The BetterDay recipe file
Creamy peanut stir fry sauce
Make a triple batch. A jar of this in the fridge turns whatever is in the crisper into dinner.
The BetterDay KitchenUpdated 2 min read
Before you start
Every good weeknight kitchen has one sauce that rescues things. This is ours. Peanut butter, soy, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, and about five minutes of attention.
Prep
5 min
Cook
3 min
Total
8 min
Makes
About 3/4 cup, enough for a stir fry for 4
01 / Recipes
The reason to make it is not the stir fry you are making tonight. It is the stir fry you make on Thursday when the fridge contains half a cabbage, three mushrooms and a carrot that has seen things. A jar of this turns that into a meal instead of a takeout order.
02 / Recipes
Triple it
It takes exactly as long to make three times as much, and it keeps for a week. Do the work once.
03 / Recipes
What it is good on, besides stir fry
- Cold noodles, thinned with a little extra water
- Rice bowls with roasted vegetables
- As a dip for fresh spring rolls or raw vegetables
- Drizzled over roasted sweet potato, which is a better idea than it sounds
The recipe
Creamy Peanut Stir Fry Sauce
A pantry peanut sauce with soy, rice vinegar, maple, sesame, ginger and garlic. Ready in five minutes.
Prep
5 min
Cook
3 min
Total
8 min
Makes
About 3/4 cup, enough for a stir fry for 4
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/4 cup vegetable broth or water
Method
- 1In a small bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, maple syrup, sesame oil, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes.
- 2Warm the vegetable broth or water in a small pan over medium heat until it just simmers, then take it off the heat.
- 3Whisk the peanut mixture into the warm broth until smooth and glossy, about a minute.
- 4Taste and adjust. More vinegar if it is heavy, more maple if it is sharp, more soy if it is flat.
- 5Use straight away over a stir fry, noodles or a rice bowl, or cool and refrigerate.
Keeps
Up to one week in a sealed jar in the fridge. It thickens cold, so loosen with warm water.
Chef’s note
Grate the ginger on a microplane rather than chopping it. You want it to disappear into the sauce, not turn up as a fibrous surprise.
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Rather not cook tonight?