If you’re into Asian flavors, this healthy vegan peanut sauce will totally be your jam! Ready in under 5 minutes and made in a blender, it packs a whole lot of creaminess, nutrients and authentic Thai spices.
From spring rolls to stir-fries, rice dishes or Pad Thai: this easy vegan peanut sauce is so versatile and will be your new favorite condiment!
Honestly, we could eat this vegan peanut butter sauce with just about anything. It’s become our latest obsession, and we regularly make larger batches of it to pour over bowls, salads, tofu and more.
It’s everything we want a good, slightly spicy sauce to be and requires only everyday staple foods to make.
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It can be prepared in larger batches and packs some serious Asian flavor and is reminiscent of traditional satay sauce — which actually originated in Indonesia, not Thailand.
It’s deliciously tangy, zesty, has just the right amount of spiciness and doesn’t require only cooking!
Let’s see what makes this recipe different and so amazing and, most importantly, what’s needed to create some delicious vegan peanut butter sauce in minutes! If you love easy Asian condiments, try this healthy stir-fry sauce next.
Look at the recipe
- Super nutritious & flavorful
- Incredibly creamy & slightly spicy
- Perfect for meal prepping
- Customizable and oil-free
- Versatile dressing or dip
- Authentic Thai or Asian flavors
If you’ve been looking for a way to dress up boring veggies and make them irresistibly delicious, look no further than this Thai peanut butter sauce.
Ingredients needed
- Peanut Butter — this is your nutritious and creamy base.
- Soy Sauce — adding lots of Asian flavor, depth and saltiness; can be replaced for Tamari if you need this peanut sauce to be 100% gluten-free.
- Lime Juice — for some zing & freshness; it also supports plant-based iron absorption!
- Garlic — we like to use fresh garlic when possible but you can go for powdered, too.
- Ginger — every good Asian recipe needs some of that authentic spice.
- Dates — our favorite wholesome sugar replacement!
- Cayenne & Garlic — because we love our Thai peanut butter sauce hot and spicy-ish! These can be adjusted to your preference.
We hope that you’re pretty familiar with all of these so you can start making our healthy vegan peanut sauce in just a moment. Let’s check out how to make it!
How to make healthy peanut sauce
Just a few minutes and a blender are needed to make our healthy vegan peanut butter sauce from scratch. If you don’t have a blender, swap the dates for maple syrup and whisk everything together in a bowl!
Start by soaking your dates if you don’t have a good quality blender to work with.
Then, add all ingredients to a blender jar (starting with only half of the water and working your way up to your desired consistency) and blend until smooth.
For a lower fat version, you can even swap some peanut butter for PB2 powder, which offers all the flavor but 85% fewer calories from fat. Just follow the package instructions to replace the peanut butter.
Finally, adjust to your taste preference by adding more soy sauce, cayenne pepper or any other component. Serve immediately as a dip or dressing or store in the fridge for later use.
How do you eat vegan peanut sauce?
Often served with chicken or beef, here are many delicious plant-based options for what goes well with peanut butter sauce!
- Grilled tofu or tempeh
- Vegetable or noodle salads
- Nourish & Buddha bowls
- Dip for raw veggies or spring rolls
- Vegetable and rice stir-fries
- Added to a curry
- Marinade for tofu
- Lettuce wraps
- Vegan dumplings
- Drizzled over roasted veggies
Storage suggestions
Since this healthy peanut sauce works well for meal prep, you can make a larger batch of it and place in an airtight container in the fridge where it keeps well for up to a week.
It can also be frozen (either as one large serving or smaller servings in ice cube trays!) and thawed at your convenience. Should the consistency change over time, simply whisk and add more liquid as needed!
Is peanut sauce healthy?
While recipes for peanut butter sauce can vary widely, they are all based on peanuts — a health-promoting legume. If you’re looking for an easy, homemade vegan sauce, this is certainly a good option!Â
However, be careful what you add to your vegan peanut butter sauce. Most recipes and restaurant versions are made with a good amount of oil, sugar and salt — which make Thai peanut butter sauce irresistibly tasty but doesn’t contribute to our health in the long run.
