Soy sauce has a distinct taste and many people consider it to be something that’s irreplaceable. While there may not be anything EXACTLY like the original, there are some things you can use as a soy sauce substitute if you don’t have the real thing in your home!
What Is Soy Sauce?
When you head out for sushi or authentic Asian cuisine, you may have your dinner served to you with a small dish of soy sauce. While it can add a great burst of flavor to your meal, what is it exactly?
Soy sauce is a delicious condiment that is made from salt, water, and fermented soybeans. It’s dark in color, has a pretty strong salty taste, and can be used to marinade various meats or kept to the side to add a splash of flavor.
Soy Sauce Substitutes
There are a few different things you can use to substitute soy sauce, so don’t worry if you don’t have it at home!
Here are some of the main ingredients you can try for a soy sauce substitute:
- Worcestershire sauce
- Beef boullion
- Healthy options like red wine vinegar
Worcestershire Sauce
Recommended Ratio: 1:1 tablespoon
A popular soy sauce substitute is Wostershire sauce mixed with water. All you need to do for this here is take about three tablespoons of the sauce and mix it with one tablespoon of water. Now, Worcestershire and soy sauce share one common ingredient: soy. You can use it if you’d like, but there are some distinct differences to the sauces that will be noticeable in the substitute.
Beef Boullion
Recommended usage: 3:1 tablespoons
There are a few different recipes that you can try using beef bullion. This soy sauce substitute takes about 10 minutes to make, so if you have some time feel free to try this one out.
Genius Kitchen recommends mixing beef bouillon granules in with water, cider vinegar, molasses, and pepper. All you really need to do here is mix in the water and the beef bouillon before adding in the rest of the ingredients. Ten minutes later you’ll have a great soy sauce substitute.
Healthy Substitutes
There are a few different recipes you can that are healthy soy sauce substitutes. For example, this one from Wellness Mama suggests that you mix an assortment of ingredients like beef bone broth, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and garlic. The recipe here only takes about ten minutes to make too!
Taste Essence also offers a bunch of different healthy recipes that you can try! They don’t call for very many ingredients or cook time so these ones here are great soy sauce substitutes when you’re looking for a healthy option while also keeping minimizing time in the kitchen.
Now, these won’t replace the distinct taste of soy sauce, but these soy sauce substitutes are great ways to emulate the taste in a healthy way!