A sambal is a hot relish that’s a staple in Indonesian cuisine, with thousands of varieties across the islands. This ferment is inspired by Sambal Tomat (Tomato Sambal), a favourite of ours – sweet tomatoes meet spice for a versatile crowd-pleaser.
Traditionally, ingredients are cooked from raw with a little dried shrimp paste. In this non-traditional version, we’re fermenting them first, creating a delightfully complex flavour through lacto-fermentation – the same process used for kimchi and sauerkraut.
You can blend and jar the sambal after Stage 1 for a hotter, fresher sauce, or cook it as we’ve done here to let the sweet tomatoes shine. Finish with a touch of diced kimchi or kimchi brine for acidity, umami, and the live cultures lost through heating.
The recipe yields about one cup, which can be stored in the fridge for a week or frozen for a couple of months.
Ingredients
Stage 1: For the ferment
• 250g tomatoes (mixed varieties)
• 4 large red chillies (~85g), halved (de-seed for milder version)
• 5 bird’s eye chillies (~10g)
• 8 garlic cloves (~40g)
• 3 shallots (~60g)
• Brine: 500ml water + 15g good sea salt
Stage 2
• 1 tbsp raw cane sugar
• 1 tbsp miso
• 2 tbsp Original Kimchi + brine
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Method
Stage 1: Pack the tomatoes, chillies, garlic and shallots into a fermentation-suitable jar. Prepare your brine by fully dissolving the sea salt in filtered water. Pour the brine into the jar, ensuring everything is fully submerged. Fill to the top or use fermentation weights so the ingredients stay below the surface. Leave to ferment for up to two weeks at room temperature.
Stage 2: Drain and lightly blitz to your preferred texture. Add to a pan with the sugar and miso, cooking until reduced to your desired consistency and rich in flavour. Remove from the heat and stir through the kimchi, brine and ACV.
