By Grocery List Plus Editorial Staff | Published on June 12, 2026
Serves 4
66 cal · 10 min
Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Dipping Sauce)
Recipe GLPR999b3dca815194
A bright and tangy Vietnamese dipping sauce that balances heat, sweetness, and umami. This traditional condiment combines fresh lime juice, fragrant garlic, and spicy Thai chiles with fish sauce and sweet carrots for a perfectly balanced accompaniment to spring rolls, grilled meats, and noodle dishes.
Save recipes you love
Create a free Grocery List Plus account to save recipes, rate them, and add every ingredient to your grocery list in one tap.
Ingredients
4 tbsp. sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Thai chiles, stemmed and minced
4 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
2 tbsp. finely shredded carrots
6 tbsp. warm water
Directions
In a mortar or small bowl, combine the minced garlic, minced Thai chiles, and sugar. Using a pestle or the back of a spoon, gently pound and stir the ingredients together until the sugar begins to dissolve and the garlic and chiles release their oils, about 1 minute.
Add the fish sauce and fresh lime juice to the mortar or bowl. Stir well to combine all ingredients and dissolve any remaining sugar.
Slowly add the warm water while stirring continuously until the sauce reaches your desired consistency. The sauce should be slightly thick but pourable.
Stir in the shredded carrots and mix until evenly distributed throughout the sauce.
Taste and adjust the balance of flavors as needed—add more lime juice for extra tang, more fish sauce for deeper umami, or more sugar for sweetness. Let the sauce sit for at least 10 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to meld together.
Comments
Fish sauce is the only ingredient that might require a second trip—Food Lion and Harris Teeter carry it reliably, but if you shop exclusively at ALDI or a smaller Walmart, you'd need to plan ahead or visit a larger location. Cost per serving is negligible, under fifty cents; the real money is the fish sauce bottle itself, which lasts dozens of recipes. The stated 10 minutes is honest—mincing garlic and chile, squeezing lime, stirring everything together genuinely takes that long. This is a condiment, not a complete meal, so it excels as a weeknight shortcut for rice bowls, grilled meats, or spring rolls, and it keeps refrigerated for weeks without degradation.
Sign in or create a free account to add your review.
