"To Thai For" Peanut Sauce

My hubby's favorite!  Serve with veggie of your choice (we like broccoli) -and- rice, rice noodles, or sticky rice.  Scroll down for pics. 

“To Thai For” Peanut Sauce - VegWithMandy.com

Make sauce for 3-4 (or 2 if Hubby's eating!)

First, get rice cooking + defrost frozen veg if needed.

In medium bowl, place:

• ½-1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger

 -or- 1 Tbsp Texas Pete hot sauce 

if you like heat.

• Juice of 1 lime (~2 Tbsp)

• 3 Tbsp soy sauce, reduced sodium 

(or tamari if gluten free)

• 1 Tbsp maple syrup

• 4 Tbsp peanut butter, smooth

• 1/2 tsp garlic, minced* (see note)  

Mix together well - I use fork to "whisk".

Add:

• 2-3 Tbsp warm water 

to reach desired thickness. Stir again.

Serve with:

• broccoli, or other mixed veggies of your choice**

• edamame (optional, source of protein)

• Sweet Chili sauce (optional)

Serve over:

rice -or- rice noodles -or- sticky rice -or- ramen*** noodles (seasoning packet omitted)

Notes: *I like the pre-minced kind of garlic, that you keep in fridge after opening the jar. Flavor is great, without the hassle of chopping garlic each time. / Only add minced garlic to the sauce IF you don't plan to sprinkle garlic powder on your broccoli. Otherwise garlic will overpower the other flavors.

*Most grocery stores sell small bags of frozen broccoli or stir-fry veg mixes for $1-2, enough for 2-3 people. To "defrost" the frozen veg, I place a desired amount for a night's worth in a colander, run hot water over it to break up the ice, and then let it sit while I make the sauce. Then, as the rice/rice noodles are almost done, I place the broccoli in a glass bowl, sprinkle it with some garlic powder, and microwave for 1-2 minutes until warm. No need to make it complicated! But if you do want to take it up a notch, roast broccoli, lightly tossed with oil at 400F x 12-15 mins, on a roasting sheet. 

***In a pinch, you can take a packet of quick-ramen noodles, discard the seasoning packet, and boil noodles as directed, as a noodle base. I just find that rice or rice noodles tend to stick with you a bit longer than ramen.

Lastly, while I note above that you can use hot sauce in place of ginger, please please try the ginger version first. I think it really makes the sauce amazing!