Peanut sauce substitutes

The two-minute homemade version, and genuinely better than most jars.

Best for

satay dipping sauce, spring roll dip, cold noodle and slaw dressing, gado gado style salads

Use natural unsweetened peanut butter if you have it; if yours is the sweetened supermarket kind, halve the sugar. Add the liquid a tablespoon at a time. The peanut butter will seize into a stiff ball at first, which is normal, and it comes back glossy if you keep whisking. Swap the soy for fish sauce and it tastes distinctly Thai; keep the soy and it stays vegan and slightly sweeter. A tablespoon of coconut milk in place of some of the water makes it richer and rounder.

The best nut-free build for schools and peanut allergies.

Best for

peanut-free households, school lunches, noodle salad dressing

Sunflower butter is darker, more strongly roasted and faintly bitter compared with peanut butter, so the finished sauce tastes deeper and less sweet. Add an extra teaspoon of sugar and a little more lime to balance it. It also thickens more as it sits, so make it looser than you think you need. Check the label for shared-facility warnings if the allergy is serious.

Other nut butters standing in for the peanuts.

Best for

a milder, creamier sauce, cold noodle dressings, when peanut butter is out but other nut butters are not

Cashew butter is the closer of the two: mild, sweet and very creamy, so the sauce comes out smoother and less roasted, almost gentle. Almond butter is drier and grainier, needs noticeably more liquid, and tastes greener and slightly bitter. Both need a touch more salt than peanut butter does because they are less savoury on their own.

Sesame paste standing in for the ground peanuts.

Best for

cold sesame noodles, salad dressings, nut-free cooking

Sesame is savoury and slightly bitter where peanut is sweet and rich, so the result reads more like a Chinese sesame noodle sauce or a Middle Eastern dressing than like Thai satay. It works well, it just is not the same flavour. Add the extra sugar, a few drops of toasted sesame oil to make the sesame direction deliberate, and slightly more lime.

A thin, sweet-hot dipping sauce that is not peanut sauce at all but does the same job at the table.

Best for

spring rolls, chicken satay skewers, fried snacks

Be clear about what this is: a completely different sauce that happens to work in the same position on the plate. It has no fat and no body, so it slides off rather than clinging, and it is much sweeter and sharper. As a dip for skewers or rolls it is excellent. As a dressing for a peanut noodle salad it will not work, because the salad needs the fat.

Defatted peanut flour whisked back into a paste.

Best for

lower fat versions, long pantry storage, when the jar is empty but the powder is not

The peanut flavour is right, but most of the fat has been pressed out, so the sauce is thinner, less glossy and less satisfying in the mouth. Whisk in a teaspoon of neutral oil or a tablespoon of coconut milk to give it some body back, and expect it to separate more as it sits.