Curried Peanut Sauce Recipe

This is the framework for most batches I make, but it gets adjusted in different vectors each time. :-)

Don't have lemon or berberearound? You don't need it. 👍🏽 We often make it without those at all, and it makes it more Thai style. 👌🏽💚

This recipe is built from our zero-waste peanut butter recipe. If you sub in store bought peanut butter, take care to adjust the salt (liquid aminos or soy sauce if using that as a replacement for the aminos) or sweetness (store-bought often has added sugar). Add more heat or garlic, as needed.

The berbere is purely personal taste and not necessary.

1.9.2020

Peanut Sauce is one of the rare recipes that has been with us since college. Through all our various life and diet changes, this has remained a healthy, delicious pillar.

We —like most people— first had peanut sauce as a dip for spring rolls at restaurants, and I always wanted more that than unsatisfying, tiny sauce bowl. Reverse engineering fun flavors is a passion of mine, so this has been bubbling in our kitchens since our first apartment, and has gone through just as many changes as us. Now that we’re plant-based, we rely on its nutritional punch even more.

Why is it nutritional? Aside from the protein and iron you’re getting from those peanuts, the Vitamin C in the lemon juice helps you absorb the iron, and the red curry fights inflammation and has cardiovascular benefits.

It used to have brown sugar in it, but you’ll be better off with a little pure maple syrup if you need it sweeter.

I use Thai Kitchen Red Curry because it comes in reusable glass jars (great for individual servings of peanut sauce), can be found in any grocery store (even good ol’ Green Hills), and it is super mild so the folks that usually say, “Oh, I don’t like anything spicy…” can still handle it easily. If you (like we) enjoy super-spicy food, you could add even more curry (or another hot curry you like), add Sriracha, or sometimes we use this Ian favorite:

If you’re a fan of cumin and heat, this is a nice alternative.

The above recipe fills one 12oz mason jar with a little to spare.

Special Notes:

It will progress smoothly if you stir everything-but-the-water together first so you’re not chasing after chunks of curry and honey.

It will seem too watery at first, but it will thicken up as it bubbles. *Stick to that 1.5 cups water and you’ll be fine* If you start too dry it will scorch.

1/2 avocado with lime, 1/2 cup black rice, 1/4 chopped apple, and quick-pickled carrots. <3

We put it on stir-fry bowls, eat it with apples, over salads, on a platter with vegetables, sometimes Q even goes after it with a spoon!

It tastes good on just about everything. Enjoy! :-)