Easy Peanut Sauce

Try this easy peanut sauce recipe once, and you'll want to have it on hand at all times. It's perfect for jazzing up noodles, salads, bowls, and more!

Peanut sauce recipe

Does anyone else absolutely love peanut sauce? Creamy, spicy, savory, and a little sweet, it’s a sauce that I’m equally happy drizzling over dinner or enjoying straight off a spoon. I can’t get enough!

This peanut sauce recipe the first thing I turn to whenever I want to jazz up a simple stir fry, bowl, or salad at home. It’s super easy to make, and it calls for basic pantry ingredients that you likely already have on hand (no fish sauce here!). Peanut butter gives it creamy texture, rice vinegar or lime juice makes it nice and tangy, tamari or soy sauce adds salty depth of flavor, and sriracha spices it up. Finally, to sweeten my peanut sauce recipe naturally, I add maple syrup instead of brown sugar. That’s it!

Peanut Sauce recipe

How to Use Peanut Sauce

Once you have peanut sauce on hand, you’ll find a thousand ways to use it. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Start by making this easy peanut sauce recipe as written, but then, feel free to play with it! I suggest a few variations in the recipe below, like adding ginger, minced garlic, or sesame oil for a bolder flavor. You could also swap the nut butter! Almond butter, cashew butter, or even tahini would work well here. And sometimes, I use coconut milk instead of water to make it extra creamy and rich.

Peanut sauce recipe

More Favorite Sauce Recipes

If you love this recipe, try one of these flavorful sauces next:

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Peanut Sauce

rate this recipe:
4.85 from 33 votes
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Serves 4
This easy peanut sauce recipe is perfect for jazzing up noodles, salads, bowls, and more!

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup natural creamy peanut butter
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons lime juice or rice vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons tamari
  • 1/2 teaspoon sriracha, more if desired
  • 1/4 teaspoon maple syrup
  • 1 to 3 tablespoons water

optional flavor additions:

  • 1 garlic clove, grated on a microplane zester
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon grated ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Instructions

  • In a small bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, lime juice, tamari, sriracha, and maple syrup. Whisk in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, to reach a drizzleable consistency. Peanut butters vary in thickness, so you may need more or less water each time you make this recipe.
  • If desired, stir in garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and/or more sriracha.

 

30 comments

4.85 from 33 votes (19 ratings without comment)

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Rate this recipe (after making it)




  1. Joh Rhoe
    02.02.2024

    5 stars
    Thank you for this invaluable recipe.. I am now more complete !

    • Phoebe Moore (L&L Recipe Developer)
      02.02.2024

      Hi, so glad you love the peanut sauce!

A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.