Suspended for Wednesday night's Champions League defeat at Inter Milan, Van der Vaart scored his fifth goal in as many games to send Spurs third in the Barclays Premier League.
The Holland midfielder's effort cancelled out Leighton Baines' brilliant free-kick - his first goal for almost 14 months - while Peter Crouch wasted more than one chance to seal what would have been Tottenham's fourth comeback win in five league matches.
Baines struck in the 17th minute when he stepped up to curl a delightful free-kick into the top corner.
But Tottenham were level inside three minutes after Tim Howard flapped at Alan Hutton's cross and Crouch nodded the ball back across goal for who else but Van der Vaart to blast over the line.
With two minutes remaining, Van der Vaart looked to have a chance to snatch all three points but his shot on the turn was blocked by Sylvain Distin and Tony Hibbert.
Source: PA