Jeow Mak Len – Laotian tomato dipping sauce.

It is a spicy Lao sauce and I call it the Lao version of a tomato salsa, except it is seasoned with fish sauce. The number of chilies will depend on your spice tolerance. I used 15 and that was a medium hot level.

To make this mouth watering sauce. First, you start with roasting the ingredients until you get them nicely charred. Charring the vegetables will give it extra flavor.

There’s no need to take peel the garlic or shallots. To make the roasting process easier, put the vegetables on bamboo skewers that have been soaked in water for 20 minutes. This will make it easier to flip and soaking the skewers prevent them from burning. You can broil, roast or put them on the BBQ grill. Flip the vegetables until all sides are evenly charred.

The chilies, garlic, shallots and green onions will char the easiest. Remove them while you continue to roast the tomatoes. Once all the vegetables have been charred, put them aside to cool down. Once it’s cooled then remove the garlic and shallot skins.

Making jeow mak len.

To make jeow mak len or any Lao sauce, we traditionally use a mortar and pestle. If you don’t have one then a food processor works just as well. Just put all the ingredients in and pulse until it is well combined.

When using an mortar and pestle, start with smashing the garlic, shallots, chopped charred green onions, salt and chilies with the stem removed. Next add the charred tomatoes but remove some of the black charred skin. Smash all the ingredients together and season with fish sauce. Garnish with chopped cilantro and green onions.

How to serve jeow mak len.

We usually eat out jeows with sticky rice (Kao Niew) – glutinous rice. This is the perfect rice as you can use your hand to hold the rice and dip it into the sauce. I love to serve this jeow mak len with grilled fish or grilled chicken and steamed vegetables. But honestly you can serve it with any BBQ meat. However, sticky rice is a must.

We Laotians love our spicy dipping sauces. A meal would be incomplete without a dipping sauce. I hope you enjoy this flavorful and spicy tomato dipping sauce. Make a big batch and keep it in the fridge.

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Jeow Mak Len - Laotian Tomato Dipping Sauce

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

5 mins

Total Time

15 mins

 

Jeow Mak Len is a Laotian Tomato Dipping sauce. 

Course: Sauce

Cuisine: Laotian

Keyword: Jeow Mak Len, Lao cooking, Lao cuisine, Lao food, Lao Recipe, Lao Sauce, Lao Tomato dipping sauce

Servings: 6

Author: Jen Jen

Ingredients

• 5 Tomato
• 15 Thai Chilies
• 6 cloves garlic
• 3 shallots
• 3 green onions Roots removed

Seasoning

• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp fish sauce

Garnish

• 1/3 C green onions chopped
• 1/3 C cilantro chopped

Instructions

1. Soak bamboo skewers for at least 20 minutes to prevent burning. Put all the vegetables on a skewer. Do not peel the garlic and shallots.

2. Roast the vegetables on the grill. Flip the vegetables to get them evenly charred. Once charred set aside to cool.

3. Remove the stems from the chilies and peel the garlic and shallots.

4. In a mortar, add the garlic, chilies, shallots, green onions and salt. Smash until you get a smooth paste.

5. Add the tomatoes and smash to release the tomato juices. It will be a thick sauce consistency.

   
   

6. Add the fish sauce and continue to smash until all the ingredients are well combined.

7. Add chopped green onions and cilantro.

Recipe Notes

If you don't have a mortar and pestle, put all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until well combined.

You can add more or less chilies depending on how spicy you want it.