari
4 tbsp lemon or lime juice
2 tbsp coconut sugar
pinch sea salt
60–125 ml (2–4 fl oz/¼–½ cup) filtered water
optional – 2 tbsp tamarind water

Colin Fassnidge’s Velvety Prawn Bisque

Commando Steve’s Five-Spiced Beef Short Ribs With Sweet Potato Puree

noodles & vegetables

80 g (2¾ oz/½ cup) young coconut flesh
225 g (8 oz/3 cups) finely shredded white cabbage
70 g (2½ oz/½ cup) halved cherry tomatoes
1 julienned carrot
½ mango, chopped into thin slices
50 g (1¾ oz/½ cup) julienned snow peas (mangetout)
10 g (¼ oz/¼ cup) snow pea (mangetout) tendrils
1 large handful fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped
½ handful thai basil
optional – 1 tsp finely chopped vietnamese mint
garnish – spiced cashews (see page 29), 1 finely chopped red chilli (to taste) and 1 lime cut into wedges

METHOD

1 Drain the soaked nuts and rinse thoroughly.
2 In a blender, combine almond butter or almonds with cashews, ginger, garlic, chilli, tamari, lemon or lime juice, coconut sugar and a pinch of sea salt. Add 60 ml (2 fl oz/¼ cup) water and blend well. You may need to add more water (add a little at a time) to get this to a consistency that is similar to mayonnaise. Make sure it is not too runny or the flavours will be watered down and the mixture won’t hold on the vegetables.
3 Scoop and clean the young coconut flesh and slice into thin noodles.
4 In a large bowl, place 150 g (5½ oz/2 cups) of the finely shredded cabbage and mix with ¼ of the sauce mixture until very well combined. Very lightly fold through the rest of the vegetables, mango and coconut noodles; you don’t want to coat everything with the sauce or you will lose all the beautiful colours. Throw the snow pea tendrils and herbs over the top.
5 Serve the rest of the pad thai sauce on the side, along with spiced cashews, finely chopped chilli (to taste) and a wedge of lime.