Vietnamese peanut dipping sauce

Lunch | Vietnamese

Prep time: 5 min Servings: 1

Peanut dipping sauce is elite! It makes almost anything taste better. Take a bland vegetable and dip it in some peanut sauce and it’s the best thing you’ve had all day.

This Vietnamese peanut dipping sauce is creamy, tangy, a little sweet and a little spicy. It’s seven ingredients and only a couple of steps to make it, so it’s an easy sauce to make and add to your table. It's made from smooth peanut butter loosened with hot water, then seasoned with hoisin sauce, fish sauce and lime juice.

It’s generally served with grilled skewers like chicken or pork as well as recipe paper rolls. I also like dipping veggies into it or putting it on some rice noodles.

Ingredient Notes

Peanut butter: Use smooth peanut butter for this sauce. Crunchy works but gives a rougher texture that doesn’t suit dipping as well. For flavour, standard commercial peanut butter emulsifies more easily and gives a slightly sweeter, more consistent result. Natural peanut butter gives a more pronounced peanut flavour but can be oilier and sometimes takes more whisking to come together smoothly.

Hoisin sauce: Hoisin is a thick, sweet Chinese fermented soybean sauce with a deep, slightly smoky flavour. It’s the main seasoning base of this sauce, providing sweetness and depth. Hoisin varies in sweetness between brands, so taste as you go and adjust with extra lime juice if yours is on the sweeter side.

Fish sauce: Just a dash here. The fish sauce isn’t meant to be detectable on its own. It adds a background savoury note that rounds the sweetness of the hoisin and lifts the overall flavour of the sauce. If you need to make this vegetarian, leave it out or use a small splash of soy sauce instead. The sauce still works without it.

Equipment

Small bowl
Whisk
Airtight jar or container

Ingredients

⅓ cup (95g) smooth peanut butter
½ cup (125ml) hot water
¼ cup hoisin sauce
dash of fish sauce
juice of ½ lime
sriracha chilli sauce (optional)
chopped toasted peanuts, to garnish

Directions

Whisk peanut butter and water in a small bowl until smooth.
Stir in hoisin, fish sauce and lime juice. Taste for seasoning, then add sriracha for a spicy version. Serve garnished with peanuts.

Recipe notes

Chef Tips

Use hot water to loosen the peanut butter

Cold water can cause the peanut butter to seize up and go lumpy rather than emulsifying smoothly. Use freshly boiled water that’s cooled for 30 seconds or so, add it gradually while whisking, and the sauce will come together much more easily. Start with a little less water than the recipe calls for and add more if you want a thinner consistency for dipping.

Taste and adjust before serving

Hoisin sauce varies quite a bit in sweetness and saltiness between brands, so the balance of the finished sauce will differ slightly each time. Taste after you combine everything and decide what it needs. More lime if it’s too sweet or flat. More fish sauce if it needs depth. More hoisin if it’s too tart. More water if it’s too thick. This takes about 30 seconds and makes a real difference to the finished sauce.

Storage

Store in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 5 days. The sauce will thicken as it chills. Loosen it with a small splash of warm water and whisk to recombine before serving. This sauce does not freeze well as the peanut butter can split when thawed.

FAQs

Can I make this vegan? Yes. Leave out the fish sauce entirely or replace it with a small splash of soy sauce. The hoisin already provides plenty of depth on its own, so the sauce works well without the fish sauce. Check your hoisin brand as well since most are vegan but some contain trace animal products.

What do I serve this with? Rice paper rolls are the classic pairing, but I use this sauce broadly. It works with grilled chicken or pork skewers in place of satay sauce, as a dipping sauce for spring rolls or steamed dumplings, stirred through cold rice noodles, or alongside a platter of raw and blanched vegetables.

Can I use crunchy peanut butter? You can, but the texture will be chunkier. For a smooth dipping sauce, smooth peanut butter is better. If you only have crunchy, add the water and hoisin first, whisk those together, then stir in the peanut butter at the end so the chunks stay distributed rather than clumping.