Pad Woon Sen
Glass noodles tossed with egg, prawns and vegetables in a light soy dressing. Twenty-seven minutes and lighter than pad thai.
Photograph credit: Fried cellophane noodles with shrimp Pad woon sen kung by Sakurai Midori · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Soak the glass noodles in warm water, not boiling, and stop while they still have a firm core. They finish in the wok by absorbing the sauce, and noodles that arrive fully soft turn to jelly and clump into one lump. Cut them through with scissors once soaked, or you will be fighting a single continuous noodle for the whole stir-fry.
Pad Woon Sen: Step by Step
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Soak the glass noodles in warm water for 8 minutes, until pliable but with a firm core. Drain and cut through with scissors.
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Mix the soy, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sugar, white pepper and water in a cup.
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Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a wok and scramble the eggs for 45 seconds until just set. Lift out.
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Add the remaining oil and fry the garlic for 20 seconds.
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Add the prawns and cook 90 seconds, until pink. Lift out with the egg.
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Add the onion, carrot and cabbage and stir-fry 2 minutes over a high heat.
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Add the noodles and the sauce and toss for 3 minutes, until the noodles have taken up the liquid and turned clear.
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Return the prawns and egg and add the spring onions.
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Toss for 1 minute more and serve at once.
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A Few Pointers
- Warm water, firm core. They finish in the wok.
- Scissors through the noodles after soaking.
- Everything out and back in, so nothing overcooks.
Ingredient Swaps
- Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
What to Serve With It
Nam pla prik · Lime wedges · Thai iced tea
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Thai Cucumber Salad.
Storage
Keeps 1 day refrigerated. The noodles soften; eat fresh if you can.
The Numbers per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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