Ingredient

Fish sauce Recipes

24 recipes with fish sauce for weeknights, meal prep, and quick ingredient searches. Choose by time, cuisine, and what is in your kitchen.

24 recipes

Bánh Xèo (Vietnamese Sizzling Crêpes) with rice flour, turmeric and coconut milk — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Bánh Xèo (Vietnamese Sizzling Crêpes)

Golden turmeric crêpes fried until shatteringly crisp, filled with pork belly, shrimp, mung bean, and bean sprouts — then folded and eaten wrapped in lettuce with mint and cilantro, dipped in nước chấm. The name means 'sizzling cake': the xèo is the sound the rice flour batter makes the instant it hits the smoking-hot oil. Without that sound, the pan is not hot enough. Getting the crêpe genuinely crisp rather than soft and chewy requires three things: a thin batter, very hot oil, and patience — the crêpe needs 4 to 5 minutes undisturbed before it is ready to fold.

50 min380 kcal4 serves

🌶️Spicy🌾Gluten-free

Bún Chả with ground pork, pork belly and fish sauce — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Bún Chả

Hanoi's most iconic street-food dish: smoky grilled pork patties (chả băm) and caramelized pork belly slices (chả miếng) submerged in a warm, sweet-sour dipping broth, served alongside cool rice vermicelli, pickled carrot and daikon, and a heap of fresh Vietnamese herbs. The components arrive separately and each diner builds their own bite — a tangle of noodles and herbs dipped into the broth with a piece of pork and pickle, all in one mouthful. Gained international fame when Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain ate it at a Hanoi street stall in 2016. The version that gained that fame is a Hanoi recipe, distinct from the southern bún thịt nướng: no lemongrass in the pork, the sauce served warm not cold, patties alongside sliced belly.

60 min480 kcal4 serves

💪High protein

Cơm Tấm (Vietnamese Broken Rice) with broken rice, pork chops and fish sauce — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Cơm Tấm (Vietnamese Broken Rice)

Cơm tấm (com tam, Vietnamese broken rice) is a southern Vietnamese plate built on broken rice — gạo tấm, the grains that fracture during milling and were once discarded — and it is most closely associated with Saigon. The usual order is a lemongrass-marinated grilled pork chop (sườn nướng) with a fried egg, cucumber and tomato, pickled carrot and daikon (đồ chua), scallion oil, and a bowl of nước chấm to spoon over everything as you eat. The small grains soak up sauce better than whole rice. Plan on about an hour of work, plus 2 hours for the marinade.

60 min560 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free💪High protein

Canh Chua (Vietnamese Sour Soup) with catfish steaks or firm white fish, tamarind concentrate and pineapple — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Soups

Canh Chua (Vietnamese Sour Soup)

A southern Vietnamese sour soup from the Mekong Delta: a tamarind-based broth balanced with pineapple sweetness and fish sauce umami, filled with fish steaks or shrimp, tomatoes, okra, and bean sprouts, finished with crispy fried garlic and a crown of fresh herbs. The soup's defining quality is the precise calibration of four tastes — sour (tamarind), sweet (pineapple), salty (fish sauce), and savory (the fish) — in a broth that is light but deeply flavoured. Catfish is traditional; salmon, snapper, or tilapia all work.

40 min400 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

Sundubu Jjigae (Korean Soft Tofu Stew) with sundubu, kimchi and gochugaru — Korea recipe

🇰🇷KoreaMedium

Soups

Sundubu Jjigae (Korean Soft Tofu Stew)

One of Korea's three great jjigae alongside kimchi jjigae and doenjang jjigae: silky uncurdled soft tofu (sundubu) spooned in large chunks into a fiery gochugaru-and-anchovy broth with kimchi, pork belly, zucchini, and mushrooms. An egg is cracked into the boiling pot at the table — the residual heat soft-sets it. The stew arrives bubbling in a clay pot (ttukbaegi), surrounded by rice and banchan. Jjigae means stew in Korean; sundubu means extra-soft tofu. The tofu gives no flavor of its own — it is a soft, silent canvas that absorbs the intensely seasoned broth and contrasts its silkiness against the spice and the chew of pork and vegetables.

35 min280 kcal4 serves

🌶️Spicy🌾Gluten-free

Thai Green Curry (Gaeng Keow Wan) with chicken thighs or protein, coconut milk and green curry paste — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Meat Dishes

Thai Green Curry (Gaeng Keow Wan)

Gaeng keow wan (แกงเขียวหวาน) — literally 'sweet green curry' — is the most popular curry in Thailand, served everywhere from street stalls to fine restaurants. The green color comes from fresh green chillies in the paste; the 'sweet' in the name refers not to sugar but to the soft pastel shade of green. A quick-fried green curry paste forms the base, bloomed in the thick cream from coconut milk before the liquid is added. The balance is non-negotiable: spicy from the paste, rich from the coconut, salty from fish sauce, and a back note of sweetness from palm sugar. Thai basil and kaffir lime leaves are the aromatics that make it unmistakably Thai. Serve with jasmine rice and nothing else.

