Chef Joost
Acar Ketimun (Indo-Dutch Cucumber Pickle)
Acar means pickle, ketimun means cucumber, and this little bowl of sweet vinegar, chilli, and crunch is the cool note that lets an Indo-Dutch rijsttafel keep its balance.
Culinary Explorer
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Pindasaus (Indo-Dutch Peanut Sauce)
Created by
The peanut sauce the Dutch learned through Indonesia, where peanuts, ketjap, sambal, and santen became the brown, glossy thread tying saté, rijsttafel, gado-gado, and even fries together.
Sauces & Condiments
Dutch
Make Ahead
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
10 min
Active Time
15 min cook•25 min total
YieldAbout 600ml, enough for 6 to 8 servings
The first secret of pindasaus is that the name points one way and the sauce's memory points another. In Indonesia, where the Dutch learned to love this family of sauces, you are more likely to meet bumbu kacang or sambal kacang: peanut seasoning, peanut relish. Pindasaus is the Dutch name that came home through colonial households, toko counters, rijsttafel restaurants, and the national talent for putting a good sauce where no purist would dare. For obvious reasons, scholars do not build monuments to patatje oorlog, fries with peanut sauce, mayonnaise, and raw onion. The snackbar built one anyway.
The name already tells you there has been travel. Pinda is Dutch now, but it did not begin in Dutch; most etymologists trace it through Atlantic creole languages such as Papiamentu or Sranan, back toward West African names for the groundnut. The plant itself began in South America, moved through Portuguese and Spanish routes, rooted deeply in Southeast Asian kitchens, and then returned to Dutch tables as something we now treat as ordinary. History and cookery, they cannot be separated, even when the pot is small.
What matters in the pan is balance, not mystery. Peanuts give body, ketjap manis gives dark sweetness and salt, sambal gives the clean bite, and santen, coconut cream, rounds the edges. Add water little by little, because peanut sauce thickens the moment your back is turned; that is not failure, it's the peanuts doing their work. Use whole roasted peanuts if you want the deeper texture. Use unsweetened peanut butter if dinner is already late. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. What you may not use is sweetened peanut butter and call the result dinner. That is pudding with ambitions.
Peanut sauces in Indonesia are usually named for kacang, the nut, and appear in dishes such as saté, gado-gado, pecel, and ketoprak; the Dutch name pindasaus belongs to the colonial afterlife of the Netherlands East Indies rather than to one single Indonesian original. After Indonesian independence in 1949 and the migration of many Indo-European families to the Netherlands, toko's, rijsttafel restaurants, and later snackbars made satésaus familiar far beyond the Indo-Dutch table. Its use on patatje oorlog, fries with peanut sauce, mayonnaise, and often raw onion, is a Dutch snackbar development of the late twentieth century, not an old Javanese custom.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
unsalted roasted peanuts or unsweetened natural peanut butter
Quantity
200g
skins removed if using whole peanuts
neutral oil
Quantity
1 tablespoon
shallot
Quantity
1 small
finely minced
garlic cloves
Quantity
2
minced
sambal oelek
Quantity
1 to 2 teaspoons
santen (compressed coconut cream) or full-fat coconut milk
Quantity
50g santen or 200ml coconut milk
santen chopped
hot water
Quantity
250ml, plus more as needed
ketjap manis
Quantity
3 tablespoons
tamarind paste or lime juice
Quantity
1 tablespoon tamarind paste or 2 teaspoons lime juice
fine salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste
chopped roasted peanuts (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
for finishing
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| unsalted roasted peanuts or unsweetened natural peanut butterskins removed if using whole peanuts | 200g |
| neutral oil | 1 tablespoon |
| shallotfinely minced | 1 small |
| garlic clovesminced | 2 |
| sambal oelek | 1 to 2 teaspoons |
| santen (compressed coconut cream) or full-fat coconut milksanten chopped | 50g santen or 200ml coconut milk |
| hot water | 250ml, plus more as needed |
| ketjap manis | 3 tablespoons |
| tamarind paste or lime juice | 1 tablespoon tamarind paste or 2 teaspoons lime juice |
| fine salt | 1/2 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| chopped roasted peanuts (optional)for finishing | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Small heavy-bottomed saucepan
- •Whisk or wooden spoon
- •Food processor or mortar, if grinding whole peanuts
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the peanuts
If using whole roasted peanuts, pulse them in a food processor until they become a coarse paste, sandy at first and then glossy where the oil begins to show. Stop before it turns perfectly smooth; a little texture is welcome here. If using unsweetened natural peanut butter, stir it well so the oil is mixed back in before it goes near the pan.
Sweetened peanut butter makes the sauce clumsy. The sweetness should come from ketjap manis, not from a breakfast jar pretending to understand Java. - 2
Soften the aromatics
Warm the oil in a small heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the shallot and cook for three to four minutes until soft and translucent, then add the garlic and sambal and stir for one minute more. Do not brown the garlic; bitterness is a loud guest and this sauce has no room for it.
- 3
Build the sauce
Add the peanut paste or peanut butter and stir it into the shallot mixture. Add the chopped santen and 200ml of the hot water, whisking until the coconut cream dissolves and the sauce loosens. If using coconut milk instead of santen, add the coconut milk now and begin with only 100ml of hot water. The sauce will look split for a moment, then it will come together into a thick, glossy brown.
- 4
Season and simmer
Stir in the ketjap manis, tamarind paste or lime juice, and salt. Let the sauce simmer very gently for five to seven minutes, stirring along the bottom so the peanuts do not catch. You are looking for a sauce that coats a spoon but still pours slowly. If it stands in a mound, loosen it with hot water a tablespoon at a time; for saté it may be thicker, for gado-gado it should flow.
- 5
Rest and serve
Take the pan off the heat and let the sauce stand for ten minutes before serving. This little rest matters: the sambal settles, the coconut rounds out the edges, and the peanuts finish drinking. Spoon it over saté, pass it with gado-gado, set it among rijsttafel dishes, or let the snackbar have its say over fries with mayonnaise and raw onion. Finish with chopped roasted peanuts if you want a little bite.
Chef Tips
- •Ketjap manis is not ordinary soy sauce. It is dark, thick, sweet, and salty at once; if you replace it with thin soy sauce, add a small spoon of dark brown sugar and accept that the sauce will be sharper.
- •Sambal oelek gives clean heat without dragging the sauce into perfume. Start with one teaspoon for a table of cautious eaters and put the jar beside the bowl for those who know what they came for.
- •For saté, keep the sauce thick enough to cling to the skewers. For gado-gado, loosen it until it pours over vegetables. For patatje oorlog, fries with peanut sauce, mayonnaise, and raw onion, aim somewhere in the middle, because even chaos deserves structure.
- •If the sauce thickens too much in the refrigerator, warm it gently with a splash of water. Do not boil it hard; peanuts repay violence by sticking to the pan.
Advance Preparation
- •Pindasaus is excellent made a day ahead; refrigerate it covered, then reheat gently with splashes of water until it returns to a slow-pouring consistency.
- •Keeps for four days in the refrigerator. It can be frozen for up to two months, though it may separate slightly; warm it slowly and whisk it back together.
- •Whole roasted peanuts can be ground a day ahead and kept covered at room temperature, but once the sauce contains santen it belongs in the refrigerator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 90g)
Calories
270 calories
Total Fat
21 g
Saturated Fat
7 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
14 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
390 mg
Total Carbohydrates
15 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
8 g
Protein
8 g
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