The Best Dumpling Dipping Sauce
The easiest dipping sauce for dumplings, ready in just two minutes.
Do you love dumplings but you can’t quite get the dipping sauce right?
Imagine this: You’ve just spent an hour making, folding and cooking dumplings. Or you’ve had a craving, went all the way to the Asian grocer to grab a bag of dumplings. You've whipped it up, dunked it into a bowl of soy sauce, and it just doesn’t taste as good as the restaurant. Why? It’s probably because of the sauce.
For the perfect dipping sauce, it’s all about balance. You want a bit of savoury, a tid bit of tartness and sweetness and a little (or alot!) of heat! Once you get the hang of making a bangin’ sauce, you’ll find that it takes the dumpling eating experience to the next level!
Finding Balance
Salt, fat, acid, heat. There are Netflix documentaries about this, novels written about how important each element is in our cooking. And you know what? It’s just as important for even a humble dumpling dipping sauce.
SALT - Use a good quality soy sauce. Soy Sauce is a fermented condiment that will give your dipping sauce not only salty flavour, but a complex umaminess as well. I like to use Japanese Kikkoman soy sauce.
FAT - Fat is important for mouthfeel and carrying other flavours. I like to use sesame oil for it’s fragrant toasty notes and the chilli oil for the slight numbing burn, baby!
ACID - Always forgotten! Many people forget to balance out their flavours with a bit of acid. Acid is important in cutting through fat and bringing freshness to a dish. I like to use Chinese Black Vinegar (chinkiang vinegar or the Taiwanese Red Label vinegar) both found in your local Asian Grocer. Though, I understand that these are specialty ingredients and if they are not part of your cooking repertoire, may end up in your pantry for years and years. A great substitute that is likely in your pantry, is Balsamic! I discovered how wonderfully balsamic pairs with dumplings when having dumplings with my Italian friend, Jess. Gotta love a bit of fusion!
HEAT - Okay, usually the ‘heat’ in salt, fat, acid, heat is talking about cooking. But in this case, it’s about SPICE. Logic still works! Choose your favourite chilli oil for this recipe. I personally find fresh chillies too intense for dumplings, since, in the end of the day, the dumpling is the star. And you want the dipping sauce to enhance the dumplings.
SWEET - Alright, not part of the saying. But a bit of sugar (even for savoury dishes like dumplings) is important. I like using honey because it adds a bit more complexity to the sauce than plain old sugar. But also, because I have 3 bee hives and endless honey to use up. Feel free to use what works.
Bulk Cook and Store.
All of the ingredients I use for my dipping sauce is shelf stable. Because I run classes so often, I want to be able to travel with the sauce and not throw out stuff that isn’t used. That’s why there is no fresh garlic etc etc.
The benefit for YOU is that you can whip up a big jar of this and store it in room temperature for weeks and weeks and weeks….if it lasts that long!
A wonderful way to use up the dipping sauce if you’re done with dumplings: Asian Coleslaw. Grab a bag of slaw from the shops, or julienne your favourite asian veg (I like bok shoy, bean sprouts, purple cabbage and carrots) and toss through the dipping sauce for the yummiest, crunchiest, healthiest little salad number.
The Best Dumpling Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
Instructions
- Mix all of the dipping sauce ingredients into a jar and screw on the lid. Give it a really good shake until all of the ingredients are well combined.
- Enjoy with your freshly cooked dumplings!
Notes
Honey can be swapped out for any sweetener, such as maple syrup, sugar or brown sugar.
If you can't find black Chinese Vinegar, you can substitute with a good quality balsamic.
