Appalachian Pad Thai (Keto recipe!)

I love Thai food, and curry and pad Thai are dishes I return to again and again. I made curry last week, so this week I was craving that stir-fried, tangy-salty-sweet comfort. I’d just picked up a fresh jar of chili paste and fish sauce—and lucked into some kelp noodles, which, in my opinion, cook up even better than rice noodles.

For nearly a year now, I’ve been eating mostly keto (or low-carb), meaning no sugar or grains. It’s not as hard as it sounds these days, with easy substitutes like stevia, monk fruit, almond flour, and coconut flour. But this was the first time I’d come across kelp noodles in the store, and they’re what sparked this particular pad Thai craving.

I didn’t have mung bean sprouts on hand, but everything imaginable is growing on the mountain right now. So I turned to what I did have: branch lettuce (Micranthes micranthidifolia) and watercress (Nasturtium officinale). I chose them for their crispness—though Virginia waterleaf would have been a close second, it doesn’t quite have the same snap.

A few years ago, Lance and I transplanted some branch lettuce from one of our seeps to Big Sister, one of the two small creeks that run through our slough. To keep it thriving, I have to clear out the jewelweed every so often, or else it quickly takes over. When we first moved here, we didn’t even realize those creeks existed—they were completely swallowed by undergrowth. Once I cleared them, the whole slough changed. Instead of one big, indistinct swamp, it became a place of distinct features—running water, defined stream beds, and a variety of plants finding their footing again.

The branch lettuce took beautifully to its new home, and with the occasional clearing, the watercress has returned as well. Now we can harvest both.

I always use kitchen scissors when gathering them—their roots sit in soft creek mud and are easy to pull up by accident. Today, the branch lettuce was at its peak, while the watercress is just getting started, sending up delicate flowering stems. My foraging bucket was mostly lettuce, with a few cress blossoms mixed in. The flowering stems of branch lettuce are a bit tougher, so I usually leave those behind.

I almost stayed longer to gather wood violets, but hunger won out. So I headed back to the kitchen to make pad Thai—Appalachian-style.

Everyone has their version. Here’s mine:

(Keto) Appalachian Pad Thai

Sauce (mix in a measuring cup):
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp no-sugar peanut butter
2 Tbsp chili paste (I use sambal oelek)
1 tsp minced garlic (or garlic powder)
1 inch fresh grated ginger
Stevia to taste

In a skillet:
Protein (today I used chicken, but tofu or shrimp work well)
2 eggs
Kelp noodles (konjac noodles also work for keto eating)
Branch lettuce & watercress
4 green onions
Peanuts
Cilantro
Sauce

NOTE: You can add a can of coconut milk for a more creamy, liquid-y pad Thai. You might want to increase your sauce components to your taste.

Cook your protein, scramble your eggs, then toss everything together with your sauce and cook until hot. You can cook with the noodles, or just heat noodles up separately in a colander with hot tap water. The keto noodles often say to rinse them, so a hot water rinse does the job.

Ladle sauce over your noodles and serve with fresh chopped cilantro, if you have it.

A bowl of something warm and bright, made from what the mountain offers—that’s about as good as it gets.