Vegan Fish Sauce

How to make Vegan Fish Sauce! – a great substitute for Asian fish sauce that adds depth and umami flavor to Asian dishes without the fish or shellfish! Gluten-free adaptable!

Many of you have asked for a good substitute for fish sauce. Here’s a simple recipe for Vegan Fish Sauce –  that you can easily make at home. It is so easy! Make a batch and refrigerate – it will keep for months in your fridge – a meat-free, plant-based, non-fishy substitute for fish sauce that works well in all Asian style recipes that call for fish sauce!

After sampling sips of straight fish sauce (now you know how much love you!) this is the recipe that  I came up with.

It’s basically a very condensed broth infused with soy sauce -shoyu, tamari or  gluten-free Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, mushrooms (use either dried or fresh), seaweed and a few garlic cloves. The broth is simmered and reduced, and flavors become very concentrated. What remains is a very intense salty briny liquid that with deep umami flavor that to me, comes pretty close to fish sauce. The seaweed really hints of the sea and gives it the “fishiness” it needs without the fish!

Smoked Shoyu adds even more complexity if you can track it down. Grilled onions, black garlic or roasted garlic add even more depth. You can get pretty crafty when you start thinking about creating depth and umami, so please, feel free to experiment and play around.

Here is the simple recipe and of course feel free to embellish, leaving notes for other readers in the comments.

I prefer dried shiitake mushrooms in this recipe for Vegan Fish Sauce- but know they may be hard to track down for some. I also tried this with cremeni mushrooms and they were a great substitute.

Vegan Fish Sauce  is delicious in Thai and Vietnamese Dishes! Try this in in 15 minute pad thai, any of the curries on the site or Asian style soups like my  Thai Broccoli Soup .

Here area also my favorite soul warming,  Thai Recipes that this vegan fish sauce would be really useful in!

Hope this helps. xo

Vegan Fish sauce

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How to make Vegan Fish Sauce! – a great substitute for fish sauce that adds depth and umami flavor to Asian dishes. Gluten-free adaptable!

• Author: Sylvia Fountaine
• Prep Time: 5
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 35 minutes
• Yield: 2 cups 1x
• Category: sauces, condiments,
• Method: Stove Top
• Cuisine: Asian

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 4 cups water
• ¼ cup soy sauce- shoyu, tamari, or Braggs liquid amino acids
•  ¼ ounce dried mushrooms like shiitakes or 8 ounces fresh mushrooms (cremini, shiitake, portobello)
• 1   4 x 8 inch sheet of dried  kombu ( seaweed) or wakame seaweed
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2  ½ tablespoons salt
• optional additions- 1 fat shallot sliced, grilled (charred) onion, roasted garlic, black garlic, small splash rice wine, sherry, or rice vinegar. Smoked Shoyu if you can find it, is a great option for the soy sauce.

Instructions

Bring all to a simmer in a medium pot, uncovered, over medium heat. Simmer until reduced by half.  You should have about 2 cups of liquid.

If you have time, let this steep over night, or up to 24 hours, covered on the counter. Then strain and pour into jar. If liquid is less that 2 cups, add water to make it 2 cups. This will ensure the right amount of saltiness.

Store in the fridge and use as you would fish sauce, one to one.

Keywords: vegan fish sauce, fish sauce substitute, asian fish sauce, how to make fish sauce, how to make vegan fish sauce, homemade fish sauce

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