Homemade Vegan Oyster Sauce
This homemade vegan oyster sauce looks, tastes, and smells like oyster sauce, but is completely free of shellfish. It's also gluten-free, has a soy-free option, and is made with a handful of simple ingredients.
Ingredients
- 5 dried shiitake mushrooms about 10 grams or .35 ounces
- 1 cup boiling water
- ⅔ cup brown sugar or coconut sugar
- ½ cup soy sauce or tamari or coconut aminos for soy-free, see notes
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, to taste see notes
Slurry
- 1 tablespoons tapioca starch/flour or substitute, see notes below
- 2 tablespoons cold water
Instructions
- Soak the shiitake mushrooms in 1 cup of boiling water to soften them for about 10-15 minutes. Add both the mushrooms and the brothy water to a blender. Blend on high until smooth.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, mix together the blended mushroom liquid, brown sugar, soy sauce or tamari, and kosher salt. Make the slurry by adding the starch to a small bowl with the cold water. Whisk until the starch has completely dissolved.
- Stir in the slurry and continuously whisk until the sugar has dissolved, then reduce the heat to medium-low and keep stirring until the sauce has thickened and reached your desired consistency. It'll continue to thicken as it cools.
- Transfer to a clean glass jar and let cool completely before storing in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or the freezer for 2-3 months.
Notes
This recipe makes 1 ¾ cups of sauce.
If not using diamond crystal kosher salt, reduce the amount by half.
SUBSTITUTIONS:
No dried mushrooms? - if you absolutely can't find dried mushrooms, you can use mushroom powder (1-2 teaspoons).
Soy-free? - use coconut aminos, but decrease the amount of sugar to ½ cup and increase the amount of salt since it's nowhere near as salty as soy sauce to 1½ to 2 teaspoons kosher salt.
Gluten-free? - be sure to use tamari or coconut aminos (soy-free).
No brown sugar? - sub another granulated sugar such as coconut sugar or cane sugar.
No tapioca starch/flour? - use cornstarch or arrowroot powder instead.