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Sauce recipe

Pad Thai Sauce

Sweet, sour and salty tamarind sauce for pad thai. Make a jar and dinner is ten minutes away.

Pad Thai Sauce
The ratio
  • 2 partsPalm sugar
  • 2 partsTamarind
  • 1 partFish sauce
What you need
  • 1/2 cup (100g) grated palm sugar
  • 1/3 cup (80ml) tamarind purée (the runny kind)
  • 1/4 cup (60ml) fish sauce
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes, optional
Makes
About 250ml, enough for 4 serves of pad thai
Ready in
10
Keeps
1 month in the fridge
How to make it
  1. Put the palm sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until melted.
  2. Add the tamarind and fish sauce and bring to a gentle simmer.
  3. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, stirring, until slightly syrupy.
  4. Taste: it should be sour and salty first, then sweet. Add more tamarind, fish sauce or sugar to balance it.
  5. Cool and keep in a jar. Use about 4 tablespoons per serve of noodles.
About this sauce

Pad thai sauce is three things in balance: sour tamarind, salty fish sauce and sweet palm sugar. Thai street cooks keep a big pot of it by the wok, so each plate takes minutes. The bright red takeaway versions use tomato sauce; the real thing is brown, tangy and glossy.

Melt the palm sugar first, then stir in the tamarind and fish sauce and simmer briefly. It keeps for weeks, so make a jar and use about 4 tablespoons per serve. It's a different thing from nam prik pao, which is a smoky chilli jam; a spoon of that stirred through pad thai is delicious, though.

What to put it on

Rice noodle stir-fries, prawns, chicken, tofu and eggs, and fried rice when you want it tangy.

Use it in easy pad thai or pad woon sen, or splash it through khao pad gai. Read about tamarind, palm sugar and rice noodles.

Uses this sauce

Recipes that call for this sauce. Make a batch and cook one of these.

Pairs well with

Dishes this sauce suits. These recipes make their own glaze or dressing, so you can swap this sauce in.