Spicy Peanut Sauce

I really do stick to my daily sodium limit (2000 mg), well, most days. And, that often leaves me hankering for something with some real taste. One of the places I’ve found real taste is in Thai Peanut Sauce. Great stuff on steamed vegetables, like a combination of zucchini, yellow squash, and onions. But as might be expected, the off the shelf Peanut Sauce I found had a lot of sodium, 250 mg/T.

So here we go with another of Ms. Duncan’s recipes, a homemade low sodium Peanut Sauce.

You will need:
• 3 T peanut butter, unsweetened, unsalted
• 2 T rice wine vinegar
• 1 T chopped cilantro (optional)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 t soy sauce, reduced salt
• 1 t light brown sugar
• 1/2 t chile oil
• 2-4 T warm water
Combine all of the ingredients (except the water) and whisk together, adding enough water to make it the consistency you want.

Makes a half cup, which would be 8 Tablespoons. About 37 mg of sodium/T compared to my off the shelf bottle which weighs in at 250 mg / Tablespoon.

That’s the basic recipe, which I always consider a starting point. I’ve lived a big chunk of my life in the southwest and my taste buds have a pretty high heat tolerance, so I up the chile oil to a full teaspoon. This one is quick and easy so it’s no big deal to start experimenting. I really like this stuff and will be tweaking the recipe to suit my own tastes. Let me know how you like it and what adjustments, if any, you make.