Name: Easy Sambal Belacan (just 3 ingredients!)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 5 Red Chillies; 1 tsp Belacan; 1 tbsp Lime Juice or Juice from 2 calamansi limes

How to make a quick and easy sambal belacan, or spicy shrimp chilli sauce, with just 3 ingredients!

Sambal Belacan is the beloved spicy red condiment sauce of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, even Thailand! This spicy sauce is savoury and full of delicious umami… thanks to the addition of belacan (terasi) or dried shrimp paste. This is an ultra basic sambal belacan that you can make with just 3 ingredients.

A quick lesson on what Sambal Belacan is in Malay:

Sambal = spicy chilli paste

Belacan (belachan/terasi/kapi) = fermented dried shrimp paste.

By the way, if you have a bit more time and access to some extra ingredients, I highly recommend trying my Best Sambal Belacan recipe here.

Ingredients to make Sambal Belacan

To make basic sambal belacan, you need just three ingredients:

Fresh Red Chillies: Any chillies accessible to you will work, but do be aware of the spice levels of the chillies you’re using. I use Spur chillies, which are the usual chillies that we have in Southeast Asia. These are of medium heat. You can also use Thai bird’s eye chillies, which are extremely spicy.
Belacan: It’s not Sambal Belacan if there’s no belacan!
Lime Juice: Calamansi limes are the typical one used, but regular limes will work too. Lemon juice can work as well.

If you include the seasonings of sugar and salt (which are totally OPTIONAL), then five ingredients!

Equipment to make easy Sambal Belacan

To make Sambal Belacan, you will need to paste-ify the ingredients together.

To do this, you will need either of this:

Pestle and Mortar
Food Processor: This or this are good options.

Using a pestle and mortar will get you the best texture, but in terms of flavours it’s the same! My personal preference? The food processor! It’s quick, easy, and I don’t have to deal with stingy fingers from handling the chillies. Also the noise is minimal (that pounding can be calming to some, but jarring for your neighbours)

You can also use a blender, though I would not recommend it, since it would be hard to get it to a paste texture without adding more liquid. The amount for this recipe is too little to get a good amount of lime juice, and you don’t really want to add too much water to sambal belacan.

How to make Sambal Belacan

1. Prep Ingredients: Toast Belacan

The dried shrimp paste will need to be toasted for best results. The belacan is ready for use once fragrant and charred. Untoasted belacan will be moist to the touch. After toasting, the belacan should develop a deeper colour and be drier and crumbly in texture.

There are a couple of ways to toast the belacan:

1. Toast over open flame at the stove.

Using tongs, hold the belacan over an open flame on your stove. Continuously turn the belacan for an even toast. The ‘traditional’ auntie way of doing this is to poke a fork into your belacan and hold it over the flame.

2. Dry toast in a pan over low heat.

Place the belacan on a pan and turn on the heat to a low. Flip belacan to different sections in the pan for an even toast.

3. Air fry (my preferred method).

Air fry at 160°C/320°F for 10 minutes or until fragrant and toasted.

2. Prep Ingredients: Chop chillies & Squeeze lime

Chop the chillies into smaller pieces for easier processing. You can remove the seeds here for a less spicy sambal, but I usually do not do this. The seeds can give off a bitter finish if not removed – but personally I don’t find this so.

Squeeze out the juice from the lime as well, and make sure to remove any seeds.

Option: chop lime rind to add to the sambal belacan for extra colour and fragrance. You do not need too much; just a quarter of a lime rind.

3. Pound ingredients together

Add the chillies, shrimp paste and lime juice to your pounding equipment of choice.

If using a pestle and mortar, pound the chillies bit by bit. It’ll be easier to pound this way, and also cause less of a mess.

If using a food processor, pop everything in and blitz. That’s it!

How to store Sambal Belacan

Since there is minimal water in this recipe, this Sambal Belacan can keep for 1 week. To prolong the freshness:

Store in an air-tight container.
Store in the fridge.
Use a clean spoon each time you dip in the container.

More Recipes Like This