10 Best Soy Sauce Substitutes & 5 Reasons
Soy sauce is a staple ingredient for many recipes. But try as you might in stocking up, there will be instances when you’ll run out of these crucial condiments. Or scenarios where you have to feed guests with soy allergies. Whichever’s the case, you can try the following best soy sauce substitutes below.
Most of us have been through it. You know, the feeling of panic when you reach out for the next ingredient for your recipe, in this case, soy sauce, and it just isn’t there.
What will happen to your food now? Well, there’s no need to fret. Even smack in the middle of cooking, there are many quick soy sauce substitutes you already have in your kitchen that taste just like the real thing.
Facts About Soy Sauce
Soy sauce is a liquid condiment commonly used in Southeast Asian dishes. It originated in ancient China as a similar but thicker fermented paste used as a food preservative called Jiang.
It was then exported to the United States after the Second World War and has become a must-have ingredient for any kitchens and recipes.
What Is Soy Sauce Made Of?
Plenty of soy sauce variations exist today. Traditionally, it’s made by soaking soybeans in water and mixing it with roasted and crushed wheat.
The two ingredients are then left to ferment for two to three days with a culturing mold, often Aspergillus.
After two to three days, the manufacturers will add salt to the soybeans and wheat. Then, they’d leave the mixture inside its tank for five to eight months to complete the fermentation (known as aging).
Some soy sauce may require shorter or longer, with some extending years.
The culturing mold will react with the wheat and soybean proteins during fermentation. It’ll slowly break down the protein into amino acids. The starch content of the soybean and wheat will become glucose before being converted into lactic acid and alcohol.
After fermentation, they’ll separate the fluid from the solid through filtering. The liquid will then be heated (pasteurization) to kill the bacteria and remove mold and yeast residues. Once cleared, they’ll pack liquid into bottles before finding their way into your kitchen.
Chemical production, known as the hydrolysis method, is much cheaper and faster than traditional soy sauce. This process only takes a few days whereas natural fermentation takes months or years. It uses oil-less soybeans, wheat gluten, and hydrochloric acid.
However, certain countries, such as Japan, don’t consider chemically processed soy sauce authentic. Because of this, some manufacturers might refrain from labeling the liquid condiment as such. Others would mix chemical and traditional soy sauce to cut down costs.
What Is Soy Sauce Used For?
The savory flavors of soy sauce can be the perfect pair for many recipes. Add it to complement your stir fry, stew, or soup’s flavors.
Or better, use it as a salty dip for your homemade sashimi or sushi. You may also use it when marinating meat to balance out the acidity of citrus and lemon.
One prevalent Asian use of soy sauce is in seasoning fried rice or noodles. Some mix it in salad dressing with vinegar, sesame oil, and honey.
But here’s the most surprising use of soy sauce: some desserts, such as brownies, caramel, and brown sugar ice cream, call for the salty-sweet flavor of the condiment.
Depending on your recipe, you might need one of two popular soy sauce varieties: light and dark soy sauce. Light soy sauce is brownish with a lighter consistency, commonly used for seasoning without altering the food’s appearance.
Dark soy sauce is thicker with a potent color, so people often use it to add color to their dishes.
Other types of soy sauce include Tamari, a Japanese version made mostly of soybean and less than 10 percent wheat. Then there’s the Shiro, which is mostly wheat than soybean, and the Saishikomi, which uses unheated soy sauce instead of water in its aging process.
Is Soy Sauce Healthy?
Like most foods, whether soy sauce is healthy depends on your daily intake. For one, you should know that soy sauce contains high amounts of sodium due to fermentation.
Nevertheless, there are studies suggesting health benefits from consuming this condiment.
For example, experts found a significant correlation between soy consumption, improved gut health, and reduced inflammation.
Soybeans, the primary ingredient for the sauce, contain isoflavones, a compound believed to minimize menopause symptoms in women. Soy sauce is rich in antioxidants, too, which can help curb cell damage and aging.
Moreover, several studies indicate that soy-rich diets may lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol levels.
They found that taking at least 25 grams of protein daily can eliminate 3% of LDL (bad) cholesterol from the body. Other reviews also suggest that, as a legume, soybeans can lower the risk of stroke and heart disease by 16% to 20%.
Reasons to Replace Soy Sauce From Your Recipe
Of course, despite its apparent benefits, there are cases when there’s no choice but to remove soy sauce from your food.
Those who suffer from high blood pressure, kidney diseases, or diabetes might need to cut down their soy sauce intake. Dietary problems, such as those with allergies or autoimmune issues, may want to avoid the condiment altogether.
For Those Who Can’t Eat Soy
Some people are allergic to soy and can’t eat anything with soy sauce. Consuming soy when you have this allergy can lead to a severe and potentially deadly immune response.
This issue happens as your body treats the protein in soy as a harmful “invader,” akin to a virus or bacteria. Symptoms may include swelling of the mouth or throat, difficulty breathing, and abdominal pain.
For Those Who Can’t Handle Gluten
Besides soy allergy, experts estimate that 1 in 100 people have celiac disease, a disorder where eating gluten causes harm to the small intestine.
