Peanut Butter and Gochujang
Another dressing recipe
Dear Sabrina,
I cannot wait to hear about all of your Amsterdam adventures! And, equally, I cannot wait to attempt to recreate Hunter’s dressing – the pear and celery additions are inspired. I always crave a Big Salad on a trip too, especially one with your tahini-miso dressing.
Your tahini-miso dressing is one of my all-time top recipes. If anyone reading this has not tried it, this is a Public Service Announcement that you need this fluffy, creamy, umami dressing in your life.
So, In honor of our love affair with tahini-miso, I am continuing your dressing theme with… another dressing! Thanks to a new Ottolenghi Test Kitchen cookbook, Extra Good Things, I just learned a new combination that brings similar joy as our beloved tahini and miso – peanut butter and gochujang.
I would never have thought of putting peanut butter and gochujang together, but it really, really works. The spiciness and mild sweetness of the gochujang balances perfectly with the nutty, salty peanut butter. The sauce also has soy sauce for savoriness, lime for tang, and ginger, garlic, and chives for and extra pop.
I put the sauce on blanched broccolini, per Ottolenghi’s recommendation, and served with rice and a fried egg for a simple weeknight meal. I think it would also be good as a dipping sauce with summer rolls, thinned out as a dressing for a slaw, or tossed with soba noodles.
All I can think about now is other potential peanut butter and gochujang combinations – would these work?
A peanut-butter-cookie rendition of Eric Kim’s Gochujang Caramel Cookies
Peanut butter and gochujang udon bowls
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a smear of gochujang on it
Peanut Butter and Gochujang Dressing
Lightly adapted from Ottolenghi
Ingredients
100 grams peanut butter (a little less than ½ a cup) (natural is best, and either smooth or crunchy is fine)
2 teaspoons of gochujang
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of lime juice
A piece of ginger the size of your thumb, peeled and finely grated
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely grated
A handful of chopped chives, if you want
Method
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, adding ~3 tablespoons of water to thin it out to the desired consistency.
A running letter between long distance friends who love to eat
Do you miss your best friend? Are really hungry you right now? If the answer to either of these is yes, you know what to do.
mmmmmmmmmm <3