Vietnamese Spring Roll Sauce
Vietnamese springrolls and many other Vietnamese dishes would not be Vietnamese without a special blend of ingredients based on fish sauce (Nuoc Cham).
This recipe is the secret sauce for my famous Vietnamese Spaghetti Squash Salad and I also use it as a base for marinades for many meats. For dips and springroll sauce, you’ll probably want to dilute and sweeten this fairly spicy and potent sauce.
Ingredients for Spring Roll Sauce Recipe
Garlic Tip:
Lay the flat side of a heavy knife or cleaver over the garlic clove; carefully, but forcefully, smash the flat side of the knife with the heel of your hand or side of your fist. The peel slides off the garlic clove easily and chopping is faster.
- Garlic, about 7 cloves, finely chopped
- Chiles, 4 small red and green, seeded and finely chopped
- Granulated sugar, 1/3 cup
- White vinegar, 3/4 cup
- Fish Sauce, 3/4 cup
- Lemon juice, from 1 lemon
- Carrots, about 3 tbsp, shredded
- Cilantro (fresh coriander), about 3 tbsp, finely chopped
How to Make Spring Roll Sauce – Nuoc Cham
- Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar and lemon juice.
- Add fish sauce.
- Chop the garlic and chillies coarsely in a food processor.
- Add the vinegar, fish sauce and lemon juice, and pulse a few times to chop garlic and chiles finer and blend all the flavours.
- Adjust for a balanced, but fairly potent blend of tartiness, saltiness and sweetness.
- Stir in about half of each of the cilantro and shredded carrot, reserving the other halves for sprinkling on top at serving time.
Allow this Vietnamese spring roll sauce to settle for at least an hour to bring all the flavours together before serving or using in other dishes. I make large batches of this Nuoc Cham recipe and store it in the fridge — it improves with age! Leave out the coriander and carrots for a batch that you’ll store for a long period, but do add them soon enough before using so that the flavours can meld and integrate — a week, a day, a few hours.
