Gourmet Level Satay Sauce

Have you every used a shop bought jar of “satay sauce”? I did once, and to put it mildly it was appalling. Just hot and with no taste. So I thought it’s time to creat a gourmet level satay sauce.This is it!

The main problem with shop sauces, is they’re trying to make them as cheaply as possible. This means they skimp on the important and tasty ingredients, becuase they are usually expensive! It’s a false economy though, and it ruins the finished dish. I guarantee you will never taste anything as good as this from a jar bought in a shop!

You need peanut butter, and good quality – not Sunpat. It wants to be organic whole roasted peanuts and nothing else. No palm oil MSG or other extenders. I particularly like Essential, or Meridian brands. They are from wholefood companies who have ethics about how they source and create their food.

Making this sauce is pretty easy. The hardest part is chopping all the onions, ginger and chillies! This recipe makes a monster amount – so you just portion it up, and bung it in the freezer. Then the next time you want to do satay noodles, or vegan kebabs, just grab a couple of portions and defrost it.

I’ll post the kebab recipe soon, the satay noodles, as well as a satay tofu, with peppers & courgettes. Then you’ll have plenty of uses for this gourmet level satay sauce!

Satay Sauce - heaps better than shop ones

This is a much richer and more tasty sauce than the "satay sauce" you can buy in a Chinese "supermarket". Those sauces are just awful - pretty tasteless - just loads of chillie, and little else apart from prawns & a few peanuts. This is a totally superior confection.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Servings: 30

Course: Sauce - pre-prepared

Cuisine: Vegan, Asian

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x?

• 30 g olive oil/i.e. enough to fry the onions
• 2 cans of chopped tomatoes
• 2 cans of coconut milk
• 20 whole fresh finger chillies.
• 30 g or 3 level tablespoons of vegetable stock powder
• 75 g or 6 tablespoons or so of soy sauce
• 900 g 4 medium onions
• 60 g of garlic
• 50 g /3 tablespoons of brown sugar to caramelise onions with during frying
• 1200 ml About 1.2 – 1.5 litres of hot water – check though – don’t make it too runny – it doesn’t thicken much on cooling.
• 1 whole jar Jar of crunchy peanut butter – essential or similar quality - not sunpat!
• 1 whole jar Jar of smooth peanut butter - essential or similar quality – not sunpat!
• 2 whole onion stock cubes – Kallo are best – maybe more?
• Enough chilli sauce to adjust the heat.
• 75 g finely chopped ginger
• 2 flat tbsp of west Indian/Jamaican curry powder
• 1 tbsp heaped of nutritional yeast flakes – maybe 2.

Equipment

• Large pan - 6l at least

Method

 

1. Finely dice the onions, chillies, garlic & ginger
2. Fry the chopped onions, chillies, ginger and garlic in a little olive oil in a large pan
3. When browning nicely, add the sugar and turn up the heat a little to caramelise the onions.
4. Then add ALL the other ingredients: peanut butters, stock cubes, coconut milk etc, and keep stirring until it's nice and smooth.
5. Simmer on a low heat for about 10 minutes to develop the flavours and cook the sauce.
6. More cooking is good, and is easier in the oven, as it doesn’t stick – use 120°C or so - for about 30 minutes.
7. Divide into 300g portions and label up – this should make around 14 or 15 300g portions.

Notes

If making a noodle dish, a 300g portion is good for two 50g portions of noodles with other veg - I like aubergine, courgette, pepper, onion, mushroom, plus weiner sausages for a bit of interest.

If for kebabs then this is good for 3 people - i.e. 100g each pair of kebabs. Blocks of sauce can be broken when frozen if you score it with a knife and hit it with the end of a rolling pin.

Kebabs – veg to use:-

Shallots, baby peppers, peppers, frahs pineapple, larger chunks of tofu, chestnut mushroom, baby plum tomatoes, queen olives, aubergine, large whole chillies, large whole garlic cloves, Linda McCartney sausages. You can  marinate the tofu in balsamic vinegar, and soy sauce, and ginger, which gives it a really good flavour.

Tried this recipe?

Let us know how it was!