My Mom’s Vietnamese Peanut Sauce (5 minute recipe!)

Made in just 5 minutes, this simple Vietnamese peanut sauce is the perfect dipping sauce for Vietnamese spring rolls. Included in this blog post is a guide on how to make this peanut sauce for spring rolls at home and how to customize it to your tastes!

Whenever I smell this Vietnamese peanut dipping sauce, I know I am having Vietnamese spring rolls for dinner. It’s a smell that’s so nostalgic because I used to get so excited about having spring rolls for dinner. They were one of my favorite things to eat growing up and still is. One of the reasons Vietnamese spring rolls is so good is because of this Vietnamese peanut sauce. So easy to make and only takes 5 minutes!

Some deets about key ingredients

• Peanut butter – Adds nuttiness to the sauce. I used creamy peanut butter for my sauce, but you can also use chunky peanut butter.
• Water – Helps make the hoisin flavor more mild. Without water, the sauce is inedible because the hoisin flavor is so strong. Feel free to add more water if you feel like the sauce needs to be more watery or less if you feel it needs to be thicker and/or the hoisin flavor strong.
• Corn starch – Helps to thicken up the sauce! Substitute corn starch with tapioca starch.

How to make Vietnamese peanut sauce

How to customize this sauce to your tastes

Like all traditional Vietnamese sauce recipes, the best version of this easy peanut sauce recipe is the one that tastes the best to you. Feel free to change the amount of hoisin sauce, peanut sauce, and even garlic to use. If you would like a stronger hoisin flavor, add more hoisin sauce. If you would like a lighter hoisin flavor, add less hoisin sauce. Same idea with the peanut butter. Use more or less depending how much you like the peanut flavor.

What do I do if my sauce is too watery?

Everyone has a different preference on how thick or watery the sauce is. My mom likes it more watery, and I personally prefer it a little less watery. If you want a thicker sauce, use less water. If you want a more watery sauce, add more water. Additionally, if you feel like your sauce is too watery after you’ve cooked it, let it simmer for longer to thicken it up.

What is Vietnamese peanut sauce served with?

Vietnamese peanut sauce is traditionally used as a dipping sauce for Vietnamese spring rolls like bo bia, nem nuong spring rolls, and salmon spring rolls. An alternative dipping sauce that can be used for spring roll recipes is nuoc cham.

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