vegetarian tangy peanut sauce

This recipe was first made by my daughter and I just added to it. I just love peanut sauces especially on pasta and I have tried many and like most I usually just ended up buying store bought ones. I wanted to create my own sauce so that I could get better and healthier ingredients. This is what I came up with:

1tbsp oil
1tbsp ginger
1tbsp garlic
2tsp chili paste or more if you like it spicier (I use sambal oelek)
2tbsp rice vinegar
1tbsp sugar (I use maple sugar for healthier sugar but you can use brown, I try to stay away from white sugar)
2tbsp soya sauce (I use tamari but you can use whatever you got in your fridge)
1 can coconut milk
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter (or smooth if you like)
1tsp mirin (a sweet cooking seasoning found in Asian section at the grocery store but you can also do without in this recipe)

Heat oil in saucepan at medium heat, add garlic and ginger, saute for 1 minute (you do not want the ginger or garlic to brown). Stir in the chili paste and cook for an additional 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add rice vinegar, soya sauce, sugar, mirin and cook for 5 minutes stirring frequently. Stir in the coconut milk, add peanut butter and stir until peanut butter melted and well blended. Bring to a gentle boil and reduce heat to low, stir frequently for 5 minutes. Cover and set aside.

You're wondering what I used this sauce with? Well I used up all my left over vegetables in my fridge. I had onions, yellow pepper, celery and some green beans. I steamed the green beans until they were al dente. While the beans were steaming I heated some oil on medium heat and stir-fried the vegetables (onions, pepper & celery) until tender. I added the green beans just a few moments before the vegetables were tender, then I transferred the sauce unto the vegetables, stirring until well blended. Cook some rice pasta (you can use any pasta or even rice), put pasta in a serving bowl and poured the sauce over the pasta...delicious!

You can use any vegetables in this recipe. Mike my parter is a "meat" eater so he cooked some prawns on the BBQ and added them to the meal. You can do anything with this sauce, just use your imagination and what ever is in your fridge! A friend of ours stopped by (good timing as I was serving dinner) and as luck would have it, he's a cook and he said it was very good. I asked him if he would add anything or change anything and he said "no"!