When sushi appeared on the shelves of our stores from the mid-90s of the last century, soy sauce began to be sold along with them. This brown liquid gives a fresh, inexpressive dish a piquant taste and oriental notes. Later soy sauce began to be used for other purposes. In particular, the cooks noticed that it softens the fibers of meat well, which makes it an ideal ingredient in marinades.
Now it’s hard to imagine the food of modern man without soy sauce. In shops, you can now find variations with mushrooms, ginger, wasabi, various spices. Soy sauce allows you to put less salt in the dish, gives the dishes an expressive taste, pleasant color and oriental aroma. But this product also has a lot of disadvantages.
The soy sauce sold in our bottles is too cheap to be of high quality. It contains many preservatives, as well as monosodium glutamate, which is potentially harmful to the human body. Therefore, housewives who monitor the health of households are looking for ways to replace soy sauce. Home-made recipes for this product will be covered in our article.
What you need to know about soy sauce
Buddhist monks believe that a life dedicated to God should be harsh and full of food restrictions. Many of them completely refuse to eat meat. To give expressiveness to fresh vegetable dishes, monks from China came up with soy sauce. He later went to Japan, where the recipe was finalized.
A modern version of soy sauce appeared around the 18th century. The Dutch, who were the first of the Europeans to try it, brought the recipe to their homeland. But due to the exotic nature of the ingredients, soy sauce has long remained unknown to the general population. And only in the second half of the 20th century did he gain well-deserved popularity. Before thinking about how to replace soy sauce in a recipe, we need to understand what it actually is. This is an extract obtained from the fermentation of beans with the addition of wheat.
Is any soy sauce harmful?
Despite the strict vegetarian diet of Buddhist monks, their average life expectancy is more than enviable. Frequent use of properly cooked sauce is very beneficial. After all, soy contains:
- antioxidants that inhibit the aging process, strengthen immunity, bind free radicals and reduce the risk of cancer,
- the substance genistein contained in beans lowers blood sugar and is used to treat type 2 diabetes; beneficial effect on the liver, helps prevent osteoporosis,
- isoflavone daidzein is very useful for women in the postmenopausal period, it reduces the risk of breast cancer; in men, this substance prevents baldness,
- daily intake of a small amount of sauce (oral) treats dermatitis,
- soy protein cleanses the walls of blood vessels, lowers blood pressure, removes cholesterol from the body.
But all of the above is true if the sauce was made according to traditional recipes. Unfortunately, this can not be said about a cheap store product. Therefore, we must think about how to replace soy sauce in the recipe, where it appears in the list of ingredients.
Is it possible to make a quality product at home?
How to ferment beans? This technology was invented in China before our era. At first, soy sauce was very expensive. And this is not surprising. Indeed, for the natural fermentation of soybeans and wheat grains, it takes from six months to two years. Then people noticed that sometimes the cooking process suddenly accelerates. The culprit is the Aspergillus fungus, which, having penetrated by air into the mixture, plays the role of a fermentation catalyst. Manufacturers began to add bacteria to the solution artificially. But in this case, the sauce is prepared within a month.
Modern manufacturers of cheap ersatz product use the dubious technology of acid hydrolysis. It allows you to get the sauce in a couple of hours. Beans are boiled with hydrochloric or sulfuric acid, and then this lethal mixture for the body is neutralized with alkali. Having learned the recipe for the preparation of a purchased product, you will even want to know how to replace soy sauce at home.
Cooking yourself
We don’t have to wait six months or even a month. Here is a sauce recipe that will be as close as possible to soy in terms of taste. And most importantly, it will have the same useful properties. After all, the basis for homemade dressing is soybeans (120 grams). We will boil them until soft and mashed. Then add:
- two tablespoons of butter,
- one tablespoon of wheat flour
- a pinch of sea salt
- and 50 milliliters of mushroom (or vegetable) broth.
Knead the mixture well. Put it on a small fire, bring to a boil. Let’s cool. We got an analogue of soy sauce. How can I replace a purchased product at home? Here is this homemade soy sauce. True, in it, unlike the present, prepared according to all the rules, salt is present. But the food product did not come into contact with hazardous acid and alkali!
How to replace soy sauce in the recipe: dressing options
Oriental culinary specialists have come up with a lot of sauces that will give your dishes an oriental touch. In some of them there is an extract from soy, in others - not. By the way, a brown liquid with a characteristic taste and aroma is reminiscent of English Worcestershire sauce. It is also based on soy, but many more ingredients are added to it, such as onions, garlic and chili peppers. Worcestershire sauce is very thick and needs to be diluted with water in proportions of 3 to 1.
But do you want to give your dish an oriental sound? Many dressings, similar to soy sauce, were invented by the Japanese. These are tamari (characterized by a large amount of salt), teriyaki (caramelizes products due to the content of cane sugar), unagi (white and rice wine with the addition of dry fish broth and soy). But you can take advantage of the inventions of culinary specialists in Southeast Asia. Coconut amino is very similar, although a bit sweet. Thai sauce is ideal for fish, but it has a lot of salt. It looks like soy Chinese sweet and sour dressing made from ginger, sugar and a mixture of peppers.
Salad dressings
Before puzzling over how to replace soy sauce in a recipe, you need to decide what we need it for. After all, this product is used for different purposes. It pickles meat and poultry. It is used as dressing in salads. Hot vegetable dishes are prepared with him. Consider the options for salad dressings.
First: mix balsamic vinegar to taste with olive oil. Thicken with mustard powder.
The second option: bring the vegetable oil to a boil. Pour garlic cloves through a press into it. The oil should darken. Turn off the fire. Pour apple cider vinegar and spices to taste. Cooling the gas station.
Option three: mix equal amounts of adjika and mayonnaise. Add spices and a little salt.
How to replace soy sauce in a chicken recipe
Poultry does not need pickling. But chicken is very tasty with soy sauce.
- If we are looking for a replacement for the last product, we can take one and a half cups of rich broth and dilute it with the same amount of boiling water.
- Add to this liquid four tablespoons of vinegar, one of dark molasses (or colorizer), a little sesame oil, a pinch of ginger, salt, pepper and other spices.
- Stir and boil until thickened.
- An excellent chicken sauce will come from a rich broth of mushrooms (especially shiitake).
- When the liquid cools a little, but is still warm, add a little vegetable oil, a couple of chopped cloves of garlic and curry.
For meat dishes
Most often, recipes include the use of soy as a marinade. But sometimes you can find sauce as an ingredient in cooking. It gives meat a special flavor. How to replace soy sauce in the recipe for such dishes? There are not many options.
- Dilute 50 grams of Provence mayonnaise with 50 ml of water.
- Add a pinch of black and hot red peppers.
- Pour a teaspoon of lemon juice. You get a good sauce for cold boiled pork or beef dishes. But in this mixture it is equally good to pickle kebab.
- Boil the broth for beef.
- Add salt, ginger, corn syrup, peppers to it, thicken with flour.
- Pour some vinegar or table wine.
Marinade ideas
The easiest, but longest way to replace soy sauce in a meat recipe is to take the liquid from the canned olives and chop the onions into it. Let it brew for a day. In this liquid, it is good to pickle lamb skewers.
Option two: to a glass of molasses add about 90 milliliters of balsamic vinegar. Pour sugar and stir until crystals are dissolved. Option three: 50 milliliters of wine vinegar and honey are mixed with three cups of water. Add a coffee spoon of ginger, a pinch of salt, pepper and dry garlic. Cook over low heat after boiling for 20 minutes.