Peanut Sauce Recipe
Several Asian cultures make a version of peanut sauce. This one may not be the most authentic, but it’s really, really good. Serve it as a dipping sauce, over cold noodles, tossed in a salad, or with our summer rolls.
What to buy: Look for hoisin sauce and chile-garlic paste in the Asian section of your supermarket. For the chile paste, we prefer the one made by Huy Fong Foods (with the rooster on the jar!).
We like to use natural peanut butter in this recipe. If you use the conventional kind, omit the sugar called for below.
Game plan: You can make this sauce a day ahead. Just keep it refrigerated in a covered container. Let it sit for a bit at room temperature before serving.
- 3/4 cup natural-style creamy peanut butter
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
- 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 1 1/2 medium limes)
- 4 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 1/4 teaspoons chile-garlic paste
- 1 medium garlic clove, mashed to a paste
- 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
dear chow.com.. it's official...i ADORE you.
Can this sauce (or a thinned out version) be used as a salad dressing?
The recipe is a good starting point. You can play around with it by adding or deleating. I added toasted balck and white sesame seeds and sliced green onion tops for more contrast and texture. Some times I add hot sauce or minced ginger and I always use fish sauce insted of soy.
Im vietnamese and I like to keep my recipes simple. This way you can cook without looking up recipes all the time. IMO, this recipe is a little too complicated and has too many ingredients. EASIEST peanut sauce. equal amounts of Hoisen sauce, peanut butter (crunchy is better :), and water. add a bit of red chili paste (Shirachi) for heat. Heat in microwave for 20 secs, stir and enjoy. Heating helps soften the PB and allows easy mixing of everything. But as posted earlier, you DO NOT need to cook hoisen sauce. You can vary the amount of water depending on how thick you like the sauce. You can also top this with roasted finely chopped peanuts for presentation, but I don't do this. As for the recipe posted above. Avoid the lime juice, soy sauce, garlic, and sugar. Hoisen sauce is already sweet enough.
Less lime juice and add fish sauce!!!
I've had huge success with this! Thanks!!!!
I've been looking for a Vietnamese peanut sauce recipe. The one's I've had in restaurants that I like are always somewhat thick, very peanutty and served warm. Anyone got a good recipe for that? Haven't tried this one yet. Come close? Lincat
I tried this recipe to the very last and it was not a good taste. I even tried to thin it out with some water and it still was not a good taste. I am vietnamese, so I am aware of what peanut sauce should taste like. Sorry, there was a miss somewhere in the ingredients. I will ask my mom for it and post for all. Thanks though!
I made this using cashew butter instead of peanut butter (BF is allergic), and it's very good, but with a subtler, more delicate flavor.
I make peanut sauce all the time - it's a great, quick single-gal condiment for a hurried weeknight meal of noodles or grains and veggies. I never cook it. Because of that, I don't care for fish sauce in mine - make it too fishy (somehow it tastes better to me when cooked). I don't use coconut milk because it's just me and I don't want to open a whole can. There are plenty of substitutions that work great, too. No lime juice? Use rice vinegar. I often include a splash of rice wine. I never use sugar, and add sweetness elsewhere. No hoisin sauce? No problem. Use molasses or honey. I also use black soy sauce - it's thick and sweet and very yummy. If you don't have rooster sauce, try any hot sauce. Also that wonderful sweet chili sauce that you get in the big bottle at Asian groceries is great, but again, reduce the sweetener elsewhere. I keep powdered ginger around for whipping up an emergency batch of this, too.
The recipe sounds great and Nuoc Mam would be an excellent addition. Thanqmap, your recipe for Nuoc Cham sounds wonderful too. Nuoc Cham makes plain rice tast good.
Do you think I could sub soy nut butter?
yes adding Fish Sauce is the way to go, also try Sautéing some minced onions and garlic, and then add everything else to the pot and heat it up a bit, its not necessary to heat this sauce up, but in my opinion everything will mix better when heated. I also don't like my sauce to be as thick as most restaurant likes theirs so I add some VN nuoc mam to mines and it thins it out a bit and it's superb with almost everything....I would leave a recipe for the mixture but growing up I was taught by my mom and she never went by measurement....but heres the ingredients and I'll try to eyeball it for yal... VN nuoc mam: VN fish sauce - 1/2 a cup Lime - Juice from 3-4 limes more if you like it sour Garlic - mince 3 gloves of garlic Chile - paste or fresh or both to preferred spiciness Sugar - 2 tbl spoon Water - about 1 cup of hot water Mix everything in a bowl with the water being last item to go in, and then just fine tone the sauce to your taste by adding more fish sauce, lime juice, chile, or sugar....
You could add coconut milk in place of the water in this recipe. I've also added heavy cream when making peanut sauce. Can also add fresh Asian chilies rather than the paste, though they probably use paste in many restaurants. Good call on the fish sauce in place of the soy. Makes sense to me.
alkpal: no need to cook hoisin. It's traditionally made from sweet potatoes, and, with all the spices and sugar, it's got natural preservatives. caitybirdie: peanut sauces don't necessarily have coconut milk, although in many cuisines (like Thai) it does pair with it.
dont peanut sauces usually have coconut milk???? i thought they did, thats why i would cover everything on my place with it, full knowing it was going straight to my thighs.....
Delete the soy sauce and replace with VN nước mắm or Thai nam pla. Add as much of this fish sauce as you dare - it's really great here!
This sound so good, I'm trying it tonight! :)
love it mine always tastes off.
I've never heard that it's necessary to cook hoisin. While some Asian cultures do call for cooking peanut sauce--Vietnam and Indonesia, for example, it's not necessary for this super-quick version.
asking about heating it, are you concerned about the hoisin? i heard once that you needed to cook hoisin, but many contervailing books/experts do not say this. FYI
Shouldn't you heat it?
sounds great