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A wooden spoon scooping Indian tamarind chutney.
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5 from 3 votes

Easy Tamarind Sauce Recipe

This easy tamarind sauce recipe is a deliciously sweet and sour condiment that can be used as a dipping sauce for samosa chaat or a marinade for meat and fish!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Indian, Southeast Asian
Servings: 3 servings
Author: Zen

Equipment

  • Heat-proof bowl and sieve
  • Pot or small saucepan

Ingredients

  • 2 Tablespoons concetrated tamarind paste It comes in the form of a brick. You can also use dried tamarind pods- just double or triple the amount of pulp used.
  • 1 C boiling water You can use less if you want to expedite the cooking process but make sure all the tamarind is covered
  • 1 Tablespoon jaggery, palm sugar or brown sugar
  • 1 knob ginger sliced thinly. Substitute with ½ teaspoon ginger powder if necessary
  • 1 dried chili cut into ½inch pieces. Substitute with chili powder if needed.
  • ½ Tablespoon light soy sauce I used soy sauce as it gives the glaze more umami but if you want it strictly Indian, substitute with salt, to taste. (I used about ½ teaspoon.)

Instructions

Making tamarind water

  • Remove 2 Tablespoons of Tamarind paste from the tamarind brick. (More or less- the tamarind is quite sticky so it's hard to be exact.)
  • Place the tamarind in a small bowl with 1 Cup of hot or warm water till the pulp has softened. (The water should have turned brown.)
  • Strain the tamarind liquid through a sieve, making sure to press out all the water.
    Note: you may need to massage the pulp with your hands to break the strings apart.
  • Discard the seeds and stringy bits left in the sieve. Keep the tamarind water for your sweet tamarind chutney (see below.)

Making tamarind sauce

  • Pour the tamarind water into a small saucepan, followed by the soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and chili. Cook over medium heat to medium-high heat till thick and syrupy. I cooked mine for about 15-20 minutes but you can shorten the time if you want a thinner sauce.
  • Taste and if you've boiled it down a bit too much (and it's become a bit salty), add more sugar and/ or more water.
    Note: remember to stir every now and then or the sugar will catch at the bottom of the pan!

Notes

Easy Variations
  • Spiced: for Indian tamarind chutney, add ½ teaspoon of chaat masala OR ¼-1/2 teaspoon of cumin powder and ¼-1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander powder to the Indian tamarind dipping sauce. Use less water and cook for a longer time, till the sauce is nice and thick (remember to stir as the sugar will burn.)
  • Sweeter: add more sugar
  • Tarter: use less sugar
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its accuracy.