Quick and Easy 5-Ingredient Peanut Sauce

5 minutes and 5 ingredients is all you need to make homemade peanut sauce. This recipe features creamy natural peanut butter, tangy lime juice, soy sauce for umami flavour, pure maple syrup, and a dash of sriracha to give this savoury and versatile sauce a little kick. Serve this drool-worthy peanut butter sauce recipe with fresh spring rolls, satay chicken skewers, as a salad dressing, or as a sauce for noodles.

What is Peanut Sauce?

Peanut sauce is a savoury, often tangy, and sometimes spicy sauce that originates from Southeast Asian cuisine. It is rich and creamy, and made primarily from peanuts or peanut butter combined with ingredients like soy sauce, garlic, ginger, lime juice, and chilli.

Not only does it offer delicious flavours, it’s also very versatile. It can serve as a dip for salad rolls and chicken satay skewers, a dressing for salads, a topping for noodle dishes, or even a marinade for meats and vegetables.

This peanut sauce recipe features a short list of simple ingredients including creamy peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, maple syrup, and just a touch of sriracha. It’s vegan, gluten-free, and ready in 5 minutes or less!

Nutrition Benefits of Peanut Sauce:

As a Registered Dietitian, I can’t share a recipe without giving you some nutrition deets. I love creating healthy dips, sauces and dressings that not only enhance your meals, but offer nutrition too!

Here are some of the benefits that you’ll reap from this recipe:

• Healthy Fats: The fats from peanut butter are primarily monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which are considered heart-healthy fats. These fats can help lower ‘bad’ cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease.
• Protein: Peanut butter is a good source of plant-based protein, meaning that this sauce can help to bump up the protein content of your meal to help you feel full and support a variety of body functions.
• Enjoyment and Satisfaction: You know what makes eating healthy meals more enjoyable? Making them taste good! That’s exactly what a good sauce or dressing like this can do.

Homemade Peanut Sauce Ingredients:

Here’s what you’ll need to make this simple (but freaking delicious!) sauce:

• Creamy peanut butter
• Soy sauce
• Lime juice
• Maple syrup
• Sriracha

You may also want to add a tablespoon or two of hot water to the sauce if you want to thin it out. See the recipe card for instructions on this!

How to Make Peanut Sauce from Peanut Butter:

Can You Make Peanut Sauce Without Soy Sauce?

You can make it without soy sauce, but I would recommend substituting it. Instead of soy sauce, you can use tamari (a gluten-free Japanese form of soy sauce) or coconut aminos.

Coconut aminos taste similar to soy sauce, but it’s made from fermented coconut palm sap and sea salt.

How to Make Spicy Peanut Sauce:

If you like spicy, up the sriracha! I only use 2 tsp in my recipe and this provides a slight kick, but nothing too spicy. If you prefer a spicier sauce, try doubling or tripling this amount – or just add more sriracha to taste!

What to Serve with It:

I originally created this peanut sauce for spring rolls – particularly my Vegetarian Rice Paper Rolls. However, it really is so versatile!

Try serving it:

• with any variation of salad rolls of fresh spring rolls
• as a sauce for noodles and stir fries
• as a marinade for proteins like tofu, chicken, or beef
• on top of salads as a dressing
• with satay skewers for dipping

Storage and Substitution Suggestions:

Store the sauce in the fridge in an airtight container. It will keep up to 1 week.

If you are looking to substitute any ingredients, here are my suggestions:

• For peanut butter: If you have a peanut allergy, you can make this recipe with creamy almond butter instead!
• For lime juice: Use rice vinegar.
• For soy sauce: Try using tamari or coconut aminos.
• For maple syrup: Use agave nectar, brown sugar, or honey.
• For sriracha: Use 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes per tsp of sriracha called for.

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