Sambal

By: Tom Shingler
Head of food, delicious.

Published: 3 Apr 23
Updated: 18 Mar 24

Sambal is a fragrant chilli paste used as a condiment primarily in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore – and has countless variations. This one is a great all-rounder with plenty of heat, aromatic flavour, sweetness and savoury depth.

Try this sambal recipe in Jeremy Pang’s nasi goreng recipe, or his Mamak fried noodles.

Easy
March 2023

Test kitchen approved

Makes about 350g
Hands-on time 30 min

Try this sambal recipe in Jeremy Pang’s nasi goreng recipe, or his Mamak fried noodles.

Dairy-free recipes

Nutrition: per serving

Calories: 71kcals
Fat: 4.3g fat (0.3g saturated)
Protein: 1.2g
Carbohydrates: 6.5g (4.6g sugars)
Fibre: 0.9g
Salt: 1g

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Ingredients

10 dried red chillies, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes
40g bird’s eye chillies, roughly chopped
Thumb-size piece galangal or ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
8 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
8 small shallots, roughly chopped
1 lemongrass stalk, outer layer discarded and roughly chopped
2 tbsp palm sugar or dark brown sugar
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp belacan shrimp paste (available from Sous Chef)
50ml vegetable oil

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Method

Drain the dried chillies and put in a food processor with the fresh chillies, galangal, garlic, shallots, lemongrass and sugar. Pulse into a paste, scraping down the sides as needed – you want it as smooth as it’ll go but it will still have a coarse texture.
Add the tamarind, fish sauce, shrimp paste and soy sauce and whizz again to combine.
Heat the oil in a saucepan over a low-medium heat. Add the paste and gently fry for 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until it thickens and turns jammy. Keep cooking until the paste begins catching on the bottom of the pan. Taste and make sure you’re happy with the balance of flavours, adding more tamarind to make it sourer, palm sugar to make it sweeter or soy sauce to make it saltier.