This easy cooked onion sambal is not only a delicious accompaniment to any East or South East Asian meal, but can also be used in so many other ways. You can make it as spicy or as mild as you like it to be.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
What is a Sambal?
There isn’t a direct translation of this Malay/Indonesian word. Suffice it to say, it is meant to be spicy, as today’s cooked onion sambal is (or not, if you use mild chillies). Just like hot sauces. Sambal can be one of 2 things:
- a spicy condiment, like salsa, both the chopped up variety or the saucy type. This is usually eaten with rice and also noodles, like sambal matah and this dry sambal with peanuts and anchovies.
- it can also be a spicy side dish, both wet and dry. Like sambal goreng and prawn sambal (on LInsFood).
I want to stress that just like hot sauces popular in the US, nam prik in Thailand and salsa in Mexico (and beyond), sambals can also be made any which way you like. We have traditional recipes, of course. Then, there are the ones that have been made on the fly, just like today’s cooked onion sambal.
Cooked Onion Sambal Recipe
This easy cooked onion sambal was something my mum used to make at least once a week, because it uses ingredients that she would commonly be chopping up for whetever she was cooking:
- onion
- garlic
- chillies
- tomatoes
- shrimp paste
So she’d just chop up a little extra and hey presto, we’ve got a second dish for the evening meal. Many Singaporeans and Malaysians must have a side sambal or pickle with every meal!
My granny used to make all sorts of sambals that we could help ourselves to at meal times. They never lasted long, so there’d be different varieties every week. This would also include chutneys and pickles as Indian food was also home food to us.
The Ingredients
The only things of note in this recipe are what chillies to use, and shrimp paste.
The Chillies
Sambals are meant to be spicy. Their purpose is to jazz up a meal, no matter how ordinary. However, that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice yourself at the altar of the Chilli Gods. Use mild chillies like Anaheim, banana pepper and jalapeños (which may still be hot to some) or whatever is local to you.
This is what I teach in my classes: use capsicums (bell pepper) instead of chillies. Capsicums have all the flavours of chillies without any of the accompanying heat. You can add one or two chillies just for a little bit of excitement. That way, you can enjoy this amazing cooked onion sambal without the crippling heat.
Conversely, if you want this hot, go for hotter chillies. Use birds eye chillies completely, if you like, or scotch bonnets or reapers, whatever rocks your boat. This is why I’ve given the rough weight of the chillies for the recipe, something I don’t really do. This is to give you an idea of the amount of chillies you’ll need, so you can sub your own favourite – to maintain the balance.
Shrimp Paste
This umami ingredient is basically dried, fermented shrimps. Known as belacan in Malay, it adds unmatched depth to dishes, especially sambals and salads. If you don’t live in South East Asia, find a Chinese, Thai, Japanese or Korean grocer. Otherwise, go online to source it out.
Here in the UK, all our large supermarkets sell shrimp paste, so there’s no need to hit Amazon!
Click here to read more about shrimp paste. We would usually dry toast it before using to enhance its flavour. However, since we’re cooking all the ingredients in this cooked sambal, I’m skipping that step.
How to serve this Cooked Onion Sambal?
It would be a natural accompaniment to rice, and even noodles. For eg, this could be a typical meal:
- rice
- Sayur Lemak
- Sambal Goreng
- Cooked Onion Sambal
So rice, 2 side dishes and this sambal. Or just 1 side dish and a salad.
Besides that, today’s sambal is also perfect as a:
- cooking ingredient for stir fries like fried rice, noodles and vegetables. The shrimp paste gives depth to your recipe.
- sandwich spread before adding your filling
- grill or barbecue accompaniment. Perfect with fish, any meat and also cheese. I finished off this batch as a snack with some slices of cucumber and cheddar.
- way to enhance omelettes.
Those are just some of the ways to use up today’s cooked onion sambal., let your imagination run wild.
And now, shall we check out the recipe?
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And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
Easy Cooked Onion Sambal
Equipment
- knife
- chopping board
- chopper (or pestle and mortar)
- small wok/saucepan/frying pan
- small jar for storing (about 500ml/2 cups capacity)
Ingredients
- 1 large onion
- 10 large red chillies about 150 g (5.3 oz) in weight – rough weight
- 10 green birds eye chillies or about 3 (50 g / 1.76 oz) large green chillies
- 3 medium garlic cloves
- 2 medium tomatoes
- ½ tsp shrimp paste (belacan)
- 3 Tbsp vegetable or peanut oil (any tasteless oil)
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- juice of 1 lime (Persian/Tahiti lime type) If using calamansi, use 3
Instructions
Prep Work
- Peel, then quarter the onion and add to your chopper.
- Cut the red chillies up into 3-4 pieces and add to the chopper.
- Toss the birds eye chillies into the chopper too.
- Peel and add the whole garlic cloves into the chopper.
- Halve the tomatoes and add to the chopper.
- Finally, add the shrimp paste.
- Pulse your chopper about 10 times to get a coarsely chopped mix.
Cooking the Onion Sambal
- Heat the oil in your chosen pan on medium heat.
- Tip in the chopped sambal ingredients, salt and sugar and cook for 5-10 minutes. At 5 minutes, your sambal will still have a certain freshness about it, as the ingredients have only been lightly cooked. 10 minutes will give it a more cooked and deeper flavour.If you think it's too dry, add a splash of water.
- Take it off the heat and stir in the lime juice.
- Transfer to a clean jar, leave to cool to room temperature, then store in the fridge for up to a week.
Video
Absolutely delicious, have made it twice already!
That’s great to hear!