Earth Grown Plant-Based Pad Thai with Konjac Noodles

Pad thai is a dish with origins in Southeast Asia that typically features stir fried rice noodles, egg, bean sprouts, and peanuts, and sometimes various other veggies or proteins. Aldi has sold a couple of different types of pad thai over the years, including a frozen single-serve option and a single-serve pad thai rice noodle bowl. You can also buy a frozen pad thai from Trader Joe’s, which is a distant cousin to Aldi.

Recently, I found some vegan pad thai at Aldi in a mixed case alongside a vegan burrito bowl meal and some vegan taco filling. This particular pad thai features konjac noodles, also called shirataki noodles, which are part of Japanese cuisine and are made from the corm of the konjac plant. These noodles can be good for people who are avoiding gluten or eggs, and they are low in calories.

Earth Grown Plant-Based Pad Thai with Konjac Noodles appears to be a new Regular Buy at Aldi. That means you ought to be able to find it all year at Aldi.

This cost $2.99 for a 10-ounce package at my local store at the time of writing. That comes out to about 30 cents per ounce.

This is a product of Thailand.

This is sold under the Earth Grown brand, which is not a company. Instead, it’s the private label Aldi uses for many of its vegan or plant-based foods, which it sources from various suppliers.

If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains soy and peanuts. It is gluten free, and it’s certified vegan by The Vegan Society.

The full ingredients list contains konjac noodles (water, konjac flour, hydroxypropyl distarch-phosphate, calcium hydroxide), textured soy protein, red pepper, tomato, corn, sunflower oil, water chestnut, tomato paste, carrot, peanut, sugar, water, tamarind paste, salt, vinegar, onion, yeast extract, chili powder, and garlic flavor (maltodextrin, salt, vegetable oil, magnesium carbonate).

This has a lot of sodium per serving, so that’s something to be aware of if you’re watching your salt intake. It also has some added sugar. On the positive side, it’s got 9 grams of dietary fiber and is a good source of protein, with 13 grams per serving.

One pouch is one serving. One serving (1 1/4 cups) has 260 calories, 7 grams of total fat (9% DV), 1 gram of saturated fat (5% DV), 1,210 mg of sodium (52% DV), 36 grams of total carbohydrates (13% DV), 9 grams of dietary fiber (32% DV), 15 grams of total sugars, 9 grams of added sugars (17% DV), and 13 grams of protein.

The back of the pouch has directions for microwaving or heating this on the stovetop. To microwave, tear the pouch 2 inches, stand it upright in the microwave, and cook on high for approximately 60 seconds. To heat on the stove, boil the sealed pouch in water for 5 minutes.

I chose to heat this on my stovetop, but I didn’t want to boil a plastic pouch. Instead, I poured the pouch’s contents into a small saucepan and heated it on medium heat until it was hot, stirring it frequently. It took less than five minutes to heat.

This is my favorite of all the pouch meals that are sold in the mixed case this pad thai comes in. (As mentioned earlier, the mixed case also includes meatless taco filling and a meatless burrito bowl.) This pad thai has good flavor, and I like the konjac noodles. I do wish this had a few more noodles, as I ran out of noodles before I ran out of chicken-like textured soy protein pieces. This has small pieces of baby corn, as well as diced water chestnuts and diced peanuts, that all give it some good texture and just a bit of crunch. This does not contain bean sprouts, which a lot of other pad thai dishes I’ve tried include.

This is on the lower end of medium spicy. I kept a water glass nearby while eating it, but it wasn’t too spicy for me. Given that this is pad thai, it’s not surprisingly that it has some kick.

Overall, this tasted better than I expected for a pouch meal that aims for convenience. Judging this strictly on its taste merits, I would buy this again. The high sodium content means this will probably be a sometimes-food, though, and not something I’ll buy regularly.

The Verdict:

Earth Grown Plant-Based Pad Thai with Konjac Noodles is a new everyday vegan product at Aldi that features noodles, chicken-like pieces of textured-soy protein, peppers, and small bits of diced water chestnut, baby corn, and peanuts. It’s well seasoned and is medium spicy. We wish it had a few more noodles, and it has a lot of sodium. Otherwise, we really like this meal.