Sweet and Sour Sauce

Make a homemade sweet and sour sauce to dip or add flavor to your favorite Asian foods. It’s easy and ready to serve in just 10 minutes!

Sweet and sour sauce is a versatile tangy condiment in Asian cuisine. You can toss it into a stir-fry or serve it as a dipping sauce alongside appetizers like egg rolls or potstickers. Most Chinese takeout restaurants are willing to give you handfuls of packets if you ask, but I’ll show you how to make a more flavorful version at home.

This sauce is effortless to make, and the ingredients are not hard to find at the store. Using a cornstarch slurry is a simple way to instantly thicken the liquids while creating a glossy and luscious sauce to dip or drizzle over any dish. Simply whisk and simmer, then it’s ready to use.

What is sweet and sour sauce?

A popular Chinese-style tangy sauce with sweet, aromatic, and savory ingredients. Tomato paste is used for color and flavor, a sweetener like sugar or honey for sweetness, and rice vinegar for zest. There’s also soy sauce for a savory taste, pineapple juice for fruitiness, and a cornstarch slurry for thickening.

Sometimes a few drops of red food coloring are added instead of tomato paste as a more affordable coloring agent.

Tomato selection

The recipe is tomato-based, and most often, restaurants use ketchup as a quick ingredient already sweetened and seasoned. However, I like to control the amount of ingredients added for a better, more repeatable flavor. 

I use canned tomato paste since it’s concentrated to remove most moisture. The paste is naturally a sweetened product with savory glutamates that will enhance the umami taste of the sauce. It’s very thick, so you don’t need too much.

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How to sweeten the taste

I use honey to add sweetness and a syrupy-like consistency. It also provides a pleasant floral taste to the sauce. You can use other types of sweeteners like granulated sugar for a pure, clean taste. Brown sugar or pure maple syrup will give more of a lingering molasses note. 

Maple is excellent if you’re looking for a Paleo version. I also use pineapple juice to add natural fructose for a bump in sweetness. The citric and malic acids contained in the fruit also help enhance the sauce’s flavor.

Vinegar makes it sour

This sauce is famous because of the slight mouth pucker to complement the sweetness. I use a generous amount of unseasoned rice vinegar to add zing. The product has been fermented from rice grains, so it has a more mild taste than distilled white vinegar. Apple cider vinegar is also a good substitute for a fruity flavor.

Add savory notes

To balance the sweet and tangy notes, add soy sauce. The intense savory, fermented flavors add dimension. Dried garlic and onion powder provide a strong cooked allium flavor to the mixture without tasting raw and sulfurous.

Use a thicken agent

A cornstarch slurry is a common thickening agent used in Asian cuisine. It’s prized for its glossy, translucent, sheen, and quick gelling. Dilute in water first before adding to a hot liquid, so it disperses quickly and doesn’t clump. For about 1 cup of liquid, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch adds enough swelling ability to make it pourable and adhere to foods.

How to make sweet and sour sauce

The process is straightforward for turning the liquid tomato base into a sticky sauce that clings to foods. All flavoring ingredients like tomato paste, pineapple juice, soy sauce, honey, vinegar, and seasoning are mixed. 

Grab a small skillet to simmer the sauce. The heat will quickly cook the starches when added. Pour the cornstarch slurry into the bubbly hot liquid and whisk until it swells and thickens. This magical change will happen in seconds, so don’t take your eyes off the pan! The sauce should coat the back of the spoon.

Serve this with

• Sweet and Sour Chicken
• Potstickers
• Egg Rolls
• Crab Rangoon
• Vegetable Dumplings

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