Spicy Peanut Sauce with Spinach and Rice for two Sauce

Fall is upon us and sometimes it takes a little fumbling around to get us back in the swing of things. These are the times when it is good to have easy, pantry ingredient recipes on hand when time gets tight but we still require something nutritious and satisfying for our evening meal. This spiced peanut sauce is just the answer! It can be used as a dipping sauce for grilled tofu or chicken skewers, mixed with noodles and steamed vegetables for a sofa slump movie night or thinned with coconut milk or hot stock to be used as a soup broth. However, when my time is tight my favourite way to enjoy this is as follows –

Ingredients
3T peanut butter – I like Kraft light but natural is fine, it need only be smooth 3T water
1t sugar – honey would be fine here, in that case reduce to 3/4t
1t soy sauce
1t tamarind paste – The Silk Road or Cookbook Company. Substitute lime juice 1t sriracha sauce – more or less to taste
1 small clove garlic, grated
1″ scrubbed ginger, grated

Method
Combine all ingredients and purée. I use a magic bullet because it’s small, a blender or food processor would work fine too. Yields 1/2 c sauce or two servings. Excellent for batch up as well, I’ve made litres and it tastes the same!

For Assembly
1 package of frozen whole leaf spinach thawed and brought to room temperature 1 c grain of your choice, cooked
1 recipe Spicy Peanut Sauce
2T white and/or black sesame seeds

For days I’m tight I like to pull the spinach and let it thaw on the counter while I’m out. It’s a vegetable and has been frozen so there is no fear of food borne illness from this method. I’ll set my rice cooker to be hot and ready when I arrive home and I’ll either whip up the sauce the night before or when I get back, it’s the work of moments. Once the grain is cooked, split it between two bowls. Squeeze all of the excess water from the spinach and top each grain with half of the spinach. Drizzle the sauce over both and top with the sesame seeds. Breathe.

Happy Healthing
– Lydia