My hubby's favorite! Serve with broccoli (or stir fry veg mix) -and- rice, rice noodles, or sticky rice.
See Gluten Free Notes.
“To Thai For” Peanut Sauce - VegWithMandy.com
Makes sauce for 3-4 (or 2 if Hubby's eating!)
First, get rice cooking + defrost frozen veg if needed.
In medium bowl, place:
- ½-1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger -or- 1 Tbsp Texas Pete hot sauce if you like heat.
- Juice of 1 lime (~2 Tbsp)
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce, reduced sodium (or tamari for gluten free)
- 1 Tbsp maple syrup
- 4 Tbsp peanut butter, smooth
- 1/2 tsp garlic, minced* (see note)
Mix together well - I use fork to "whisk".
Add:
- 2-3 Tbsp warm water to reach desired thickness. Stir again.
Serve with:
- broccoli, or other mixed veggies of your choice**
- edamame (optional, source of protein)
- Sweet Chili sauce (optional but highly recommended!)
Serve over:
- rice -or- rice noodles -or- sticky rice -or- ramen*** noodles (seasoning packet omitted)
Notes: *I like the pre-minced kind of garlic, that you keep in fridge after opening the jar. Flavor is great, without the hassle of chopping garlic each time. / Only add minced garlic to the sauce IF you don't plan to sprinkle garlic powder on your broccoli. Otherwise garlic will overpower the other flavors.
*Most grocery stores sell small bags of frozen broccoli or stir-fry veg mixes for $1-2, enough for 2-3 people. To "defrost" the frozen veg, I place a desired amount for a night's worth in a colander, run hot water over it to break up the ice, and then let it sit while I make the sauce. Then, as the rice/rice noodles are almost done, I place the broccoli in a glass bowl, sprinkle it with some garlic powder, and microwave for 1-2 minutes until warm. No need to make it complicated! But if you do want to take it up a notch, roast broccoli, lightly tossed with oil at 400F x 12-15 mins, on a roasting sheet.
***In a pinch, you can take a packet of quick-ramen noodles, discard the seasoning packet, and boil noodles as directed, as a noodle base. I just find that rice or rice noodles tend to stick with you a bit longer than ramen, and of course ramen is NOT gluten free.
Lastly, while I note above that you can use hot sauce in place of ginger, please please try the ginger version first. I think it really makes the sauce amazing!
Only 5 ingredients for this sauce (garlic optional). 
If you plan to use fresh broccoli, start steaming it while you make the sauce. Otherwise, you can microwave frozen broccoli immediately before serving. (For roasted broccoli, see above.)
Sweet Chili Sauce - highly recommended addition!
Fresh steamed broccoli with edamame over lightly sauced rice noodles.
Microwaved frozen broccoli with edamame over heavily sauced ramen noodles (seasoning packet omitted)
*This pack of frozen broccoli contained a lot of stems, but some bags specifying only "florets" have fewer stems.
**Pro Tip: Sam's sells large bags of frozen broccoli florets for about $8 / 4 lbs. That's a lot of broccoli for cheap! (2024 pricing)
