Toyomansi sauce is a classic Filippino dipping sauce (also known as sawsawan), often used for siomai or as a marinade for chicken, fish, pork adobo and even beef, that is deliciously tangy but ever so easy to make. You only need 3-4 main ingredients, and 5 minutes!
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What is toyomansi?
In Tagalog (the Filipino language), toyo means soy sauce, so toyomansi is simply a combination soy sauce with calamansi, a species of lime that is very popular in South East Asian countries like Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia for tis fruity and floral fragrance (toyo + calamansi.)
Uses
Calamansi soy sauce is often eaten:
- as a dipping sauce for siomai
- as a dipping sauce for fried chicken and fried fish
- as a marinade for chicken, pork, beef and fish
- with chicken adobo or pork adobo
- spooned over white rice
Personally, I love how the tanginess goes with steamed or poached seafood. In fact, last night I used it as seasoning for my coconut water poached prawns.
Ingredients
The main ingredients are:
- light soy sauce
- Note: don't confuse this with dark soy sauce, thick soy sauce or sweet soy sauce, which are different
- calamansi juice
- Substitute: lime juice, lemon juice or, worse comes to worse, vinegar
- Calamansi is very easy to grow at home - here are some calamansi sweet treat recipes to use up any excess crop you have. For more edible garden, Asian Recipes, click here.
- sliced bird's eye chilli
- Substitute: other chillies
- I like to use a combination of red and green big chillies when I have guests as it makes the sauce look more attractive and the heat level is more tolerable for people who don't eat a lot of spicy food
- and aromatics such as sliced shallots and minced garlic
Variations
You can season you calamansi and soy sauce with:
- fish sauce
- Note: There is a very similar Thai dipping sauce to this type of toyomansi
- vinegar
- ponzu
Tips
- This Filipino soy sauce is so quick and easy to make, people usually make it right at the table, although leaving the aromatics to infuse for a few minutes does give it more flavour.
- Save the calamansi seeds and you can grow your own fruit! (It will take a few years from seed- in fact, I have a little seedling in front of me now as I work.)
Related recipes
Toyomansi sauce & marinade (Calamansi soy sauce)
Equipment
- Knife and chopping board
- Strainer, optional
Ingredients
- 4 T Light soy sauce
- 4 T calamansi lime juice, seeds strained out I usually eyeball it and use 6 small calamansi for 4T of soy sauce. Substitute: key lime, Meyer lime, or other limes if you can't these 2, lemon and, as a last resort, white wine or rice vinegar
- 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- ⅛ big red chilli, sliced Substitute: Bird's eye chilli is traditional but it's spicier so I used something milder to accommodate younger children and the elderly. (Personally I prefer the smaller bird's eye chilli/ chilli padi though!)
- ⅛ big green chilli, sliced Added for colour, feel free to omit
- sliced onions or shallots, optional
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients together.
- You can use it straight away or leave to infuse for 10 minutes first.
- You can immediately enjoy calamansi soy sauce with your dumplings etc or pour it over your meat/ fish to marinade.
Dorene chew says
My helper made the Philippine sauce together with the scallion pancakes - she love your recipes as they save her a lot of work/time!!
Zen says
so glad you enjoyed this Dorene, will release a video for the scallion pancakes soon!
Cherry says
Had this for dinner as needed to use up some soggy chillies, was amazing with panfried tofu. thanks, will definitely make this more often