At my house, we eat a lot of stir-fry and noodle dishes that require a decadent sauce to turn veggies and grains into masterpieces. My sister, Susan, decided to become a vegan about a year ago now, and it’s been a wonderful (and edible) adventure. I never understood how creative you had to be in order to make dinners without meat or dairy enjoyable, but that’s the fun part. Since the beginning, a lot of the family meals we make are some form of vegetables over a grain: rice, rice noodles, quinoa, basically whatever we have in the cabinet. We eat a lot of these types of meals because they incorporate a hearty amount of vegetables and are generally low-effort. Usually, we douse the contents of the wok with soy sauce and call it an evening, but we were getting a little tired of the high sodium. So one night my sister tested out a peanut sauce recipe, the usual suspect in a good pad thai. With a little alteration, it became our go-to stir-fry topping or dipping sauce for spring rolls.
Susan’s Peanut Sauce
½ cup peanut butter
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
¼ tsp. fresh ginger or ginger powder
¼ tsp. garlic or garlic powder
sriracha to taste
This one is pretty simple. Take all of the ingredients, put them into a mixing bowl, mix, and enjoy. These are the best recipes, aren’t they?
You can add water to it if you want to thin it into a dressing, or leave it as is.
The recipe is easily adjustable to whatever preferences you may have. If you like it with a stronger peanut flavor, add more peanut butter. If you like it with less, add less. The list goes on.
The best part about this sauce is that it can be used for many different recipes. I’ve used it as a dressing, a dip for spring rolls, and, of course, a sauce for stir-fries or noodle dishes.
