The BEST Vegan Fish Sauce (Easy & Delicious). - The Korean Vegan (2024)

Easy. Powerful. Delicious.

This vegan fish sauce recipe will catapult to the top of your list of favorite condiments. Easy to make but packing incredible savory flavor, this delicious sauce will be the secret weapon to your vegan pho, your vegetable stir fry, and, most importantly, the Best Vegan Kimchi you’ll ever eat.

What Is Fish Sauce?

If you love Asian cuisine, you’ve probably come across fish sauce at some point. With its depth of flavor and its capacity to promote fermentation, fish sauce often plays a big role in imparting not just fishy flavor, but elevating the flavors of all the other ingredients in your dish.

Fish sauce or 엑젓 is also one of the most prevalent ingredients in Korean cuisine. The key ingredient of traditional fish sauce (for Korean food, at least) is fermented anchovy, that small fish you sometimes see inside a tin container at the grocery store. The second ingredient to Korean fish sauce is fine sea salt. As you might expect, fish sauce carries both a pungent flavor and fishy scent. This is particularly so of the Korean variety, which tends to have a more intense flavor than the sweeter, more delicate version found in Vietnamese food and Thai cooking.

Is it possible to make Korean food without real fish sauce? Sure, but I’ve got good news: with this vegan fish sauce recipe in your arsenal, you won’t have to! Creating a homemade vegan fish sauce was one of the first things I tackled when I adopted a vegan diet (to make vegan kimchi, duh!). One of the best compliments I’ve ever received on all my recipes was the one from my mother who, after trying my vegan version of fish sauce, gave it a good sniff before adding it to our kimchi and whispered,

“Wow. That tastes like actual fish sauce! How did you do this?”

Why You’ll Love This Recipe for Vegan Fish Sauce.

• So EASY. This recipe takes just a few minutes of prep time. The rest of the magic happens on the stovetop (which requires no labor from you)!
• Gluten-Free Friendly. Just swap the soy sauce out with gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos and add a few more mushrooms in place of the oyster mushroom sauce and this recipe is gluten-free!
• Versatile. You’ll want to use this vegan fish sauce in everything! Obviously, use it to make the Best Vegan Kimchi, but you can also add it to so many different recipes, like fried rice, braised tofu, and even doenjang chigae!
• Tastes and Acts Like Real Fish Sauce. The best thing about this recipe is that it actually tastes and acts like real fish sauce. One of the reasons fish sauce is such an important component of so many Korean dishes is not just its taste, but its capacity for promoting fermentation. The inclusion of soy sauce and multiple vinegars mimics that property.

How to Make Vegan Fish Sauce Taste Like The Real Thing.

If you’ve never had any fish sauce–vegan or otherwise–this is what it tastes like, in order of prominence:

• Fishy
• Salty
• Sour
• Sweet

Thus, in creating a vegan fish sauce alternative, we need to replicate and balance the above four flavors. There are two keys to a high quality vegan alternative to regular fish sauce: the right ingredients and time. That’s right–you’re going to need to boil your ingredients for a very long time. The good news is, once you get all your ingredients together, there aren’t a lot of steps involved. Just boil and strain!

You’ll discover that many of the items that make up this vegan fish sauce are actually common ingredients (e.g., soy sauce, vinegar, mushrooms) that, when mixed together, create that complex flavor, the one you can’t really put your finger on, but is so prevalent in your favorite Asian recipes. This flavor profile is sometimes referred to as an “umami flavor.” What does “umami” actually refer to, though? Some people describe umami as a “savory taste,” but I like to think of it more as what it makes me do–crinkle up my nose and start salivating. That’s the reaction we’re aiming for with this vegan fish sauce.

Ingredients for this Vegan Fish Sauce and Notes on Substitutions.

The following are the key ingredients to this Vegan Fish Sauce:

• Soy Sauce. Soy sauce serves as the base for this vegan fish sauce recipe. Not only does it check off “salty” in the above flavor checklist, it’s fermented, just like the anchovies in Korean fish sauce. As a fermented ingredient, it also promotes fermentation in what it’s added to (like kimchi!). Finally, Korean fish sauce is a light brown color and since most people also eat with their eyes, soy sauce’s color helps to replicate the look and feel of actual fish sauce. In that regard, Korean soup soy sauce is a great option (this one is gluten free), since it’s saltier than regular soy sauce, but lighter in color. If you can’t use soy sauce, coconut aminos are your best bet.
• Seaweed and Kelp. You can use all different kinds of seaweed for this fish sauce recipe. Just a stroll down the “laver” aisle of your local Asian supermarket will reveal a whole new world of sea plants. Which kind of seaweed should you use? Wakame seaweed (or undaria) or dulse seaweed are both good options for this recipe (I use wakame). I also use dashima or dried kelp to intensify the fishy flavor of this vegan fish sauce.
• Mushrooms. Believe it or not, many varieties of mushroom also impart a fish-forward flavor. For example, dried shiitake mushrooms, combined with oyster and enoki mushrooms, can help develop that umami-induced “crinkle your nose” effect we discussed above. To intensify the umami, this recipe also includes vegetarian “oyster sauce,” which is made primarily out of oyster mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms. If you can’t find vegetarian oyster sauce, just throw in a few more mushrooms.
• Shallots. Shallots aren’t exactly fishy, but they pack a ton of umami (try making your red sauce with shallots next time–you’ll know exactly what I mean). Like fish sauce, shallots also impart a hint of sweetness that balances the bold saltiness of the soy sauce and also pairs exceptionally well with the delicate fishiness of the seaweed.
• Vinegar and Mirin. In addition to fishy and salty, we need to tackle sour. That’s where vinegar and mirin (rice wine) comes in. Like soy sauce, vinegar is both fermented and fermenting and is therefore a logical component of any vegan fish sauce (which is also fermented and fermenting). This vegan fish sauce includes both balsamic and rice vinegar, as well as mirin, all of which remind me a great deal of regular fish sauce in that they are sour and also a little sweet. These are also available at most regular grocery stores.
• Korean Apple Pear. The apple pear does a wonderful job of providing just a little bit of sweetness to this vegan fish sauce. If you can’t find Korean apple pear, you can substitute a Fuji apple or any other sweet apple.

Step-by-Step Guide to Making Vegan Fish Sauce.

First, add all of your ingredients to a small saucepan, together with filtered water. Bring the entire mixture to a boil and reduce your heat and allow the liquid to simmer until it has reduced considerably from the original volume (about 90 minutes to 2 hours). Turn off your burner and set the mixture aside to cool completely.

TIP: Thoroughly wash your shallot, garlic cloves, and apple pear with the peels on. Do not remove the peels when you add them to the pot–the peels will exponentially increase the amount of flavor imparted by these ingredients.

Once your liquid has cooled, strain it through a sieve, strainer, or chinois (my husband actually bought me a chinois for Christmas one year and it remains one of my favorite gifts of all time!!) into an airtight container (I usually use an 12 ounce mason jar).

Stick that bad boy in the fridge and you’ll be set with the best vegan fish sauce for your vegan kimchi, vegetable stir-fries, dumpling dipping sauce, and all manner of your favorite Asian fare!

Frequently Asked Questions.

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