I tried Nathan Hartono's 5-minute instant noodle 'pad thai' recipe and it blew my mind

If you love pad thai (stir-fried rice noodles) but always thought it was too difficult to make at home, Nathan Hartono has just the recipe for you. 

On Wednesday (Oct 27), the singer kicked off his Instagram Reels journey by uploading a video of himself making 'pad thai' using instant noodles and a "super simple recipe", adding that it only takes five minutes. 

"Sorry Thai followers, don't yell at me," the heartthrob added cheekily in the captions. 

So, when I was tasked to try Nathan Hartono's new instant noodle pad thai recipe, I'll admit that I had my doubts. 

Ingredients: 

1. Mama Shrimp Creamy Tom Yum Flavour instant noodles
2. Peanut butter 
3. An egg 
4. Beansprouts 
5. A wedge of lime 
6. Chopped spring onions 
7. Chopped chilli padi 

As I could only find the Mama-brand instant noodles in the Shrimp (Tom Yum) Flavour, I went with that instead. 

And since Nathan did not specify if he used chunky or smooth peanut butter, I went for chunky as I wanted that nutty bite and more texture. 

Watch on TikTok

Instructions: 

1. Mix the instant noodle seasoning with a scoop of peanut butter. 

2. Cook your instant noodles. While the noodles are cooking, crack open an egg into the same pot. 

My egg didn't come out like Nathan's, so I suggest stirring the noodles and egg while it's still in the pot to break the yolk and make it more stringy. 

3. Drain the noodles and egg. 

4. Mix noodles with instant noodle seasoning and peanut butter sauce. 

5. Garnish it with chilli padi, spring onions, bean sprouts and a dash of lime juice. Give it a good stir. 

6. Enjoy!

Final verdict 

I'm sorry, Nathan.

I should never have doubted you, because this instant noodle hack is absolutely genius. 

I'll admit that I was initially a little put off by having to mix the dry instant noodle seasoning with the peanut butter as it sounded like a recipe for disaster. 

However, as I was mixing the two, the bizarre concoction surprisingly smelled just like actual pad thai. 

At this point, I still had my doubts, but I decided to save them for later. 

And boy, was I in for a surprise. Noodle texture aside, the dish tasted shockingly similar to that of real pad Thai, especially after adding a dash of lime.

It did, understandably, have a slight salty and artificial taste thanks to the seasoning powder. But other than that, the flavours were intense — almost as good as an actual plate of pad thai. 

I am also really glad that I used chunky peanut butter because the peanut bits did resemble the crushed nuts usually served with an authentic plate of pad thai. 

My only gripe with this was the beansprouts. I'm very fussy with how my beansprouts are done and having to eat them raw was painful. While it did add a nice crunch to the dish, I wished Nathan had cooked them first!

However, I do understand that some places in Thailand serve their pad thai with raw beansprouts so props to Nathan for trying to be as accurate as possible. 

So, will I be making this again?

It's a solid yes from me. In fact, I even plan on adding other ingredients like shrimp and chicken to give the dish more pizazz. 

melissateo@asiaone.com 

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