However, many people don’t know that soy sauce contains wheat. Eating food with soy sauce may result in several discomforting symptoms, such as nausea, stomach pain, and bloating.
For Those Following Low-Sodium Diets
Soy sauce is incredibly high in salt content. One tablespoon of this condiment contains around 40% of the recommended daily sodium intake.
Using less or replacing soy sauce with low-sodium ingredients may help manage illnesses, including high blood pressure, kidney disorders, and diabetes. You may also opt for salt-reduced varieties with 50% less salt.
For Those Who Avoid MSG
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a prevalent flavor enhancer for many foods. It’s safe in small doses, but you may be cutting down MSG from your food for its reported effects on energy intake or metabolic functions.
Or perhaps you have a rare MSG symptom complex (MSC), which can induce allergy-like symptoms. In this case, you may want to replace soy sauce as most brands often use monosodium glutamate to enhance the flavor.
For Those Who Are Cancer Risk
Soy sauce production can produce a group of toxic substances called chloropropanols. If ingested in large quantities, these substances can cause damage to the kidneys, reduce fertility in women, and induce tumors.
Due to these health risks, the European Union has set a limit on chloropropane content for soy sauce brands to adhere to.
Best Substitutes For Soy Sauce
No soy sauce? There’s no need to panic and spend a fortune for rushed grocery deliveries. You may even have the best soy sauce alternatives in your pantry without realizing it. Below are some of the best soy sauce substitutes you should try.
Tamari
Originally a byproduct of miso, tamari is made from fermenting soybeans, water, salt, and koji, which means fermented rice.
Often described as the darkest Japanese soy sauce, tamari lends a deep umami flavor and can step up in most recipes. The Japanese also call this sauce, miso tamari.
Due to their similarity in taste, you can swap soy sauce with tamari with an equal one-to-one ratio. However, note that tamari is less salty than regular soy sauce, so you might need to readjust your recipe’s salt.
Made mostly of soy, tamari is a vegan-friendly and gluten-free substitute, perfect for diet-conscious home chefs.
Coconut Aminos
Coconut aminos is a seasoning condiment popular in Chinese and Japanese cuisine. It’s made from fermenting coconut sap and sea salt, producing a liquid with a similar color and texture to soy sauce.
It’s milder and sweeter but can work as a superb soy sauce stand-in in many dishes.
As with tamari, you can use coconut aminos in similar amounts as your recipe calls for soy sauce. However, you might need to add more salt to account for its low sodium content.
One drawback to coconut animus is its price and availability. Additionally, it has a sweeter aftertaste that may affect your finished product.
Substitutes For Dark Soy Sauce
Like regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce adds a sweet and salty flavor to your dishes. Beyond its taste, the dark pigment of the sauce also lends its color to your fried rice and noodles. But what if there’s no dark soy sauce around?
Worcestershire Sauce
One of the most defining traits of soy sauce is umami flavor. That’s the rich, rounded flavor you can typically taste in mushrooms, broths, and cooked meats.
With that in mind, similar flavor-bomb ingredients like Worcestershire sauce can easily replace soy sauce.
The British condiment usually contains a mixture of vinegar, alliums, anchovies, and other spices. It has an almost identical flavor profile to soy sauce and can complement and give color to any dish.
Although, keep in mind that Worcestershire tastes more tart owing to its spices. Nevertheless, it can replace soy sauce 1:1 in most cases.
Oyster Sauce
Oyster sauce is a product of mixing salt, a thickening agent, and sugar with melted oyster extract.
This dark, syrupy condiment boasts the same complex flavor but with less sodium than soy sauce. But it’s sweeter and often saltier, with a thicker consistency you may appreciate.
If you have a bottle of oyster sauce sitting untouched in your cabinet, it might be time to put it to good use. Drizzle the same amount of oyster sauce as soy sauce in your recipe.
But as it’s sweeter, you might want to reduce sugar (if any) from your food.
Gluten-Free Alternatives to Soy Sauce
A gluten-free diet is essential if you suffer from celiac disease. The bad news is soy sauce is one of the foods you must avoid due to its wheat content. Luckily, there are superb gluten-free soy sauce alternatives to keep your immune system and taste buds happy.
Fish Sauce
Like soy sauce, fish sauce enjoys a VIP status among condiments in Asian cuisine.
It’s a versatile ingredient rich in umami and salt and can work in dipping sauces, marinades, salad dressings, and more. Most importantly, it’s gluten-free and safe for gluten-intolerant guests and family.
Fish sauce is made from fermented fish protein. It tastes savory and salty, perfect for those folks who enjoy sea flavors in their food.
That said, you probably won’t want to add as much fish sauce as you do soy sauce in your recipes because of its fishy tang. To balance the taste, you can swap 1/3 of the fish sauce with lemon juice.
Anchovies
Anchovies are another gluten-free alternative to soy sauce that works in a pinch. Unlike fish sauce, it can offer a punch of savory flavor to your dishes without the fishy tang.
