This is our go-to dumpling dipping sauce. A basic dipping sauce can be made with just the soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil...but the addition of a few special ingredients make it extra onolicious!
Dumpling Dipping Sauce
Dumplings! We make dumplings often. We make dumplings in bulk and freeze them so that we have dumplings whenever the craving hits. Just boil water, cook the dumplings and eat.
But you can never just eat the dumplings plain...you must have dumpling dipping sauce! Whether you're boiling, steaming, or pan frying the dumplings, a dipping sauce is essential (otherwise the dumplings will quite boring). This our family go-to recipe, I hope you enjoy it ^_^
P.S. You can also use this recipe for a wonton dipping sauce.
Ingredients
This recipe has 8 (lucky number, lucky dumplings!) ingredients.
8 ingredients might sound like a lot, but 6 of the ingredients are bottled or jarred pantry items that most local homes already have:
The other 2 ingredients are:
- Garlic
- Green Onions
Super Simple Sauce
If you want to keep the sauce super simple, just use the soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil (follow the same amounts in the recipe).
This makes the most bare bones and easy dumpling dipping sauce. It's a delicious and reliable trio, but if you take the extra minute to add the other 5 ingredients, I promise it will take the dipping sauce from standard tasty to onolicious tasty.
Let's take a closer look at each ingredient...
Soy Sauce
Soy sauce (or Shoyu, as we call it in Hawaii) is the foundation of the dumpling dipping sauce. We use both Kikkoman Soy Sauce and Aloha Shoyu interchangeably. You may also use low sodium soy sauce.
Rice Vinegar
Rice vinegar is the second most important ingredient to this dipping sauce. It provides a tang and brightness that is essential. We use a 2:1 ratio of soy sauce to rice vinegar.
If you like it very tangy, feel free to add an extra splash of rice vinegar. Some people even use a 1:1 ratio of soy sauce to rice vinegar, it's really about personal preference.
Sesame Oil
Sesame oil appears in many recipes on this site...we love sesame oil! It's fragrant and nutty and adds an extra dimension of flavor to the dipping sauce. Our go-to sesame oil brand is Kadoya Sesame Oil. In Hawaii you can find this sesame oil at pretty much ever supermarkets (even our local drugstore, Longs Drugs). In the mainland, you can find sesame oil at all Asian markets.
Chili Oil Or Chili Crisp
Chili oil or chili crisp! This ingredient is optional, though once you get used to having it in your dipping sauce, it is hard to do without ^_^ The most popular chili oil / chili crisp brand is Lao Gan Ma though you can use any brand. The Lao Gan Ma one is essentially half chili oil and half chili crisp so it does double duty. Find it at all Chinese markets.
Honey
Honey adds a touch of sweetness. We love local Hawaiian honey, though feel free to use any kind of honey available in your pantry. If you don't have honey, you can replace the honey with an equal amount of sugar. You can also omit the honey or sugar entirely.
Garlic
Garlic! Minced garlic is optional, but always essential in my books ^_^ Raw garlic is bold and sharp, giving lots of life to the sauce. We use 3 garlic cloves in this recipe (which makes 2 servings), but feel free to load up on the garlic. You can never have too much garlic.
Green Onions
Green onions are everything! Also an optional ingredient. It love it for the color, flavor and crunch. It gives another dimension to the dipping sauce (and also a nice visual contrast). Just finely chop up the whole stalk, white and greens, and add to the sauce.
Sesame Seeds
Sesame seeds are optional, though I love that bonus bit of crunch. Plus, any extra sesame flavor is always a good thing in my books. Most sesame seeds already come toasted, but you have a little extra time, toasting the sesame seeds in a small pan for a few minutes will make your sauce extra fragrant.
Questions
3-4 days stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
Follow the recipe below, but use only the soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil.
When we do family dumpling dinners, we arrange all the sauce ingredients on the counter and everyone assembles their own sauce bowl. I like more vinegar. Mom loves more garlic. It's fun and interactive (and saves you the work of making sauce for everyone haha). Everyone can tailor to their own taste.
Yes, we have many! Check out recipes for Simple Pork Wontons and Kimchee-Pork Dumplings. You can use wonton and dumpling fillings interchangeably. Will gradually add more recipes ^_^
Two ways! First way is just to use it as a dipping sauce. Put the dumpling in one bowl and the sauce in another (smaller) bowl. Dip each dumpling into the sauce bowl before you eat. This is how I usually do it.
Second way is to spoon the sauce directly over the dumplings (pictured above). This is a good option if the dumplings are being served as just one of many dishes on the dining table for everyone to eat family style.
Yes!! Use this sauce both as a dumpling dipping sauce and as a wonton dipping sauce.
Dumpling Dipping Sauce Recipe
See below and enjoy ^_^
Dumpling Dipping Sauce
This is our go-to dumpling dipping sauce. A basic dipping sauce can be made with just the soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil...but the addition of a few other ingredients takes it up to an onolicious level!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon chili oil
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 stalk green onion, chopped
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients into a bowl.
- Stir to mix.
- Use as a dumpling dipping sauce! This recipes makes two servings, so divide the sauce into two individual bowls for dipping. Dip each dumpling as you eat, or pour the sauce over a bowl of hot dumplings. Enjoy ^_^
Great pork filling and quick dip was good. I can't wait to make this full dipping sauce with the brand of chili oil you like! Made pork patties tis time as my helper husband put wonton in freezer by accident. 😂
Aloha Catherine! So happy you enjoyed! Pork patties are always taste heheh 🙂
- Kathy
This is absolutely amazing!! I used chili oil I made recently (cut this recipe in half for one serving) meaning 1/2 tsp chili oil. My lips are still on fire. Delish!!!
Thank you so much, Toi! Homemade chili sauce is always the best! 🙂
- Kathy
Good dipping sauce. For me, I gotta have spicy sauce. So I use a lot of that chili oil, but the kind with garlic and crushed black beans in it (I forgot what it is called). I used hot dipping sauce for almost everything, even when I make haole kine chicken or steak.
Hi Alan! Yes! Are you talking about the Lao Gan Ma sauce? If so, I love that one!! More garlic, mo bettah 🙂
- Kathy
Hi Kathy: Yes, that's it!! I looked it up and that is the little bottle of the stuff that I buy from the Asian market. I add chopped garlic too (sometimes), but for something like for dipping sashimi, I just add shoyu to it. Thanks for the name.