Homemade soy sauce. How soy sauce is made: light, dark and sweet and what it is eaten with

19.08.2019 Seafood dishes

Soy sauce has firmly entered our life with the advent of rolls and sushi in Russia. But over time, it began to be used as a dressing and for other dishes. Its exotic taste makes you take a fresh look at the usual delicacies. But what if he was not at hand at the right time? How to replace soy sauce in a recipe?

Find out how to replace soy sauce and you will discover a new flavor of familiar dishes.

How to make soy sauce instead of purchased one

Buying soy sauce is not a problem. On the shelves of the supermarket, you will definitely find the coveted bottle. But the trouble is: it contains a lot of harmful substances. For example, monosodium glutamate. And many people don't like the specific taste of this product. How can you replace soy sauce in this case? Make your own. To do this, take:

  • soybeans - 120 g;
  • wheat flour - 1 tbsp. the spoon;
  • butter - 2 tbsp. spoons;
  • vegetable broth (preferably mushrooms) - 50 ml;
  • salt (preferably sea salt).

Puree the boiled soybeans. Add all other components to it. Then simmer the mixture over the fire until it starts to boil.

Allow the product to cool. It can be served not only with Japanese dishes, but also with meat, fish, or added to a vegetable stew.

How to replace soy sauce at home?

There are other ways to recreate the taste of an exotic product. A 100% analogy will not work, but oriental notes will be felt very distinctly.

How to replace soy sauce in marinade? Components familiar to us. For instance:

  • mayonnaise "Provencal" - 50 g;
  • water - 50 g;
  • lemon juice - 1 tsp;
  • ground red and black pepper to taste.

Stir the mixture until smooth. This dressing goes well with barbecue.

Vinegar with other products can also act as an analogue of an oriental dressing. How to replace soy sauce with balsamic vinegar? To do this, mix it with unrefined olive oil and add mustard powder to the solution.

And for salads, there is another dressing option:

  • vegetable oil;
  • apple vinegar;
  • garlic;
  • spice.

Bring the oil to a boil and pour finely chopped garlic into it. Wait until it changes color and turn off the heat. Add spices and apple cider vinegar to this mixture. The sauce should cool down, only then you can season salads with it.

Lovers of rolls and sushi rarely do without special spices: wasabi and soy sauce. Our article will be about soy sauce, because it is used not only for Japanese food, but also for preparing various dishes. Some replace salt with it, others eat it with rice, water fish or meat, and still others use soy sauce for fish, mushrooms, barbecue.

Soy sauce recipe

Making a real version of soy at home is very difficult and almost impossible. It is prepared by fermenting for several months using a ferment based on the Koji fungus, which can hardly be found even in large supermarkets. But on the other hand, it is easy to prepare an analogue that will be more natural and healthier than a store-bought sauce. And it doesn't take long to cook it.

Classic soy sauce

What you need:

  • 300 g soybeans;
  • 4 large spoons of butter;
  • 4 tablespoons chicken broth, or
  • sea \u200b\u200bor ordinary salt according to your taste;
  • a couple of large spoons of flour.

How to do:

  1. The legumes should be soaked in water for 12 hours.
  2. Drain, cover with clean water and cook for 90 minutes.
  3. Pour the liquid and mash the soybeans.
  4. Put melted butter, broth, salt, flour to them, mixing thoroughly.
  5. Put the mixture on the stove and bring to a boil, cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring often.
  6. If you want the sauce to be thin, you can add more broth.

Sweet soy sauce

What you need:

  • 200 g soybeans;
  • a pinch of cinnamon;
  • ginger root;
  • a spoonful of granulated sugar;
  • leeks to taste;
  • 350 ml sherry;
  • some orange peel and anise.

How to cook:

  1. Grate the zest and ginger.
  2. Put all the ingredients in a saucepan, pour over the wine.
  3. Cook for about 60 minutes over low heat.
  4. Strain the sauce and place in a glass dish.
  5. This sauce is stored for no more than 30 days. It can be used for various dishes, and also as a base for sweet and sour sauce.

Garlic soy sauce

For those who like the sauce to be spicy and spicy, you can suggest the following cooking recipe. The simplest thing is to buy ready-made soy sauce in the store, add to it a little vegetable oil, for example, olive oil and garlic, passed through a press, to taste. Mix thoroughly and the hot sauce is ready.

