Three of my Favourite Sauces

I like sauce. I mean, I really like sauce. I sometimes plan a whole meal around a sauce. I've decided to share my top three with all of you beautiful people.

The first one is an Asian-inspired table-sauce of sorts. It makes for a great addition to noodle dishes, rice bowls, stir fry or as a dipping sauce for dumplings, salad rolls or spring rolls.

One of my favourite cookbooks of all time, Hot Sour Salty Sweet, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, beautifully illustrates the art in South East Asian cuisine of balancing those four integral elements. I use this theory a lot in my culinary endeavors, relying more on the balance of flavour than the exact measurement in a recipe. This holds especially true for the table sauce. How much of each ingredient you add is dependent upon your taste, the brand of ingredient you use, and how you feel that day! Trust your taste buds to let you know what you need to add more of. If it tastes perfect to you, it is.

My rough measurements can be used as a guide for this one, but I encourage you to trust yourself!

Mix 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, juice of one lime, 2 generous tablespoons of fish sauce, minced chili pepper, dash of sesame oil, a bit of grated garlic and a teaspoon of palm, cane or brown sugar. Balance the flavours and accent with thinly sliced green onions, minced cilantro and thin strips of carrot (can use a vegetable peeler to get this effect).

Second sauce on the menu is a tried and true favourite from my lovely friend Kimi. This one is a creamy (dairy-free), delicious and completely versatile. It's so good sometimes I just want to eat it off the spoon. I have used it as a salad dressing to encourage 'non-salad-eaters' to try some greens and have had them licking the bowls clean. If you are not familiar with nutritional yeast, you should be. It's a deactivated yeast mixed with molasses and cane sugar and then dried out, and it comes as yellow flakes. It's a great source of vitamin B and is a complete protein too. It is incredible on popcorn, can make a great vegetarian gravy and boosts dressings and sauces with creamy, almost cheese-like presence. I like the Red Star brand and can usually find it in the bulk section in most health food stores. I like this sauce on brown rice bowls with steamed veggies, on kale salad, soba noodles with stir fried mushrooms...the list goes on and on. I like to put all the ingredients into a mason jar and just shake shake shake until it's smooth and creamy.

Combine a big spoonful of tahini (sesame paste), two crushed cloves of garlic, juice of 1/2 a lemon, 1/4 cup olive oil, some grated ginger, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, salt, a tablespoon or so of nutritional yeast, a splash of soy sauce and a bit of warm water. Adjust the components until it balances out - nothing should stand out on it's own. You can use any nut butter in place of the tahini - almond, peanut, cashew...you name it. Adjust the thickness of the sauce by adding more of the nut butter. I have also put a spoonful of light miso into this mix and it tasted divine. Just thinking about this is making me hungry...


Third and final sauce for the day is a Chilean-inspired condiment that is simultaneously tantalizing and incredible spicy, and so good that I can never stop eating it until it's all gone, even though my mouth is completely on fire. I use my blender for this because I like it really smooth, but you can chop the ingredients very finely and just combine in a bowl. I like this one with crusty bread, grilled fish, crispy chicken or on rice. It's hot, it's perfect and once you have it, you will crave it with an intensity that will only be satiated with more of this hot number.

Combine one bunch of fresh cilantro, most of the stems removed, two cloves of garlic, a splash of white vinegar, juice of one lime, salt (be generous) and about 1/2 cup siracha (pepper sauce with the green lid and the rooster on the bottle). Blend until smooth. Eat on everything.

Try these ones out! Let me know what you think!

Try it, Love it, Learn it and Share it.