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    Home » 5 or less ingredients

    Published: Apr 25, 2022 · Modified: Apr 25, 2022 by Zen

    Toyomansi sauce (Calamansi soy sauce)

    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!

    A bowl of garlic and chilli mixed with calamansi lime and soy sauce .
    Jump to Recipe
    Jump to:
    • What is toyomansi?
    • Uses
    • Ingredients
    • Tips
    • Related recipes
    • Toyomansi sauce & marinade (Calamansi soy sauce)


    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

    1. 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.
    2. 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.)

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    A bowl of garlic and chilli mixed with calamansi lime and soy sauce .

    Toyomansi sauce & marinade (Calamansi soy sauce)

    A classic and super easy to make Filipinno dipping sauce and marinade, toyomansi is bursting with delicious, tangy flavours. Eat it with steamed seafood or to marinade pork and chicken for your next BBQ!
    5 from 1 vote
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 5 mins
    Cook Time 1 min
    Course Main Course, Side Dish
    Cuisine Filipino
    Servings 4 people

    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.

    Notes

    Note: you can use more garlic and chilli if you want, but I find it makes the sauce too "full" (there is too much solids and too little liquid) which makes it hard to dip food into it!
    The quantities for soy sauce and the acid (calamansi) aren't set in stone- feel free to experiment and use more or less depending on how salty and tangy you want your food.
     
    Keep the calamansi seed and grow your own calamansi tree- you can use this fruit in so many South East Asian dishes!
    Keyword Dipping sauce, easy recipes, Marinade, Quick recipe
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Cherry says

      April 25, 2022 at 1:24 pm

      5 stars
      Had this for dinner as needed to use up some soggy chillies, was amazing with panfried tofu. thanks, will definitely make this more often

      Reply

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    Greedygirlgourmet eating 2 sandwiches in Scotland

    Hi I'm Zhen! I couldn't boil water till I was 18 but after living abroad (in St. Andrews then London) for 11 years and having to cook for myself, I now love having friends and families over, and cooking for them. I tend to be slightly obsessive-compulsive, so I like to try many different versions of a recipe before coming up with my own "ultimate" version. Check out www.greedygirlgourmet.com every week for new tried-and-tested (on my guinea pigs aka guests!) Asian recipes which are full of flavour!

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