3-Ingredient Vietnamese Peanut Sauce Recipe for Spring Rolls [in 5 minutes!]
About This Vietnamese Peanut Sauce Recipe
This Vietnamese peanut sauce recipe is made with just a few ingredients and can be ready in minutes! It’s rich and full of flavor – making it a great dipping sauce for spring rolls (in addition to many other dishes that I will share below!).
All you need to do is add two to three ingredients to a small pot and heat and low until you can a nice, smooth consistency.
What is Vietnamese Peanut Sauce
Vietnamese peanut sauce (called tương in my Vietnamese household) is commonly known as the dipping sauce used with Vietnamese spring rolls (more on spring rolls later but you can check out an Asian fusion spring rolls recipe I did here). It gets its sweetness from the hoisin sauce and creaminess from the peanut butter. Water is also added to get just the right consistency.
When I first discovered how to make the peanut sauce from my mom, I was blown away by just how easy the recipe is. In fact, I was so blown away that I would spend an entire weekend making and eating just spring rolls with peanut sauce! Perhaps not the healthiest of options but it sure made my soul happy!
Variations of Vietnamese Peanut Sauce
Peanut sauce is enjoyed in many countries including Indonesia, China, Singapore, India, Thailand, the Philippines, and even the Netherlands.
In Indonesia, it’s called bumbu kacang and is often served with dishes like satay (skewered and grilled meat) and gado-gado (salad made of vegetables, boiled egg, potatoes, tofu, tempeh and lontong). Indonesian peanut sauce may include a variety of ingredients such as fried peanuts, garlic, ginger, shallots, tamarind, lemongrass, and more.
Peanut sauce variations are used in Chinese dishes like dan dan noodles (noodles with chili oil and preserved vegetables), in Indian dishes like idli (savory rice cakes), in Filipino dishes like lumpia (fried spring rolls), and Singaporean dishes like satay bee hoon (rice noodles in a chili peanut sauce).
Due to past colonization of South East Asia, peanut sauce is also eaten in the Netherlands. The Dutch version of peanut sauce (pindasaus) is made with coconut milk and served with barbecue meat or French fries.
What to Eat with Vietnamese Peanut Sauce
Growing up, I’ve only ever eaten Vietnamese peanut sauce with spring rolls (gỏi cuốn, in Vietnamese). For me (and most Vietnamese Americans as far as I’m aware), spring rolls refer to meat and/or seafood, vegetables and vermicelli noodles rolled in a soft rice paper wrapper. I've also heard them be referred to as Vietnamese summer rolls and I've heard fried rolls be referred to as spring rolls. That said, in my vocabulary, spring rolls are always soft and fried rolls usually refer to egg rolls.
The process of making traditional Vietnamese spring rolls is actually pretty simple: Dip rice wrapper sheets (typically found in a Vietnamese / Asian market) in warm or hot water and lay it down to soften, fill the center with seafood and/or meat, vermicelli, fresh herbs, and lettuce leaves, fold in the sides of the spring roll wrappers, then roll it into a cigar shape.
You can typically find Vietnamese spring rolls in a number of varieties, including:
Shrimp Spring Rolls: Boiled shrimp, halved (deveining isn’t really something Viet folks care about) – with vermicelli, lettuce, and chives. Shrimp spring rolls typically have pork in them as well. I’ve also seen them with mint leaves, bean sprouts, Thai basil leaves, and various other fresh vegetables but I like to keep mine simple. Occasionally, I also add cucumber.
Grilled Pork Spring Rolls: Called nem nướng cuốn in Vietnamese, grilled pork spring rolls are made with ground pork and flavored with ingredients like garlic, shallots, fish sauce, sugar and pepper. In my area (Orange County), Brodard Restaurant is the most famous of the Vietnamese restaurants for their grilled pork spring rolls, which is accompanied with a crispy roll (I believe it’s an egg roll wrapper that’s rolled up and fried) inside the soft spring roll. At Brodard, their grilled pork spring rolls are served with shrimp dipping sauce, not peanut sauce. They do, however, have other spring rolls available that are served with a peanut sauce.
