This spicy ginger and spring onion sambal is so easy to make, requiring just a few ingredients. Use it as a condiment or an ingredient.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Spicy Ginger and Spring Onion Sambal
First of all: spring onions = scallions, in case you didn’t know.
This is one of those recipes that doesn’t require much explanation in terms of ingredients or method of cooking. It’s actually a variation of the ginger and spring onion oil that I prepare when serving Hainanese Chicken Rice, recipe over on my other blog, Singaporean and Malaysian Recipes.
The Recipe
I was cooking up Hainanese chicken rice some months ago when realised that I didn’t have any red chillies for the ginger chilli sauce. So I ended up making it with green chillies.
As I was pounding the chillies, I started thinking about the ginger-spring onion oil next, then I thought, what if? So I added some green chillies to the oil as well, and ended up with a deliciously spicy ginger and spring onion oil.
It took me 2 attempts to get the balance of ingredients and flavour right when I was making a bigger portion of it for today’s recipe. One of the things I did was to reduce the ratio of oil to the other ingredients.
So my only problem then was what to call it. I started out calling it spicy ginger and spring onion oil. But there just isn’t enough oil in the final product to justify calling it a chilli oil. And the bits are not crispy, so chili crisp as those things are called in the US is out of the question too.
So ginger and spring onion sambal it is!
This is what we’ll be doing:
- Scrape off the ginger skin and rinse the spring onions and chillies.
- Pound everything coarsely (plus a little salt) with a pestle and mortar. Or use a food chopper (food processor), if you prefer.
- Heat the oil on medium heat and fry everything for 2 minutes.
- Take it off the heat, stir in the soy sauce and check seasoning. Add more salt if necessary.
That’s it.
Ingredients
We only need a few ingredients for this. I also suggest ideas to take it up a notch. This is all we need:
- ginger – I’ve given you the prepped weight, because some of you may scrape the skin while others may cut it off
- spring onions (scallions)
- green chillies – how hot your chillies are will determine how how your ginger and spring onion sambal is
- vegetable oil (or any flavourless oil)
- salt
- light soy sauce – the more you use, the darker and less vibrant the green sambal
It is a very fluid recipe. Think of the list of ingredients here as a template. Play around with the amount to your taste, more ginger, less ginger, it’s up to you. After all, I did make it up on the fly.
Variations to our Ginger and Spring Onion Sambal
I now make this green sambal all the time because it’s quick and easy. And these are some of the things I’ve added to change it up from time to time:
- lemongrass – this is especially good with our ginger and spring onion sambal
- coriander leaves (cilantro)
- red chillies (as well as green)
How to Serve Ginger and Spring Onion Sambal
If you’ve been a long time LinsFood follower, this will be easy for you. So many of our sambals, chilli oils and chilli pastes have similar uses. There are 2 main ways to use this green chilli oil or sambal: as a condiment or as an ingredient. Let’s take a look.
- as a condiment with rice, noodles or other grains.
- as a sandwich spread.
- as dip or sauce for grilled foods (meat or vegetables).
- it’s great in salads, especially potato salads (my next recipe!)
- as an ingredient, I love using our ginger, spring onion sambal in omelettes, like in this Red Chilli Pesto Omelette.
- it also makes a great topping on your favourite breakfast fry up, be that sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns, or my personal favourite, sunny side up eggs.
- and it is especially good for stir-fries, whether you’re frying up rice, noodles, vegetables, tofu or meat. So just add a little garlic to the mix (if you want) and do your thing.
How to Store
Store it in a clean, airtight jar or container in the fridge. Left this way, it will be fine for 3 days. But if you top your ginger, spring onion and chilli oil with a thin layer of fresh vegetable oil, it will last 7 days easily.
Each time you use it, top it with fresh oil.
And that’s all there is to it. Let’s get our aprons on!
If you enjoy the recipe, drop me a comment and let me know. And if you are feeling like a star, don’t forget that 5-star rating! 😉Thank you!
If you make this recipe, post it on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @azlinbloor and hashtag it #linsfood.
Lin xx
Ginger, Spring Onion Sambal Recipe
Equipment
- Knife
- Chopping board
- pestle and mortar
- OR food chopper
- small frying pan
- spoons and ladles as needed
- small jar or container to store
Ingredients
- 50 g fresh ginger this is the clean weight, after peeling or scraping
- 100 g spring onions (scallions)
- 5-10 green chillies heat level is up to you, see article above
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 4-6 Tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
- Scrape the skin off the ginger and chop up roughly.Chop up the spring onions and chillies roughly.
- Start with pounding a few ginger pieces for about 10 seconds. Add ⅓ of the spring onions and all the chillies and pound until they're coarsely pounded.The initial ginger acts as a base to pound the thin spring onions on.You can also do this in a food chopper. In which case, place everything in and pulse to get a coarse grind. Or semi fine, whichever you prefer.
- Add a few more ginger pieces and another third of the spring onions and pound.Finish this with the rest of the ginger and spring onions and pound until you're happy with how big or small the pieces are. I like a coarse grind.
Briefly Cook the Sambal
- Heat up the oil in a small frying pan on medium heat to simmering. I like to use 6 Tbsp of oil, but you can use just 4, if you prefer.Place a wooden utensil in your oil, and if you see tiny bubbles hugging it, your oil is hot enough.
- Turn the heat to medium-low and tip the pounded aromatics in and cook for 2 minutes.
- Take it off the heat and stir in the soy sauce and taste it. If it needs more salt, you can either add more soy sauce or salt. The more soy sauce you use the less vibrant green your ginger and spring onion sambal will be.Keep in the fridge, covered, topped with a thin layer of fresh oil and use within 7 days.
