Do you like Asian cuisine? Are you already a Pad Thai fan? Then this recipe for Char Kuey Teow (pesco-vegetarian) is for you!

What’s Char Kuey Teow?

Char Kuey Teow is a dish made from flat rice pasta. The pasta is sautéed with shrimp, Chinese sausage and a sauce made from soy sauce and fish sauce.

Char Kuey Teow is similar to Pad Thai, the flagship dish of Thai cuisine. No wonder, as it is one of the traditional dishes of Malaysian-Chinese cuisine that is traditionally found in Penang, a city located in northwestern Malaysia, very close to the Thai border.

A pesco-vegetarian recipe!

The recipe I propose below is a pesco-vegetarian version. So I replaced the sausage with grilled tofu. Personally, I find that the sausage is not missing at all. What’s more, it makes this dish healthier and lighter!

Finally, I added some vegetables for taste and freshness.

What you will need…

The essential ingredients

For this recipe, you will need the following ingredients:

For the chili paste:

• 3 dried red chilli peppers (soaked in water)
• 2 fresh red chilis (minced)
• 3 small shallots (peeled and minced)
• 3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• 1 tsp. oil
• 1 pinch of salt

For the sauce:

• 5 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. Kecap Manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
• 1 tbsp. fish sauce
• Pepper

For the Char Kuey Teow:

• 220 g flat rice noodles
• 9 prawns
• 200 g tofu cut into cubes
• 200 g bean sprouts (rinsed in cold water and drained)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 carrot (grated into thin strips)
• 50 g green beans (cut into 3 cm pieces)
• 2 spring onions (finely cut lengthwise)
• 1 lime

Three essential ingredients to get the authentic taste of Char Kuey Teow.

• Fish sauce: You can find fish sauce in most supermarkets.
• Flat rice noodles: I really recommend your large flat rice noodles. If you cannot find them in the specialized supermarkets, you can use any type of rice noodles.
• The Kecap Manis Kecap Manis is a lightly sweetened soy sauce often used in Southeast Asian cuisine and especially in Indonesia.

Kitchen utensiles

Regarding the kitchen utensiles, I advise you to use a traditional steel wok. Cooking in a wok has nothing to do with frying in a pan or a casserole. I use it for all my Asian recipes.

Recipe of the Char Kuey Teow (pesco-vegetarian)

Step 1: Chili paste

Grind all the ingredients of the chilli paste with a grinder or a mortar and pestle until you obtain a fine paste.

Heat a wok with 1 tbsp. oil and stir-fry the chilli paste until aromatic. Serve and set aside.

Step 2: Rice noodles

Heat some water and soak the rice noodles for 5 minutes off the heat.

Step 3: Tofu and prawns

Heat the wok over high heat until it begins to smoke. Add 2 tbsp of oil and add the tofu. Sauté until lightly browned. Remove and set aside.

Add then the prawns. Sauté for 1 minute on each side.

Step 4: Noodles and vegetables

Add the green beans, soy sprouts and tofu. Then, the cooked rice noodles. Add the sauce to the wok and mix well.

Step 5 : Eggs

Using the spatula, push the noodles to the side, add a little oil to the empty area and break the eggs over it. Use the spatula to break the yolk and stir to mix with the egg white. Turn the noodles over and cover the egg, and wait about 15 seconds.

Step 6: Chili paste

Add the chili paste (if you like spicy food, add more). Continue stir-frying and make sure the egg is cooked through.

Finish by adding the carrots and the spring onions.

Pour into a bowl and garnish with some soy bean sprouts aside. Serve immediately. Season with lime juice to taste.

I hope this recipe made you travel a little! If you liked this recipe, you will surely like these other Asian recipes as well:

• Vegetarian Green Thai Curry
• Vegan korean bulgogi

Feel free to leave me a comment if you liked this Char Kuey Teow (pesco-vegetarian) recipe or if you have any questions.