35 min420 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy💪High protein

Thai Red Curry (Gaeng Phet) with chicken thighs or beef, red curry paste and coconut milk — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Meat Dishes

Thai Red Curry (Gaeng Phet)

Gaeng Phet (แกงเผ็ด) — 'spicy curry' — is Thailand's most ubiquitous curry, found on every restaurant menu and in every home. Where green curry uses fresh chillies for a herbal brightness, red curry uses dried red chillies for a deeper, earthier, and more complex heat. The color comes from dried chilli skins; the richness comes from full-fat coconut milk with the cream reduced first to separate the oil before the paste is added — the authentic Thai technique that concentrates the aromatics. Popular with chicken, beef, pork, duck, or prawns. Thai eggplant and bamboo shoots are the classic vegetables; bell peppers and pumpkin are common additions.

30 min440 kcal4 serves

⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

Tom Yum Goong (Thai Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup) with shrimp, mushrooms and tomato — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Soups

Tom Yum Goong (Thai Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup)

Tom Yum Goong (ต้มยำกุ้ง) is Thailand's most internationally recognised dish — a clear, fiercely aromatic hot-and-sour soup built on the 'tom yum trinity': lemongrass, galangal, and makrut lime leaves. The broth is simultaneously hot (from Thai bird's eye chillies), sour (fresh lime juice added off the heat), salty (fish sauce), and fragrant (the three herbs). Shrimp heads and shells, simmered first, create a naturally rich stock with a coral-orange color. Two versions exist: the clear broth (nam sai, น้ำใส) — the original — and the creamier version with evaporated milk or coconut milk (nam khon, น้ำข้น). Both are served in the same bowls of jasmine rice across Thailand, from roadside stalls to five-star restaurants.

30 min180 kcal4 serves

⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

Thai Satay with Peanut Sauce with chicken thighs, lemongrass and turmeric — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Thai Satay with Peanut Sauce

Satay (สะเต๊ะ) arrived in Thailand from Indonesia via Malay traders and became one of the country's most beloved street foods. Thin strips of chicken or pork are marinated in lemongrass, turmeric, coconut milk, and warm spices, then threaded onto bamboo skewers and grilled over charcoal until caramelized at the edges and fragrant throughout. The essential accompaniment is the satay sauce — a rich, sweet, slightly spicy peanut sauce made with roasted peanuts, red curry paste, and coconut milk — not the peanut butter version common elsewhere. In Thailand it is often served with a quick cucumber pickle to cut the richness and toasted white bread for dipping into the sauce.

45 min480 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy💪High protein

Bún Bò Huế (Spicy Vietnamese Beef and Lemongrass Noodle Soup) with beef shank, lemongrass and mắm ruốc huế — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Soups

Bún Bò Huế (Spicy Vietnamese Beef and Lemongrass Noodle Soup)

Bún bò Huế is a fiery red Vietnamese noodle soup from the central city of Huế, the former imperial capital. The broth is built on a long simmer of beef shank, pork ribs, beef bones, lemongrass, charred aromatics, and pineapple, then finished with mắm ruốc (Huế-style fermented shrimp paste) and a separate annatto-lemongrass sate sauce that gives the soup its signature crimson colour and heat. Thick round rice noodles, sliced beef shank, and herbs (Thai basil, Vietnamese coriander, mung bean sprouts, banana blossom) finish the bowl. Compared to phở, bún bò Huế is bolder, spicier, and more aromatic — phở's louder cousin from central Vietnam. Active work 30 minutes, simmer 3.5 hours. Serves 8 generous bowls.

240 min580 kcal8 serves

💪High protein🌶️Spicy🌾Gluten-free

Banh Cuon (Vietnamese Steamed Rice Rolls) with rice flour, tapioca starch and ground pork — Vietnam recipe

🇻🇳VietnamAdvanced

Breakfast and Brunch

Banh Cuon (Vietnamese Steamed Rice Rolls)

Banh cuon are the silkiest thing in Vietnamese cooking — sheets of rice batter steamed paper-thin, so soft they're almost translucent, wrapped around minced pork and wood ear mushrooms. A northern Vietnamese breakfast staple, they're piled with fried shallots, fresh herbs, bean sprouts, and slices of cha lua, then dipped in nuoc cham, the sweet-sour-salty fish sauce dressing. The tapioca starch in the batter is what gives the wrappers their gentle chew.

75 min430 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free

Tom Kha Gai with chicken, coconut milk and galangal — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Soups

Tom Kha Gai

Thailand's creamy coconut chicken soup: chicken poached in coconut milk infused with galangal, lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaf, then balanced with fish sauce and a squeeze of lime. It's the mellow, fragrant cousin of tom yum — rich rather than sharp — and its whole character comes from galangal, not ginger.

35 min320 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

Ingredients

Goes well with

Other ingredients that appear most often alongside fish sauce across the archive. Pick one to drill deeper.

coconut milk chicken lime rice noodles garlic beef peanuts turmeric gochugaru ginger mint eggs