Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai
101
Published May 27, 2020, Updated Dec 12, 2021
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This healthy spaghetti squash Pad Thai uses spaghetti squash strands instead of rice noodles for a veggie-packed dish that’s lower in carbs and super satisfying.
Pad Thai is probably one of the most well-known Thai dishes, but if you’re unfamiliar it’s traditionally a stir-fried noodle dish originating from Thailand. It’s typically made with rice noodles, but since I’m a spaghetti squash lover through and through, I had to try it with squash noodles instead. Authentic Pad Thai is made with a sauce that consists of fish sauce, vinegar, tamarind paste and sugar. For this untraditional Pad Thai we’re using a sweet chili almond sauce that doesn’t use fish sauce, but still has a ton of flavor and makes this dish absolutely delicious.
While I never want to imply that spaghetti squash noodles are exact healthy dupes for regular noodles, they are a really great substitute for this Pad Thai dish! I find that while the texture is super similar, spaghetti squash has a firmer texture than cooked noodles and of course, they are thinner than the traditional rice noodles used for Pad Thai. You will know you’re eating vegetables instead of rice noodles, but I love the extra texture in this dish!
Spaghetti squash has a hint of sweetness to it, but overall it’s pretty mild in taste so it takes on the flavors of the dish. In this case there are a lot of delicious flavors happening (especially from the almond sauce) so you don’t have to worry about it tasting bland.
Ingredients Needed:
There are two main components of this recipe: the sauce and everything else. I’m obsessed with the chili almond sauce, which is inspired by my chili almond dressing.
Chili Almond Sauce Ingredients:
- natural almond butter – look for one with just almonds or almonds + salt
- fresh lime juice
- low sodium tamari or coconut aminos – I love the sweetness coconut aminos add to this dish but either option works and in a pinch soy sauce works as well
- fresh ginger – you could certainly try ground ginger if you don’t have fresh, but fresh ginger gives this sauce so much flavor
- garlic cloves
- maple syrup
- sambal oelek or crushed red pepper
Pai Thai Ingredients:
- spaghetti squash – either one large one or two small
- olive or avocado oil – whichever you have in the pantry works
- chicken breast – you could swap this for tofu or shrimp if you don’t eat meat
- Sea salt and ground pepper
- chopped ginger
- chopped yellow onion
- red bell pepper
- matchstick carrots
- green onions, fresh cilantro and limes, for garnish
- salted almonds (optional)
How to Prep Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai
There are a lot of methods you could use to cook spaghetti squash, but my personal favorite is to cook it in rings. Check out my blog post for the full details, but the cliff notes are: you preheat your oven to 400º F and then cut your spaghetti squash into 1 1/2 inch thick rings. Gently scrape out the seeds in the middle of each ring, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake for 30-40 minutes, flipping about 15 minutes in. You’ll be left with perfectly cooked spaghetti squash strands that are long and not watery at all.
After you cook the spaghetti squash and whip up the sauce in your food processor or blender, this recipe is straight forward – just lots of sautéing! First you’ll cook the chicken, then the veggies and then you mix everything together for serving. And if your sauté pan isn’t large enough, you can do the mixing in a large bowl.
Once everything is combined, simply serve with green onions, cilantro, lime and chopped almonds for garnish!
More Spaghetti Squash Recipes to Try:
- 20+ Healthy Spaghetti Squash Recipes
- Spaghetti Squash Tuna Noodle Casserole Boats
- Almond Pesto Spaghetti Squash with Shrimp
- Spaghetti Squash Pizza Crust
- Spaghetti Squash Taco Bake
- Vegan Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Bowls
More Healthy Pad Thai Inspired Dishes:
If you make this spaghetti squash Pad Thai, please be sure to leave a comment and star rating down below letting me know how it turned out. Your feedback is super helpful for the EBF team and other EBF readers.
Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai
Ingredients
- 1 large spaghetti squash, approx. 5 cups after roasting
- 1 Tablespoon + 2 teaspoons olive or avocado oil
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
- Sea salt and ground pepper
- ½ teaspoon chopped ginger
- 1 ⁄2 cup chopped yellow onion
- 1 sliced red bell pepper
- 1 cup matchstick carrots
- Green onions, fresh cilantro and lime wedges, for garnish
- 2 Tablespoons chopped salted almonds, optional
Chili Almond Sauce
- ½ cup natural almond butter, no sugar added
- 2 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 Tablespoon low sodium tamari or coconut aminos
- 1 inch knob fresh ginger, peeled
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon sambal oelek or crushed red pepper
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Cook spaghetti squash in rings using instructions from my spaghetti squash post.
- Allow squash rings to cool for about 15 minutes, then peel the skin away and use a fork to separate the strands.
- While squash is roasting, make the chili almond sauce by adding all ingredients into a blender or food processor. Process until smooth and set aside.
- Chop raw chicken breasts into 1-inch chunks. Heat a large skillet over medium heat with 1 Tablespoon oil. Add chicken to the skillet and liberally season with sea salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often until all sides are golden and chicken is cooked through and no longer pink. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
- Add remaining 2 teaspoons of oil to the same skillet and sauté together ginger, onion, bell pepper and carrots. Cook until the veggies are starting to soften, about 5-6 minutes.
- Add chicken back to the skillet with the veggies. Then add the chili almond sauce and mix everything together thoroughly.
- Add spaghetti squash to the skillet and mix again. If your skillet isn’t large enough, you can put everything in a large bowl to mix instead.
- Serve the spaghetti squash pad Thai immediately with green onions, fresh cilantro and lime wedges for garnish. Top with chopped almonds.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
AMAZING healthy version of pad thai! So tasty and also husband approved 🙂 I substituted powdered peanut butter for the almond butter and it lowered the calories a little while keeping the taste of the sauce. Otherwise kept everything else the same. Also loved roasting the spaghetti squash in spirals- so easy and fast! Will definitely make this recipe again- thanks EBF for another great recipe!
I was very confused about the chile almond sauce because there’s a bullet next to the title/name in the recipe which implied it was an ingredient on its own!!! If you take away the bullet point that would be very helpful to those of us following the recipe. Thanks!!!
Thank you so much for pointing out this mistake! The Chile Almond Sauce is supposed to be a heading for the sauce ingredients. Just updated it!!
Got to use my new food processor for this and the sauce was so addictive. The spaghetti squash cooking method was also a game changer. Can’t wait to make this for some friends soon!
At the top you listed sambal oelek as an ingredient but I don’t see it listed in the ingredients for the sauce, just if that was intentional or not. I love sambal oelek, so I’ll probably add it anyway ;)! Love you recipes and website!
Hi Mark! It’s in the chili almond sauce. I love it too!
this was FANTASTIC! I whipped this up in my wok and it was so easy and very flavorful. Another EFB fav!!
So glad you loved this recipe, Caroline. Thanks for making it and for coming back to leave a review. I so appreciate it!
Delicious! Made it with shrimp instead , and added coconut milk to the sauce to make it creamy. Loved it! Thanks for the recipe.
YUM! Sounds so amazing, love adding shrimp to this one. Glad you’re enjoying it and this recipe turned out great for you, Natalie. Thank you for your review & star rating, it means the world to me!