Posting this is almost embarassing. There’s nothing to it. Yet it’s delicious and satisfies my craving for quick and easy peanut sauces to slather over plain veggies, beans, grains or greens. In the picture, it’s poured over some sprouted cowpeas and steamed plantain. For your uses, feel free to adjust proportions and play with seasonings as suggested in the variations. The recipe also scales up nicely if you’ll be feeding a crowd.

And what’s nooch, if you aren’t already familiar with the term? Nutritional yeast; or ‘hippie fish food‘ as Chad Sarno would call it. I first came across the term in The Veganomicon cookbook and have been flinging it about with reckless abandon ever since. May you now do so as well!

Yield: 1 serving

What you need:

• 1/2 teaspoon tamari or shoyu (or increase if you want it saltier)
• 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
• 1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon water (or more for a thinner sauce)
• 1 generous tablespoon natural peanut butter, organic preferred (the kind with only peanuts in it, that separates if you leave it laying around at room temperature, – make sure you don’t use Kraft or Jif or some other such spread or you’ll regret it…)

What you do:

1. In a small dish or measuring cup, whisk together the tamari, nutritional yeast and 1/2 teaspoon water. A fork works well for small quantities, a whisk and larger vessel will be required if you scale the recipe up.
2. Now whisk in the peanut butter.
3. Add the remaing water, 1 teaspoon at a time, whisking until smooth between additions.
4. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.

Variations:

• Spice it up! A pinch of ground coriander, of ground cumin and/or or sumac works nicely. Curry powder is a natural for another type of flavour. Or add a bit of pressed garlic or ginger juice. Add it in step 1, at the same time as the nutritional yeast.
• Go hot sauce! Whisk as much or as little of your favourite hot sauce into the mix at step 1.
• Choose another nut or seed! Same idea, different nut or seed (well, technically speaking, peanut is a legume…). Swap out the peanut butter for another option such as almond butter, cashew butter, pumpkin seed butter, sunflower seed butter – you get the picture.