Garlic soy sauce

What is necessary:

  • 200 g of soy;
  • 2 tablespoons flour;
  • 40 g;
  • sea \u200b\u200bsalt to taste;
  • a couple of garlic cloves;
  • small onion;
  • 100 ml of broth;
  • hot Japanese pepper Shichimi Togorashi or simple hot pepper to taste;
  • 400 g

How to cook:

  1. Soy sauce is prepared in the same way as in the first version. Soy is boiled, kneaded, mixed with butter, broth, flour, salt and brought to a boil.
  2. Cool the sauce a little.
  3. Separately in a blender, grind the onion, pepper, garlic, adding mayonnaise.
  4. Ready soy sauce is poured into the mixture and everything is thoroughly whipped.
  5. Leave for 30-40 minutes to infuse, and can be served on the table with various dishes: rice, fish and meat dishes, can be used as a salad dressing.

Soy sauce every day it becomes more and more popular in our territory. The product contains only 4 ingredients: salt, water, soy and wheat. Soy sauce is a dark brown liquid with a pungent aroma. It appeared many years ago, but the technology has remained unchanged. First, soybeans are steamed or boiled in water, and then combined with flour, salted and sent for a long time for fermentation. The whole process can take from 40 days to 3 years. At the end of the time, the sauce becomes mature and soft. After that, the soy sauce is strained for filtration and then distributed among the jars. There are no preservatives or flavors in real soy sauce. Today, thanks to the accelerated protein breakdown technology, the time for making soy sauce has been significantly reduced.

Today there are 2 main types of soy sauce:

  1. The dark version has a thick consistency, which arises from long exposure. It is used most often for marinating meat, fish and poultry.
  2. The lighter version is more liquid. It is used to vary the flavor of side dishes and other dishes. In addition, other dressings and marinades are prepared on the basis of soy sauce.

How to choose and store?

Due to the popularity of soy sauce, more and more manufacturers have begun to counterfeit it. Pay attention to the composition, there should not be any preservatives or flavorings. Opt for glass bottle options as you can see the contents. Natural soy sauce has a delicate, delicate taste and a bright aftertaste. A quality product has a transparent red-brown color (see photo). If the consistency is thick and similar to syrup, this is a fake. Good quality soy sauce should be free of sediment. Since the product is a protein source, this must be indicated on the label. A quality sauce should have about 7 g per 100 g.

If you have opened a bottle of soy sauce, keep it in the refrigerator, out of heat and direct sunlight. A quality product can keep its freshness for 2 years.

Beneficial features

The benefits of soy sauce include vitamins, minerals and amino acids. The product actively combats premature aging, and it also reduces the risk of cancer. With regular use of soy sauce, microcirculation in tissues improves, and the walls of blood vessels are strengthened. The product improves the functioning of the nervous system and resists the development of pathologies such as Parkinson's disease. With regular use, you can get rid of insomnia and headaches.

Soy sauce contains protein that is beneficial for those who are allergic to animal proteins. The product is useful for people who have problems with the cardiovascular system, for example, ischemic disease, atherosclerosis, etc. It is allowed and will be useful to use soy sauce for people who are obese and diabetics. In addition, soy sauce has a positive effect on the general condition of the body, helps to cope with muscle pain and swelling. It helps women to reduce pain during menstruation, and also improves the condition with menopause.

Cooking use

Soy sauce is very popular in cooking, as it imparts an original spicy flavor to various dishes. On its basis, various sauces are prepared, for example, mushroom or shrimp. Soy sauce is an excellent marinade suitable for fish, meat, seafood and vegetables.

How to make soy sauce at home?

Homemade sauce will differ from the original, but you will also get a tasty and healthy product. To do this, you need to take 150 g of soybeans, 100 ml of chicken broth, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of flour and sea salt. The beans should be boiled until tender and then crushed into a gruel. Then the resulting puree should be mixed with flour, broth and salt, put on fire and brought to a boil.

Harm of soy sauce and contraindications

Soy sauce can be harmful when consumed in large quantities, as it can cause the development of kidney stones and hypertension. The sauce can bring irreparable harm if you use fakes and low-quality options. When using the sauce in large quantities, you can notice a negative effect on the endocrine system. It is worth refusing to use if you have an individual intolerance to the product. Pregnant women are not allowed to consume soy sauce.

Soy sauce is considered the most important component of any Asian dish, because it gives the food a spicy aroma, attractive color and bright taste. The mixture allows you to remove salt from the diet, and, if necessary, plays the role of a marinade for meat, fish, vegetables, and so on. True, such a product is not always at hand, and then a reasonable question arises about a suitable replacement. This will be discussed in the article "How to replace soy sauce: traditional and non-standard options."

The appearance of the sauce is associated with the ancient monks of China, who abandoned dairy and meat dishes in favor of soybeans, creating a mixture for vegetables from it a little later. Then the product migrated to Japan, and its modern recipe was invented in this country in the 18th century. The Dutch were the first Europeans to taste the sauce, but the popularity of soy marinade came in the middle of the 20th century. In Russia, the mass began to be consumed from the 90s.

