Vegan Fish Sauce Substitute (Recipe #167)

Cooking through the Vegan for Everybody cookbook has opened my eyes to a whole new world of products. The cookbook highlights liquid aminos as a fish sauce substitute. It also suggests making your own substitute with just a couple ingredients. The recipe calls for water, salt, soy sauce, and dried shiitake mushrooms. I put all of that in a pan and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. The idea is to make sure that the liquid reduces by half.

I feel that this recipe tastes very similar to the liquid aminos, but not exact. I feel that the liquid aminos has a “meatier” flavor. I think they both are very similar in regards to saltiness and savoriness. I also think that the homemade substitute does taste more like mushrooms than the liquid aminos. I don’t think the differences will cause any problems when using it in a recipe because there is a lot of the basic flavor that is similar.

I really liked trying to make my own fish sauce substitute because everytime I make something out of the basic, raw ingredients I learn something. It helps me to understand more of the process. It also boils down the product into what should be in it. I did not add any preservatives or extras to this substitute. I think it is really great to make what you can at home to have complete control over what you are consuming.

Taste: As compared to Bragg’s Liquid Aminos 8/10

Level of difficulty: 1/5

Notes for next time: I felt the Bragg’s liquid aminos was a little more “meatier.” I wonder if adding something like liquid smoke would help.