Is peanut sauce vegan?
When ordering a vegetable dish with Thai peanut butter sauce at a restaurant, be aware that it’s not automatically vegan! This cuisine often uses fish sauce or shrimp paste for flavoring, so be sure to ask.
More easy vegan sauces
Our favorite way of enjoying whole food plant-based dishes that include lots of veggies is to drown them in some secretly healthy homemade sauce or dressing! Here are a few recipes you can try next.
- High Protein Cheese Sauce
- Sugar-Free Buffalo Sauce
- Oil-Free Basil Pesto
- Easy Vegan White Sauce
- Quick Brown Gravy
Have you tried our healthy vegan peanut sauce? Share with us in the comments below, rate our recipe and Pin it for later. You can also tag us on Instagram if you made it – we’d love to see your creations.
Healthy Vegan Peanut Sauce
Easy 5-minute vegan Thai peanut butter sauce that’s whole food plant-based, sugar-free and secretly healthy! Perfect for any stir-fries, veggie dishes, tofu, summer rolls or to serve traditionally as a Pad Thai peanut sauce. Easy to make gluten-free and as spicy as you like!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp natural peanut butter
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (low-sodium if needed)
- 2 tbsp lime or lemon juice
- 2 tsp ginger, grated
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 dates, pitted
- ½ tsp cayenne or red chili flakes
- ¼-½ cup water (60-120 ml)
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a blender jar, starting with only half the amount of water. Blend to create a smooth consistency, adding more of the water if needed.
- Try some of the peanut butter sauce and adjust with more cayenne, soy sauce or lime juice as needed.
- Serve as a thick dip for raw veggies or crackers (topped with crushed peanuts) or thin it out more to pour over Pad Thai salad, Buddha bowls, Asian noodles and tofu dishes.
- This Thai peanut butter sauce should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge where it keeps well for up to a week. It can also be frozen and thawed at your convenience.
Notes
- If you’re strictly gluten-free, swap the soy sauce for tamari.
- Instead of water, you can use some creamy coconut milk for a different flavor and some added calories. Any other plant-based milk works, too.
- For some more spiciness, you can add vegan Thai chili paste to the mix!
- You can use powdered instead of fresh ginger and swap the dates for any vegan sweetener such as maple or agave.
- If you’re not working with a good-quality blender, make sure to soak and drain your dates first.
- You can choose between lime and lemon juice or swap this component altogether for a spritz of rice vinegar.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: ¼ cupAmount Per Serving: Calories: 77Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 371mgCarbohydrates: 8gFiber: 2gSugar: 4gProtein: 3g
Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated automatically, their accuracy is not guaranteed. Just focus on whole plant-based foods and eat until satiety!
Alena Schowalter is a Certified Vegan Nutritionist who has been a vegetarian since childhood and vegan since 2012. Together with her husband, she founded nutriciously in 2015 and has been guiding thousands of people through different transition stages towards a healthy plant-based diet. She’s received training in the fields of nutrition, music therapy and social work. Alena enjoys discussions around vegan ethics, walks through nature and creating new recipes.
Thank you for sharing the vegan peanut sauce recipe, this is really delicious and healthy.
Amazing! Thank you thank you thank you. So simple and no exotic ingredients. In the middle of fixing up our house and our stove is unhooked and our sink disconnected for some drywall work. Needed a last minute easy recipe to take to a potluck. Already had shredded green cabbage, and carrots, celery cut in the fridge, added red cabbage and this sauce! It was so easy, and I had all the ingredients as part of our staples. Except the bottled water that we just got today while our sink is out of commission. After blended so easy to wash in the tub and down easy peasy. Nutrriciously To the rescue again!
Sorry I also meant to say absolutely delicious as is. I doubled the recipe and added half the doubled water and half the cayenne because not everyone can take the heat. No additions needed. C’est parfait!
merci beaucoup, Neeta!
awww that sounds fantastic! thank you so much for sharing, this makes us really happy to know :)