Spicy Gochujang Five Spice Sauce
This easy to make spicy Gochujang five spice sauce is sooooo delicious, takes about 15 minutes to make….and yes, you will want to put it on everything!
I made this sauce the other day for my Gochujang Enoki mushroom recipe and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since! Despite me eating pretty much the whole bowl of taste tester Enoki mushrooms…I just kept on craving that sauce. I eat Gochujang and five spice often…but when you combine them…it’s a whole new world! This Gochujang Five Spice sauce is heavy on the garlic, slightly sweet, perfectly spicy, and has a deliciously complex flavor, due to its main ingredients, Gochujang and five spice.
This easy, spicy Gochujang five spice sauce recipe is a combination of sautéed shallots, Gochujang paste, ginger, garlic, toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, and Chinese five spice. This blend creates a slightly sweet, tangy, spicy sauce that is bursting with flavor and can transform the simplest dish into a mouthwatering meal.
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WHAT IS GOCHUJANG
If you love spicy food and this is your first experience with Gochujang, you’re in for a treat! Gochujang is a spicy paste used in Korean cooking. This paste is made from fermented soy beans, rice, chili peppers, and salt. Gochujang can be described as spicy, sweet, and well rounded. It’s comforting, complex flavor is an amazing addition to many dishes.
what is five spice
Chinese five spice is a blend of spices that is predominantly used in Chinese cuisine. The name five spice, refers to the five flavors of spice, which are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory. Although there are many variations, you will most likely find the combination of star anise, Chinese cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, cloves, and fennel seeds on store shelves.
If used correctly, this spice blend is MAGIC. Using five spice correctly is the key, this stuff if strong and will take over a dish, so easy does it. It’s the perfectly balanced companion to bring so much complexity and flavor to any dish, but you don’t want to add too much and make your whole meal taste like five spice!
For this sauce, the marriage of Gochujang and five spice is perfectly balance and simply divine. Match made in heaven!
How to make spicy Gochujang five spice sauce
As mentioned above, you will want to put this sauce on everything. And lucky for you, this sauce is so easy to make, you can!
To make this spicy Gochujang five spice sauce, you will start by sautéing shallots. After a few minutes, garlic will join the party. Once your shallots and garlic are perfectly aromatic and have started to brown, you will add fresh ginger, toasted sesame oil, brown sugar, rice vinegar, water, and of course, Gochujang and five spice. Then you will allow the sauce to simmer for a few minutes and BAM! Delicious, sweet, salty, spicy, tangy Gochujang Five Spice Sauce!…Ready to poured over everything, or eaten by the spoon full (just kidding…maybe).
Put Gochujang five spice sauce on everything
Ok, so we don’t need to put our spicy Gochujang Five Spice sauce on everything…but we can put it on a lot of things and it will yield delicious results. The nice thing about this sauce is that it makes simple meals incredible.
Serve Gochujang five spice sauce over rice, tofu, steamed veggies, noodles, beans, or your choice of protein. My personal favorite easy way to eat Gochujang five spice sauce is to pour it over steamed broccoli and rice! So healthy, so delicious, such little effort in the kitchen…you just can’t go wrong.
How to thicken Gochujang five spice sauce
This sauce is a thinner sauce. It is delicious as is, the sauce is bold in flavor and makes a perfect thin sauce. But sometimes you want a thick sauce that will really stick to things. Luckily this is incredibly simple to accomplish. Simply add 1 tablespoon of corn starch and an extra 1/2 cup of water. Allow the sauce to simmer and thicken until you reach the consistency your desire.
Spicy Gochujang Five Spice Sauce
Equipment
- knife
- cutting board
- sauce pan
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp avocado oil can substitute any neutral oil
- 1 large shallot, sliced
- 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 inch of fresh ginger, grated
- 4 tbsp Gochujang paste
- 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Start by heating 1 tablespoon of avocado oil in a sauce pan over medium heat
- Add sliced shallots and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often
- Add chopped garlic and cook for 2 more minutes
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the sauce pan and allow sauce to simmer over medium-low heat for about 8 minutes, stirring often. Sauce will thicken and build flavor
- Remove from heat. Serve with meal of your choice. Rice, tofu, steamed veggies, and noddles all are great choices.
Check out these other recipes using Gochujang or Five Spice
