Cilantro Stem Thai Dipping Sauce

My Thai friend Jibbie brought a dipping sauce to a party recently and I’m absolutely obsessed. Made with lots of cilantro, garlic and chilis, it’s a Thai sauce that’s often used for seafood, but we ate it with barbecued pork, grilled beef, and basically everything else we could find at the party. I had to have the recipe, so she sent along a few links to similar versions - one from Tasty Thais and one from Siam Sizzles - that I used as a starting point to make my own version.

It turned out to be perfect timing to use up a bunch of cilantro in the fridge that was about half stems. If you haven’t used cilantro stems before, it’s time to start - they’re full of flavor and can easily be used along with the leaves or even on their own. This is also true of other tender herbs like parsley and basil, especially if you’re chopping everything up with a blender or food processor rather than a mortar and pestle. You can see in the photo below how much stem was involved in this sauce. Yellowed or slightly browned leaves welcome too, although I picked out the totally wilted brown leaves for the compost.

From there, it’s really all about how you want the sauce to taste. Do you want something super spicy? More sour or sweet? I put the measurements I used (roughly) but you should absolutely adjust to taste once everything is blitzed together. And then, as Jibbie suggested, mix some of your finished sauce into a bit of mayonnaise and make an extra amazing version. I’ve tossed shredded cabbage and bell peppers into the sauce to make a Thai-flavored slaw, and dipped grilled chicken as well as my kids’ chicken nuggets into the mayonnaise version. I’m willing to go out on a limb and say it’s good on pretty much everything. Try it and let me know if you agree!

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Cilantro Stem Thai Dipping Sauce

Author: Food Waste Feast

Prep time: 15 MinTotal time: 15 Min

A spicy and sour dipping sauce made from cilantro stems. As always, feel free to adjust amounts depending on taste and what you have available.

Ingredients

• Cilantro stems and some leaves, if you have them, from a bunch of cilantro
• 3-6 cloves of garlic
• 1 jalapeno pepper (or any pepper of your choice, as hot as you want to go!)
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoons oyster sauce, if you have it (if not, you could add a bit of soy sauce or hoisin, but the sauce is plenty flavorful without!)
• Zest and juice of 1 lime, plus more to taste
• 1 or 2 tablespoons sugar, or more to taste
• Kosher salt to taste, if needed

Instructions

1. Put everything in a blender or food processor and puree! Taste and adjust as needed - try more fish sauce or oyster sauce if you want it more savory, a pinch more of sugar if you want it sweet. Lime juice for more acidity, it's up to you!