One disadvantage to using anchovies is they won’t work in every recipe.
If you’re making curry or sauce dips, dropping a few chopped anchovies would melt right in to replace soy sauce. Try adding one or two pieces and adjust according to taste. A small squeeze of anchovy paste should also add the same salty umami when making fried rice or stir fry.
The Healthiest Soy Sauce Substitutes
Diet-conscious cooks may want to replace soy sauce to minimize sodium or MSG intake. People with health concerns may also look for safer alternatives. Whatever your reasons, below are the healthiest ingredients you can swap soy sauce with.
Bragg Liquid Aminos
Liquid aminos are culinary seasonings made to look and taste like soy sauce. It’s rich in protein, which can help improve your mood, sleep, and physical performance.
Bragg Liquid Aminos, for one, contains over 16 types of essential and nonessential amino acids.
You can freely use liquid aminos for anything that needs soy sauce. As far as taste goes, they’re mostly similar, with only a slight difference in sweetness and saltiness.
While gluten-free, liquid aminos contain soy, so people with soy allergies should look for coconut amino brands.
Balsamic Vinegar
Yes, you read that right. You can replace soy sauce with balsamic vinegar and get away with it. But you’ll want to use balsamic vinegar, made by aging grape juice for several months or years.
We’d recommend using it on recipes where soy sauce isn’t the primary flavoring.
Balsamic vinegar provides a distinctively tangy and somewhat saline flavor to any food. You may use it in an equal ratio to soy sauce.
But it’s less salty, which may warrant a couple of tablespoons more to achieve similar saltiness. This replacement will work best on brines, condiments, marinades, and salad dressings.
Best Substitute for Soy Sauce in Fried Rice
Fried rice without soy sauce may sound strange, especially if you’re familiar with Asian cooking. Still, if you’re ever cooking the staple food without the umami-rich condiment in sight, a few alternatives can work just as well. Try using the following instead of soy sauce.
Miso Paste
Miso paste is a soybean seasoning used a lot in Japanese cuisine. It comes from mixing and fermenting soybeans, salt, rice grains, and koji, a type of fungus.
Don’t let the fungus keep you away from miso, though, as it’s a phenomenal ingredient to add flavor to fish, meat, and more.
Aside from its consistency, you’ll notice that miso tastes milder than most soy sauce brands. But it’s savory and salty, which can work as a superb soy sauce replacement in an emergency.
You’ll want to thin the pasty miso to achieve the best texture. Mixing miso paste with melted butter should do the trick for fried rice recipes.
Teriyaki Sauce
You may be familiar with teriyaki as a favorite snack dip. You may even have a bottle hanging on your fridge door. But did you know the sauce consists of sake, mirin, sugar, and soy sauce?
That means you can use this Japanese seasoning liquid as a better substitute for soy sauce in fried rice, stir-fries, and many other dishes.
Teriyaki is often sweeter and thicker than your regular soy liquid. So, you may need to thin the condiment with water to avoid it from clumping in your fried rice. Use it as you use soy sauce, with a similar amount and mix timing.
Homemade Cooking Tips For Replacing Soy Sauce
If bottled soy sauce substitute isn’t your cup of tea, one tip we’d always recommend is to try making one from scratch.
This way, you can control the ingredients that go into your food and alter them as needed.
Below are some of the best soy sauce substitute recipes you should have in your notes.
Making Healthy Homemade Soy Sauce
Anything with an umami kick can replace soy sauce. But not every savory ingredient is beneficial for your body. For this healthy homemade soy sauce, you’ll need:
- Vegetable broth
- Dried shiitake mushrooms
- Apple cider vinegar
- Dark molasses
- Table salt
- Black pepper
To make your soy sauce, boil one cup of vegetable broth in a saucepan before adding two to three pieces of shiitake mushrooms. Then, cover the pan tightly and remove from heat, letting the mushroom soak. Remove the mushrooms from the broth after 20 minutes.
Mix all the other ingredients into the mushroom-vegetable broth. Add two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, one tablespoon of dark molasses, a quarter teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of black pepper.
Replace the saucepan in heat and allow it to simmer for 10 minutes. Once done, let the liquid cool down and store it in an airtight container.
Compared to most soy sauce brands with few nutrients, shiitake mushrooms are an excellent source of fiber, B vitamins, and other essential minerals.
Additionally, the mushroom boasts polysaccharides, terpenoids, sterols, and lipids with immune-boosting and anti-cancer qualities. Using it as the base for your soy sauce on top of vegetable broth offers plenty of bodily benefits.
Does Soy Sauce Go Bad?
Perhaps you’re out of soy sauce from tossing out the remaining bottle from last year’s grocery. But did you know you can use soy sauce even after its expiry date?
That’s as long as there’s no mold, pungent smell, or unusual changes in its appearance.
As a fermented condiment, soy sauce contains microorganisms that help preserve the liquid. An exposed bottle of soy sauce on your kitchen counter can last two to three years.
It’ll likely lose some flavor. But it won’t spoil as easily as other ingredients in your kitchen.