If you have never tried sambal before, this lime tomato sambal is the one you should try first. Spicy, sweet, salty and sour. You’ll experience all of them in just one bite and before you know it, you’re gonna have a sparkling clean plate because nothing is left!
Sambal is a Malaysian staple. Just how the Americans love their mustard, the British and Australians love their marmite spread, Malaysians need to have our sambal every time we eat a meal.
Although a simple condiment, sambal has this hold on us Malaysians. Maybe it’s the flavour, maybe it’s the spiciness but what we know is food tastes exponentially better even with just a little sambal.
The Most Versatile Condiment Ever!
When people look at sambal, they always think that sambal only functions as a condiment. Little that they know, there’s so much to sambal than just a flavouring aid.
Usually kept cool in the refrigerator, sambal can be made as a spicy dip or even a spread for a quick, tasty meal. Best of all, it tastes great with almost everything. Cheese, meat, vegetables or even as it is. It is truly an underrated food and we hope this lime tomato sambal recipe will be able to introduce you to a whole new world of flavours and food.
Ingredients:
- 3 ripe large tomatoes, cut into small chunks
- 2 shallots, cut into four
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 7 red chillies
- 1 lime with skin on, deseeded
- 9 birds’ eye chillies
- 50g shrimp paste, grilled hot
- 1 tablespoon of lime juice
- Sugar and salt to taste
Method:
- Add in the red chillies and bird’s eye chillies into the blender. Pulse twice.
- Add in the hot grilled shrimp paste, shallots, garlic cloves, lime and lime juice. Blend roughly.
- Add in the tomatoes and blend till reach the texture of your liking. We like our sambal to have bits of chilli in it.
- Pour the sambal into a bowl and keep refrigerated until serving time.
5 Minutes and Done
Can you believe how easy it is to prepare this sambal? It just takes 5 minutes and you are done! However, make sure your shrimp paste is properly grilled till its piping hot. You don’t want to get a stomachache right after.
If you love this lime tomato sambal and looking to up your sambal game, try out our version of simple shrimp paste sambal or sambal belacan here!
Let us know what you think of this lime tomato sambal recipe by reaching out to us via our Instagram and Facebook accounts. We’d love to know your feedback, comments and even criticisms so we can improve the quality of our recipes next time. If you’d like to learn more about sambals and Malaysian food, let us know what you want to learn and see what we can give you next!