Vegan sweet chilli sauce

I have confession to make.  I am absolutely crazy about certain sauce. I like it with chips, to dunk a tofu in, I hardly can imagine fishcakes without it, and just recently I baked crispy chicken strips and had them with this sauce. When I add it to basic hummus it gives it a new dimension, it can be served with thick Greek yogurt as a dip for vegetables. I use it with some stir fries, and recently I served it as a dip for mini tortillas with sorrel and it worked surprisingly well.

Is is sweet chilli sauce available in most supermarkets. However making you own takes about 20 minutes and you can be absolutely sure that there are no nonsense ingredients, such as glucose syrup or preservatives. I used it quite a lot so for me it is important to have something with possibly natural and fresh ingredients only.   Also it is quite handy to decide if you want less hot sauce by removing the seeds from the chillies. My version is vegan. Traditionally this sauce can contain nam pla (fish sauce), I use some lime. Also I use some starch to thicken this up, but the traditional sauce is being cooked until reduced and thick. 

This is one of my favourite condiments. Stay tuned as I will post a recipe for lovely burgers that go really well with sweet chilli sauce.

makes about 200ml 

3 cred chillies, one with seeds, two deseeded 

3 garlic cloves, peeled

juice of half lime

zest of whole lime

¼ cup of rice vinegar 
½ cup of sugar

¾ cup of water
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp cornflour dissolved in 2 tbsp water (optional)

Chop chillies, garlic very finely using knife or food processor. 

To a small pan add the sugar, water, lime juice and zest, vinegar and salt together with chopped chillies and garlic. Bring to the boil and lower the heat, then simmer for about 15 minutes until slightly reduced. Net add cornflour dissolved in water, stir, bring to the boil and immediately remove from the heat. Leave it to cool down.

Place in a jar, seal and keep refrigerated. Difficult to say for how long you can store this, with us it always disappears within 10 days or so. However you should be able to keep it for longer if you pasteurize it.