Ginger Sauce Recipe

Ginger Sauce Recipe

The Spruce / Christine Ma

Prep: 5 mins
Cook: 0 mins
Total: 5 mins
Servings: 4 servings

Ginger is one of the staples of Chinese cooking and the most common Chinese seasoning. Along with garlic, it is added to many stir-fried dishes, soups, and sauces. There are different kinds of ginger sauces in Chinese cuisine. This easy and quick dipping sauce is one of the most popular and commonly used ginger sauces. It is used for dipping seafood, especially crabmeat.

The sauce is made with peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger, light soy sauce, and rice vinegar. All ingredients are available at well-assorted supermarkets or Asian grocery stores.

Ginger is a root and oddly shaped with lots of nooks and crannies. This makes peeling challenging, but there is a great trick for this: Peel the root ginger with a spoon. As ginger dries out fast, it is best to peel and chop it just before using.

The recipe calls for light soy sauce as opposed to dark soy sauce. Light soy sauce is your standard thin, light reddish brown and opaque soy sauce. It is not the same as low-salt or reduced-salt soy sauce, which is sometimes labeled as “lite soy sauce.”

Rice vinegar is the same as rice wine vinegar, the two terms are used interchangeably. The term rice wine vinegar is a bit confusing because it is not the same as rice wine.

Melting the brown sugar gives the sauce a deep, slightly caramelized flavor. This is done over high heat, and once the sugar has fully melted, make sure to remove the saucepan from the heat instantly because the sugar turns dark and burns very fast.

When you add the liquids—soy sauce and rice vinegar mixture—to the melted sugar, the sugar will harden at first, which is fine and nothing to worry about. Once you have returned everything to a boil, the sugar will melt again. 

You can use this ginger sauce in many ways. It makes a nice dipping sauce for appetizers containing shrimp, such as shrimp balls or almond prawn balls. Or serve it with pot stickers, gyoza, or Chinese dumplings such as xiaolongbao, the Shanghai-style steamed dumplings. 

You can also use the ginger sauce to brush on shrimp before grilling or to marinate seafood for a weeknight or family dinner. The amounts are easily doubled or tripled to make enough marinade to cover the seafood.

You can prepare the sauce in advance, which makes it perfect for serving at parties or cookouts.

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup light soy sauce

  • 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

  • 2 teaspoons ginger, minced

  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar

  • 2 spring onions, finely chopped, for garnish

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Ginger Sauce Recipe ingredients

    The Spruce / Christine Ma

  2. Combine soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and minced ginger in a small bowl. Set aside.

    Combine the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and minced ginger in a small bowl

    The Spruce / Christine Ma

  3. Melt brown sugar over high heat in a small heavy saucepan until just melted but not burnt.

    brown sugar in a saucepan

    The Spruce / Christine Ma

  4. Add soy sauce and rice wine vinegar mixture.

    add soy sauce and rice wine vinegar to the sugar in the saucepan

    The Spruce / Christine Ma

  5. Bring to a boil until brown sugar has melted again (it will harden temporarily after the soy sauce mixture is added).

    sauce cooking in a saucepan

    The Spruce / Christine Ma

  6. Remove from heat, pour into a serving dish, and garnish with chopped spring onions.

    sauce with green onions in a bowl

    The Spruce / Christine Ma

  7. Serve with pot stickers, gyoza, or other Chinese dumplings. 

    Ginger Sauce Recipe

    The Spruce / Christine Ma

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
44 Calories
0g Fat
8g Carbs
3g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories 44
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0g 0%
Saturated Fat 0g 0%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 2180mg 95%
Total Carbohydrate 8g 3%
Dietary Fiber 0g 2%
Total Sugars 6g
Protein 3g
Vitamin C 1mg 7%
Calcium 22mg 2%
Iron 1mg 3%
Potassium 172mg 4%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)