Satay sauce goodness

One of the few meals that Mr Fork and I both agree is delicious (and therefore we eat a lot of), is satay. What's not to love? With plenty of peanutty goodness, it goes with just about anything! We often use it as a marinade for protein (chicken or tofu, depending on who is doing the eating, are the choices at our place), and I've also been known to use it as a salad dressing or a quick and easy noodle dish topping. It's not the healthiest of meals, but it's yummy and a hit with everyone at chez Fork.

 

Here's how I make the sauce. Note I'm not really a recipe kind of girl, so the measurements are approximate - feel free to adjust to your own taste.

 

Ingredients

 

• Vegetable oil
• 1 brown onion, diced finely
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 red chilli, chopped finely (we love chilli in our house so adjust to your taste)
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1 cup water
• juice of ½ lemon (or lime is nice too)
• tbsp balsamic vinegar
• tbsp brown sugar

 

 

Method

 

Heat the oil in a saucepan and sauté the onion using medium heat until soft. Add the garlic and chilli, cook another minute or so. Remove from the heat and stir the peanut butter in (trust me, take it off the heat, otherwise it will burn and be terrible to clean!). Add the lemon, water, vinegar and sugar. Place over low heat and stir until the sauce thickens and combines. You may want to add more or less water to achieve your desired consistency.

 

That's it! There is your basic satay sauce.

 

 

Here's how I used it last night to make a satay tofu and vegetable dish.

 

I had some firm tofu in the freezer which I defrosted and cubed. Side note, but when tofu is frozen, the texture changes and it goes a bit spongier which makes it PERFECT for soaking up delicious flavours!

 

 

I added this to a pan with some oil and some garlic and stirred it around until the cubes were lovely, crispy and golden. Then I added some chopped vegetables (carrot, cauliflower, peas, corn – what I had in the fridge essentially) and the satay sauce, and left it to simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. This was then served on top of some rice, and garnished with spring onions (from the garden) and some extra chopped peanuts. I also added extra chilli on top of mine, as Ellie doesn't like things as hot as I do yet.

 

 

What are your go-to delicious meals?