Weeknight Thai Peanut Sauce

I’ve used this sauce several times now, and it’s been amazing every. time.
It’s a perfect addition to weeknight meals, as you can make it in about 10 minutes while you bake chicken, boil noodles, etc. I’ve had it with rice noodles, whole wheat noodles, chicken, and vegetables on different occasions. Also, it keeps well in the fridge– it’ll harden up a bit, but once you microwave it (or throw it back into a pan), it’ll be back to its delicious self.

Image taken from "She Simmers"

 

I can’ t claim full ownership though. This Recipe was modified from Easy Thai Peanut Sauce by “She Simmers” and Super Simple Pad Thai by “Keep it Simple Foods”, mainly to fit around what I already had in my kitchen. My biggest modifications were as follows:

- I used both chunky and smooth natural peanut butter (Skippy), because I like to have pieces of peanuts in the sauce
- Because the peanut butter I chose was already fairly sweet, I opted for about 1/4 cup sugar (or less) — the recipe needs some sweet with the spicy in order for it to be “peanut sauce” (in my mind), but I’m not a huge sweets person to begin with, so dropping the sugar was a good move for my palette
- I added about 1-2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes, because I like my peanut sauce spicy :-)

Ok, here we go!

1 can coconut milk
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter (I used a 50/50 mix of chunky and smooth)
1/4 cup red Thai curry paste
2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp salt (optional)

Now, are you ready to see how easy this is?
Put all of this in a pot on the stove on medium/high heat. Mix well, and bring to a boil. Stir often to prevent the bottom from burning. Remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature before serving.

That’s it!
Let me know if you try it, I’d love to hear your thoughts!