For those who have tried the famous summer rolls (rice paper wrapped with boiled shrimp, rice noodles, and herbs), you may have dipped them into a peanut sauce.  Many people assumed that the peanut sauce is just hoisin sauce mixed with peanut butter. That’s the short cut way of making a decent dipping sauce but it really lacks the depth that you would get from a restaurant’s peanut sauce.

With Henry (Eat collaborator), we made the home version of the restaurant’s peanut sauce. This does take some time to make but will last in your fridge for 2-3 weeks.  You can use it as a sauce for an easy dinner of spring rolls or toss it with noodles and vegetables for a quick noodle salad bowl.  You can even have a summer rolls party where guests can assemble their own version to their taste.

Ingredients:

2 tbs split mung bean (you may need to find this at an Asian grocer)

2 tbs sweet rice (this is glutenous rice and very different from plain jasmine rice)

2 cups of water or 2 cups of coconut soda (Coco Rico is the best)

3 heaping teaspoon of peanut butter

1 ½ cup of hoisin sauce

2 tbs sriracha or 1 large squeeze from the bottle (missing from the picture below)

Optional:

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbs vegetable oil

 

Directions:

Soak mung bean and sweet rice in water for at least 1 hour and drain.

Bring 2 cups of water, mung bean, and sweet rice to a boil (on high) and then turn down the heat to a simmer until the rice falls apart and becomes like porridge. Stir occasionally.  This process should take approximately 20 minutes.

Transfer the liquid to a blender and add all of the peanut butter.  Blend until all the ingredients are incorporated.

Transfer the sauce back to the pot and put on low heat.  Add the hoisin sauce and 2 tbs of sriracha.

Stir on medium/low heat until the sauce boils.  Turn off the heat and let the sauce cool.

 Optional:

At the end, add some garlic oil and mix into the mixture for a more fragrant flavor. In a small pan, heat up extra virgin olive oil and minced garlic until the garlic is brown.  Discard the garlic.

Tip:

You can replace the water with 2 cups of coconut soda to add a little bit of sweetness to the peanut sauce as well.

Author:  Chau Hoang and Henry Nguyen