Shredded Pork Spring Rolls: In Vietnamese, these go by the name of bì cuốn. “Bì” is shredded pork (skin and meat) that is seasoned, tossed in rice powder, cooked and shredded. Shredded Pork Spring Rolls are usually served with a sweet fish sauce.
The tricky thing about spring rolls is that you usually need to eat them fresh, otherwise the rice paper hardens and it's near impossible to bite, chew and swallow. That said, I've read that you can wrap them in a damp paper towel and store them in the refrigerator for a day or two. I haven't tried this yet myself (spring rolls don't survive the day at my place) but I'd be interested to hear if this works for anyone!
That said, Vietnamese peanut sauce does not have to be used only in Vietnamese dishes. In fact, when I was in college, my favorite thing to eat on campus was a Thai chicken wrap specifically because it had an incredible peanut sauce in it. It’s unlikely that they used a Vietnamese recipe for this sauce but the flavors were very similar to the Vietnamese dipping sauce that I’m used to. That said, here’s some inspiration for how you can use the peanut sauce:
Chicken wraps with peanut sauce
Asian-inspired salads with peanut sauce dressing
Any grilled meats with peanut sauce dipping
Creamy stir-fried noodles with peanut sauce, chilies and scallions
Fried or pan-seared tofu in peanut sauce
My recipe for Paella Spring Rolls
Peanut Butter in Vietnamese Peanut Sauce
It probably comes as no surprise that peanut butter is an essential ingredient in Vietnamese peanut sauce (especially since it’s one of very few ingredients)! But I had to wonder, were people in Vietnam really using peanut butter to make this back in the day? Is peanut butter even a thing in Vietnam? Or is the Vietnamese peanut sauce recipe we know of today more of a Vietnamese American invention?
I began, first, by asking my mom some of these questions. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Mom, did people in Vietnam use peanut butter to make the dipping sauce for their spring rolls?
Mom: I don’t know
Me: Okay.. what did you use when you made spring rolls in Vietnam?
Mom: I never ate spring rolls in Vietnam! We weren’t rich!
Haha! After feeling ever-more grateful to have the luxury of spring rolls in my life, I continued digging around The Google for answers. Nothing definitive came up, but here’s what I discovered:
Spring rolls, in general, likely had its roots in China, and the peanut dipping sauce being a regional favorite in central Vietnam.
According to the Rome News-Tribune, as of 2018, Vietnam was a major peanut producing country but there wasn’t a huge market for peanut butter. This tells us that peanut butter was likely not used in the traditional recipe.
Vietnamese spring rolls were theorized to have come from southern Vietnam and originally served with a sauce made of fermented soybeans and sticky rice. This further cements the idea that the original recipe did not include peanut butter, or even peanuts.
Several sources, including this one, suggest that South Asian peanut sauce is traditionally made with roasted or fried peanuts, not peanut butter.
So, there you have it. Though the old-school version of Vietnamese peanut sauce likely did not use peanut butter, we can all be thankful for the beautiful and convenient invention that is peanut butter for allowing us to enjoy peanut sauce in just a few minutes!
Vietnamese Peanut Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup hoisin sauce (I use the Lee Kum Kee brand)
1 cup water
Optional: Chili garlic sauce, sriracha or some sort of chili paste for spice
Instructions:
Combine peanut butter, hoisin sauce, and ½ cup water in a small saucepan on low heat.
Slowly stir the sauce together and add more water until you get the smooth consistency you desire (you may not use all of the water).
Heat until well combined. Add chili garlic sauce or sriracha if desired.
*If you want to add a bit more flavor to the sauce above, my mom usually browns some minced garlic and shallots in sesame oil before adding the peanut butter, hoisin sauce and water. I've also seen recipes that call for chicken broth instead of water.