You're going to love me for this Honey Sweetened Sweet Chile Sauce.
Wanna know why? Cause I just took a condiment off of the guilty list for ya.
What? I'm patting myself on the back? Yea, it feels pretty good. Almost like a nice back rub.
I saved the link (Pinterest, how do thee use thou?!) on my desktop for a sweet chile sauce months ago and finally got around to trying it when we ran out of the bottle we had. Have you seen whats in the store bought I-call-myself-sweet-chile-sauce-but-I'm-really-just-sugar-sauce? Read the bottle next time and I promise you it's little more than water, sugar and corn starch or xantham gum.
SO! I needed a lunch for Marius ASAP, as in, he'd already gone to work with only yogurt and granola for coffee break and without going to the grocery store I had to figure out what I was going to make to bring him. My sister Molly to the rescue...I stole some of her spring roll wrappers and rice noodles. (We were neighbours at this point.) I knew I was up to the challenge of figuring out the sauce to go with it. I made them with thick rice noodles, salad greens and julienned cucumber and zuchinni. Pretty much make them with whatever fresh raw veggies you want. I skipped the meat as I knew they weren't going to be kept in a cooler if there was leftovers.
Shaye shows you how to make spring rolls here, cause I don't feel like doing a tutorial at this point.
Back to the sauce, right?
I can't wait to have this with chicken...fish...pork...pot stickers...fried spring rolls...ummm, anything else I'm missing?! It's the new ketchup!
You can use coconut sugar or a minimally processed sugar such as rapadura or panella, and I guess if you're in a real pinch you could use regular sugar...but thats not how I try to roll. This is tastiest with honey!
As far as vinegar...go for the rice vinegar if you have it, it's milder. But I used plain ol' white vinegar for a equally tasty dip. I also imagine apple cider vinegar would add a nice note!
Sweet Chile Sauce
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup honey or ½ cup of other sweetener as honey is sweeter
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup water
- 2 Tablespoon minced garlic less if you don't like garlic as much as I do!
- 1 teaspoon red chile flakes I used smoked from Mountain Rose Herbs
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon arrowroot starch if using other sweetener use 1 ½ teaspoons. Alternatively substitute for organic corn starch, but you'll need to use 1 tablespoon, made into a slurry in equal amount water
- 1 teaspoon sriracha if extra heat desired
Instructions
- Bring honey, vinegar and water to a boil.
- Add in the garlic, chile flakes, and salt.
- Turn down the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
- Add in arrowroot slurry and simmer until thickened. You may need to up it to a boil to get it to thicken properly if your simmer was a lazy one.
- Cool and enjoy!
Nutrition
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Laura Roberts
This sauce turned out so well! I found it searching your blog during an intense pregnancy craving ?and It has become our favorite for spring rolls or even homemade chicken strips and fries!!