Nước chấm
The most important sauce in Vietnamese cooking, on every table: for spring rolls, bún noodles, rice with grilled pork and salads. It is a balance of four flavours: salty fish sauce, sour lime, sweet sugar and hot chilli, diluted with water so the sauce can be sipped from a spoon. There is no single ratio — every family has its own, and the sauce is always seasoned to taste. A good nước chấm is bright and clear, with no flavour dominating.
Your own work in that: 5 min.
- Sugar water 5 min
- Seasoning 5 min
- Resting 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneDissolve the sugar in warm water
Stir the sugar into warm, not hot water until the crystals vanish completely. In cold lime juice and fish sauce sugar dissolves very poorly — which is why you start with water.
Ingredients: 150 ml warm water · 50 g sugar · 60 ml fish sauce · 2 pcs limes · 1 tbsp rice vinegar
Sugar into warm water first — it will not dissolve in juice.Squeeze the limes
Squeeze the limes just before adding. Fresh juice has a bright floral aroma that fades and turns bitterish after a few hours. Bottled lime juice makes the sauce flat and bitterish.
Ingredients: 150 ml warm water · 50 g sugar · 60 ml fish sauce · 2 pcs limes · 1 tbsp rice vinegar
Pound garlic with chilli
In a mortar pound the garlic and chilli with a pinch of sugar to a coarse paste. That is the Vietnamese way — pounding releases oils and aroma better than chopping. Without a mortar, chop very finely with a knife.
Ingredients: 2 cloves garlic · 1 pcs red chilli · ¼ pcs carrot
In a mortar — aroma, not just specks.Add fish sauce and lime
Pour the fish sauce and lime juice (and the rice vinegar, if using) into the sugar water and stir. Start with the given amounts — it is always easier to add than to take away.
Ingredients: 150 ml warm water · 50 g sugar · 60 ml fish sauce · 2 pcs limes · 1 tbsp rice vinegar
Balance the flavour
Taste and adjust in small steps: too salty — add water and sugar; too sour — sugar; too sweet — lime; flat — fish sauce. The sauce should be mild enough to sip from a spoon, with no flavour dominating.
Ingredients: 150 ml warm water · 50 g sugar · 60 ml fish sauce · 2 pcs limes · 1 tbsp rice vinegar
Small steps — no flavour should dominate.Stir in the garlic and chilli
Add the pounded garlic and chilli paste and the carrot. Add them last, to the finished, balanced sauce — the garlic and chilli then float on top and every spoonful gets some.
Ingredients: 2 cloves garlic · 1 pcs red chilli · ¼ pcs carrot
Rest a quarter of an hour
Leave the sauce 15 minutes for the garlic and chilli to release their aroma. Taste once more — the chilli makes the sauce hotter over time.
Ingredients: 150 ml warm water · 50 g sugar · 60 ml fish sauce · 2 pcs limes · 1 tbsp rice vinegar
Serve and store
Serve in small bowls, one per person, for dipping or pouring. The sauce keeps a week in the fridge, but the lime loses freshness — to store, make the base without lime and add it before serving.
Ingredients: 150 ml warm water · 50 g sugar · 60 ml fish sauce · 2 pcs limes · 1 tbsp rice vinegar
Before you start
Good fish sauce
The best fish sauce has a short ingredient list: anchovies and salt, sometimes sugar. Cheaper ones add hydrolysed protein and colouring. Good fish sauce smells of the sea and umami, not of spoiled fish.
Ratios for different dishes
For spring rolls and salads the sauce is milder, with more water. For rice with grilled meat, cơm tấm, it is stronger and sweeter. For bún noodles — in between, since it is poured over the whole bowl.
The coconut version
In southern Vietnam coconut water sometimes replaces the water, giving a gently sweet, fruity sauce. Excellent with fish and seafood.