This delicious Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai is a healthier version of the classic take-out dish! It is full of veggies, has a flavorful sauce, and is so easy to make at home.
If you have celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity, then you know that dining out at Asian restaurants is a little tricky sometimes. Soy sauce is used quite often in many dishes, and is sometimes hard to avoid. This is why I love eating Thai food, because many of their dishes don’t contain soy sauce. They normally have everything from curry dishes, to Pad Thai. I think it just depends on the restaurant when it comes to having soy sauce in their Pad Thai recipes. In my experience, some places do, and some places don’t.
This is why I have set out to start making my own take-out at home. I started with pizza, and now we’re on to Thai food!
Most Thai dishes are very simple, and always full of flavor. I absolutely LOVE the flavors of traditional Thai food, so I hope I did it justice with this recipe. If you aren’t familiar with traditional Pad Thai, it is a stir-fry noodle dish normally made with rice noodles, and it originated from Thailand. The original sauce is usually made with fish sauce and tamarind, but I tweaked the recipe a bit because I didn’t have those things on hand. My sauce turned out delicious, and still has some of the familiar flavors.
To shake things up a bit, I swapped out the noodles for spaghetti squash. This not only increases the nutrients and veggies, but it gives it a really great flavor and texture! And then of course, you will still have all of the usual veggies (carrots, pepper, green onion), chicken, chopped peanuts, cilantro, and THE SAUCE.
This will be your new favorite meal that you can make right at home, no need for take-out!
Looking for more easy dinner recipes?
- Quinoa & Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash
- Vegan Taco Salad
- Slow Cooker Turkey Sweet Potato Chili
- Black Rice Bowl with Sweet Potato, Broccoli & Chicken
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Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai
Ingredients
- 1 large spaghetti squash
- 1 lb chicken breast
- 2 large carrots , diced
- 1 large red bell pepper , diced
- 4 green onions , thinly sliced + more for garnish
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- ½ cup cilantro , chopped
- ⅓ cup peanuts , chopped
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Sauce
- ¼ cup chicken stock
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup tamari (GF soy sauce)
- juice of 1 lime
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 3 tbsp honey
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Drizzle the cut side with olive oil and place face down on a baking sheet. Bake for about 45 minutes, until you can stick a knife into the skin easily.
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When the squash is done, remove from the oven and let it cool for about 5-10 minutes. When it is cool enough to handle, use a fork to scrape out all of the spaghetti squash, until all you have left is the skin. Transfer the squash to a colander for about 10 minutes to drain off some of the excess moisture.
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In the meantime, prepare the sauce. Put all of the ingredients for the sauce into a small saucepan and whisk to combine. Put over low heat to warm. Don't let it come to a boil, just keep it warm while you are cooking the rest of the meal.
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Now cook the chicken. Cut the chicken into small pieces and season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Preheat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat, add the chicken with 2 tbsp of olive oil, stir occasionally until chicken is lightly brown.
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Add the peppers and carrots, and saute for about 3-4 minutes, until vegetables are tender-crisp. Then add the green onions, and saute for another 1-2 minutes.
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Add the drained spaghetti squash and the sauce to the skillet and stir it all together, until evenly distributed.
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To serve, spoon the mixture into bowls, and garnish with chopped peanuts and cilantro.
I made this tonight because of a link I saw on My Fitness Pal. Love!! Easy and tasty!
Yay! I’m so glad you liked it, Katie! It’s definitely one of my favorites 🙂
I love Pad Thai, but rarely order it because it’s all noodles with very little vegetables in it. I love the idea of “noodleless” pad thai. I am not a huge fan of spaghetti squash though. I decided to try this recipe with thinly sliced cabbage and zuchinni ribbons instead. I kept the grated carrot raw and used it as a garniish and added the traditional garnishes of bean sprouts and slivered omlette. WOW. It was as good as any restaurant version, even better, because it was full of vegetables. Will definitely make this again.
Oh wow! I love your substitutions! I’ll definitely have to try it with the cabbage and zucchini noodles, that sounds so good. Thanks for the ideas! I’m so glad you liked it 🙂
thank you for posting your comment. I was actually going to ask about substituting zucchini noodles. Now that I know it is a viable option, I will be making this for my family. I just purchased a spiralizer attachment for my Kithen Aid mixer and can’t wait to use it for this.
I would like to scribe to your website!
Hi Judy, you can subscribe by going over to the sidebar on the right side of the page where is says “subscribe”, and just enter your email address 🙂
I made this recipe tonight after seeing it on a MyFitnessPal email. My wife and I really enjoyed how the flavors came together and that it was grain/gluten free. I felt like I was eating Pad Thai! I did substitute chicken thighs, because I accidentally picked up the wrong package at the grocery store. We had dinner and enough leftover for each of us to take for lunch. Thank you for providing a nutritious, health, and tasty recipe!
Thank you so much, Bob! I love hearing that! I’m so glad you guys liked it! 🙂
It was so yummy!!! I’m said I didn’t double the recipe! Will make again very soon.
Yayaya! I’m so glad you liked it, Stephanie! We eat it pretty often in our house 😉
This was fantastic. I have missed the take of Thai food.
I added cabbage and reduced the amount of peanuts and used coconut oil to give it a more tropic taste. I added sriracha Chili sauce to the sauce to spice it up.
Wow this is great! Guilt free and Great tasting!
Thank you!
I’m so glad you liked it, Dawn! And I love the tweaks you made, I’ll have to try the cabbage idea next time! 🙂
This looks and sounds delish… im thinking of making this for dinner tonight but im juat windering how many calories are in it. I’ve looked over and over this page and cant seem to see it. No doubt its stairing me in the face.
Cheers xx
Hi Tina! I actually don’t include the calorie count information on my recipes, although I am considering doing it in the future. The reason I don’t include it is because I encourage people to focus on intuitive eating and whole foods rather than always focusing on the numbers. But with that said, this is actually a pretty low calorie and low carb dish 🙂 You could always plug all of the ingredients into a food tracker app like MyFitnessPal or MyPlate.