It would be delicious and a traditional option to dip your Vietnamese fresh spring rolls / gỏi cuốn into the versatile fish sauce-based dipping sauce. But you may be accustomed to another traditional sauce that has now cemented its spot as the most popular dipping sauce for these rolls in America–Vietnamese peanut dipping sauce.
This sauce tastes amazing and lucky for you, it’s dead simple to make.
Ingredients in Vietnamese peanut sauce
If you regularly cook Asian food at home, you likely have everything you need to make this sauce in your pantry already. Maybe the roasted peanuts are the wildcard here, but I happened to have a Costco size bag of this I’ve been working through for the past few months now.
Here are the ingredients we’re going to need:
- A neutral cooking oil – such as vegetable oil or canola oil.
- Hoisin sauce – it’s interesting this recipe is more commonly called peanut dipping sauce, but in this specific recipe the hoisin is double the ratio of the peanut.
- Peanut butter – you can use chunky peanut butter too but using the smooth one makes it dissolve in the sauce a bit easier.
- Sambal chile paste – This is optional and you can add as much as you like. This is the traditional chile sauce used back in Vietnam for dipping fresh spring rolls.
- Sriracha – This is not the traditional way to add spicyness to sauce but it works too if its all you have, since it has very similar ingredients like vinegar, chiles and garlic.
- Roasted, crushed peanuts – this adds extra texture, and visual appeal to the sauce. It is called peanut dipping sauce after all.
What about adding fish sauce to season this? If you want to use a full-on fish sauce dipping sauce, this is also a traditional option from Vietnam served with these rolls. However, using bottled fish sauce to season this hoisin-peanut butter-based sauce is not the traditional Vietnamese way.
How to adjust this recipe to match your taste
The ratio of hoisin to peanut butter is the crucial element in this recipe. This is my preferred ratio for flavor and the thickness of the sauce–the way it coats the rolls is perfect to me. However, there are many other tasty ways to do it and you can adjust it to find one you may like better!
Hoisin sauce is very strong, so if you’re going to increase the ratio, be careful and taste as you go.
I’ve seen in other recipes that many people like using a really high ratio of peanut butter. It’s almost like you’re dipping rolls into straight peanut butter. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE peanut butter so this can work too if that’s your fancy. This just means you will have to add a lot more water to dilute this when cooking since peanut butter is so thick.
How to store this dipping sauce
Since we’re boiling this sauce, it is ‘clean’ and will keep in the fridge for about a week. Just make sure you always use clean utensils (ones you haven’t eaten with or touched other foods with) when scooping some out so your main container of sauce keeps longer without spoiling.
This sauce will thicken after you fridge it, so make sure to microwave your scooped-out portion a bit to warm and loosen the sauce before serving.
Vietnamese Peanut Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp neutral cooking oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 5 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp sambal chile paste
- 3 tbsp crushed peanuts (optional)
Instructions
- Heat pan on medium heat, then add 2 tbsp neutral cooking oil and 4 cloves garlic. Saute until lightly browned.2 tbsp neutral cooking oil, 4 cloves garlic
- Add the rest of the ingredients except the chile paste (5 tbsp hoisin sauce, 2 tbsp smooth peanut butter, 1/2 cup water) and mix to combine.5 tbsp hoisin sauce, 2 tbsp smooth peanut butter, 1/2 cup water
- Turn the heat up to medium high, and bring to a boil.
- Once it hits a boil immediately shut off the heat and add the 1 tsp sambal chile paste. The sauce will thicken a lot as it cools.1 tsp sambal chile paste
- Optiona: top with a little bit of 3 tbsp crushed peanuts split among each dipping bowl.
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The ingredients are on point but too much water. The sauce was very runny.
I liked it! It definitely gets thicker as it cools. I added lime just cause that’s how we had it growing up
Not my favorite style of peanut sauce. It is too watery for my tastes. I like it thicker and more peanut flavor than hoisin. I appreciate the ease of this sauce though and love your recipes Huy!
This recipe was delicious, I think this tasted better that than what I usually get at the restaurants. Using pork belly I think made it so much flavorful. Thanks for a great recipe!😋
Couldn’t agree more with the other comment, I substituted a spoonful of chilli jam because I didn’t have sambal lying around – so so flavoursome
Reply
Definitely add some lime juice, makes it amazinggggg
So simple and so DELICIOUS
this will be a staple in our household, the ingredients are minimal and so easy to remember!
was a huge hit!
The closest one to the sauce I get from the restaurant. It was a little runny for me, but I added more peanut butter to thicken it to my desired consistency. It’s delicious.