What Is Momo Achar? The Sauce Everyone Asks About

Momo achar is the sauce served with Nepali momo dumplings: charred tomato blended with toasted sesame seeds, dried red chili, garlic and often timur pepper. It's thick, roasted and tangy. American menus usually list it as momo chutney.

Yes, they're the same sauce. In South Asia, achar more often means a preserved pickle and chutney means a fresh blended condiment. Since momo sauce is blended fresh daily, chutney is arguably the more accurate English word, though Nepali uses achar for both.

Charred tomato, toasted and ground sesame seeds, dried red chili, garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric and often timur, finished with salt and lemon. Some versions add peanut, soybean, mustard oil or yogurt.

Ground toasted sesame gives the sauce its body and its roasted, nutty depth. Without it you have spicy tomato sauce. It's the ingredient that makes momo chutney distinctive.

It varies a lot by kitchen. Because it's served on the side rather than cooked into the dish, you control the heat by controlling how much you use.

Bottled versions are sold at South Asian and Himalayan grocers. They work, but they lose the aroma of freshly toasted sesame and freshly charred tomato, which is most of what makes the sauce good.

Rice, fried eggs, roasted potatoes, fries, grilled meat. It behaves much like a roasted salsa and it's good on most of the same things.