Satay Sauce

Satay is usually known as a fatty sauce, however, it can be a healthy addition if you make it right! It is a high protein recipe, can add to that healthy weight gain, and can be relatively low fat if you choose the ingredients well! You will usually use peanut butter for this recipe, however, this can be homemade so you know there are no nasty extra fats added there, or bought from a brand you trust. 

We are adding cashews to our recipe, this will, however, add to our fat content as cashews are worse than peanuts in that regard. However, cashews are lower in calories and  richer in nutrients like magnesium, iron, and  Vitamin B, and both cashews and peanuts contain healthy fats so they will both keep our sauce healthy.

Coconut cream is also usually used here, however, we will be using soy cream. Now, this is totally depending on what you are looking for in your diet and what you will be adding this sauce to! Coconut cream is way higher in fats and calories than soy cream is, however, soy cream is higher in carbs while lower in fiber! Both have no cholesterol, so I guess the question here is whether you want a low-fat diet or a low carb diet, or a healthy weight-gain diet. Soy would be probably way better for a low-fat, low calories diet, while coconut is better for a low-carb or a healthy weight-gain diet.

Also good to know that Soy Sauce has gluten! To avoid this you can use Tamari that has way less gluten and can be found gluten-free!! If you’re trying to lose weight you may also opt for a low salt soy sauce, although this might end up with your recipe needing salt especially if your peanuts aren’t salted and you’re doing the peanut butter yourself with less salt already! But enough chit-chat! Let’s jump into our recipe and see how it is done (this intro was way longer than intended, but oh well)!

Ingredients

• Soy or Coconut Cream
• Peanuts (or Peanut Butter)
• Cashews (optional)
• Vinegar (preferably Balsamic Glaze and Cider Vinegar)
• Soy Sauce (or Tamari )
• Lime or Lemon Juice
•  Cumin
• Smoked Paprika
• Garlic
• Ginger
  
• Nutmeg
• Cinnamon
  
• Black Pepper
• Red Chilies (optional)
  

Method

So for today’s recipe, we’re gonna start by heating the cream, whatever you chose to use, we’re using soy cream here  and adding in our cumin, smoked paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, and black pepper (now today’s recipe doesn’t really need cooking, however, this method will make mixing so much easier and the flavors will meld better together). If you have fresh ingredients chop as finely as you can or even better grind  the garlic, ginger, and, if you like heat, some red chilies and add them to our cream while stirring everything in. If you have powders it works just as well, so add the powders in instead of the fresh ingredients if that is what you have.

That should take around two to three minutes, then go ahead and add the peanut butter (or freshly roasted and finely ground peanuts) and give a good stir. Add in the lime or lemon juice (or a little of both), a little cider vinegar, and a little balsamic glaze (if you are missing any of the ingredients they should be able to replace each other, however, a mix of all gives a more interesting taste), add the soy sauce or tamari and keep stirring until everything is well mixed together.

In the end add some crushed cashews or some more crushed peanuts for some extra texture in your sauce (you can totally skip this step, however, it’s a neat trick if the sauce is too runny. You can also alternatively just keep cooking until it reduces or add a little more peanut butter, it all depends on your preference.  Your sauce is done! 

Variations

You can either let it cool and serve it on the side as a dipping sauce or spread, or mix it right away with meats or vegetables (I find it easier to mix it in when it is warm). I added very few drops of sesame oil for some extra level of nuttiness, or you can sprinkle some sesame seeds on top for both decoration and flavor (especially if you are trying to gain weight).

You can add some honey to your sauce, however, if you are using soy cream and the balsamic glaze you probably have enough sweetness already and the honey is totally unnecessary, if you are not using the glaze and you are using the coconut cream, you may want to add a little honey to your mix. A date can also work instead of the honey to introduce some sweetness. Coriander seeds are another addition you can add to your sauce, it will also add to the sweetness with actually less sugars than honey or even dates, so maybe it’s a better first step to achieve the desired taste.  Turmeric, cloves, curry, and lemon zest are all flavors you can play within this recipe, just be careful not to go overboard cos we want to keep that basic peanut flavor, however, as always, it all depends on your taste!