In this article, you will learn:

How soy sauce is made

How to replace soy sauce

Before thinking about how to replace soy sauce in a recipe, it is worth learning about the intricacies of its industrial production. The mixture is formed during the fermentation of ripened beans, which have undergone the evaporation procedure, and wheat grains. Today, several production technologies are used:

  • Natural fermentation. This is the most correct production, but a long one - from six months to 2 years. Aging products without the use of accelerators allows you to get the most expensive and rare sauce.
  • Accelerated natural fermentation. In industrial production, fermentation is often accelerated by adding the Aspergillus fungus to the mixture, which is responsible for the natural fermentation process when ingested from the air. Ready sauce can be obtained in less than a month.
  • Acid hydrolysis. The technological process here is as cheap and fast as possible. Soybeans are boiled with acid (hydrochloric or sulfuric) and alkali is added to reduce the acid reaction.
  • Dilution of the concentrate. Prepared by any of the above methods, the sauce is simply diluted with water and distributed in bottles.

It should also be noted that there are two types of soy sauce. Darker, higher in calories, has a maximum exposure and is cooked without salt. Due to its high concentration and sharp aroma, it is used for marinade for meat and fish. The light soy sauce is almost transparent and odor-neutral, and due to the salt it is not as tart as the dark analogue. It is light concentrate that is most often used in cooking; it is especially popular to use it as a salad dressing. Thus , a soy sauce replica made at home can be like one of two variations.

How to replace soy sauce

The options for replacing soy sauce are closely related to which dish was originally planned to be served with it. The easiest way is to use a ready-made product (although not soy), purchased at the nearest store. On the shelf next to traditional mustard and ketchup (which, under certain conditions, are also suitable for replacing sauce, usually in meat and poultry dishes), you can always find sauces such as:

  • tamari is a Japanese dark concoction that tastes like soy and contains a lot of salt and little wheat.
  • sweet and sour - based on different ingredients, most often ginger, different varieties of pepper and sugar;
  • coconut amino - gluten-free analogue with sea salt and sweet aroma;
  • thai - a red product for fish without gluten and soy protein, but with a lot of salt;
  • worcestershire - an expensive analogue based on soy, onion, garlic and chili, which must be diluted with water in a ratio of 3: 1;
  • teriyaki - a mixture of soy sauce (and sometimes rice vodka) with brown sugar, which has the ability to caramelize the baked dish;
  • unagi - a mass based on rice and white wines with the addition of soy and Japanese seasoning - dry fish broth.

These are the most popular alternatives to soy sauce, found in supermarkets and then served with a variety of Asian dishes, as well as culinary delights of seafood, pork and chicken.

How to replace soy sauce at home

If there is no way to go to the store, you need to look for other ways to solve the problem in the absence of soy sauce and mix the ingredients that are on the shelves:

  • When combining fat-free mayonnaise and adjika in equal proportions, you get an excellent alternative dressing for main courses, both meat and vegetables.
  • Another option is made on the basis of garlic as a vegetable dressing (for example, in a salad). The clove is chopped and fried in hot oil in a skillet, adding salt and pepper as desired. After the oil has cooled, it is recommended to pour in a couple of drops of apple cider vinegar.
  • Vegetarians will love the vegetable broth sauce substitute. One and a half cups of liquid are diluted in equal proportions with boiling water. Then add 4 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, a spoonful of dark molasses, a small spoonful of sesame oil, a quarter of a coffee spoon of chopped ginger, pepper and salt to taste. The whole mixture is left to cool or boiled to thicken.

What can replace soy sauce for rolls and sushi

  • The easiest soy sauce substitute for sushi and maki is made with 100 grams of water, the same amount of mayonnaise, and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. Peppers are also added to this mixture to taste.
  • If you have hot baked rolls, you can try a dressing based on mustard powder, unrefined olive oil and balsamic or table vinegar.
  • For most sushi, a mixture of a salty decoction of dried mushrooms will work. It is best to use shiitake, and when the broth has cooled, add some garlic and vegetable oil, and curry to taste.
  • You can also boil thick beef broth, dilute it in the desired ratio with salt, and then add any seasonings and spices to taste. Most often, housewives add different types of vinegar (balsamic, white, apple, red), flour, wine, black and white peppers, garlic powder, ground ginger, corn syrup or sugar syrup.


When answering the question "How to replace soy sauce for sushi?" it is important to focus on your own taste preferences. Usually rolls go well with nut mix, teriyaki and unagi, and can be ordered in small quantities immediately when purchasing rolls.

What can replace soy sauce for meat

For meat (as well as for rice dishes), you need to make not just a dressing, but a juicy and aromatic marinade. Most alternative sauce replacements involve creating rather savory mixtures:

  • The liquid in which olives have been canned (as well as a similar olive pickle) is great for adding spicy notes to any meat dish (especially a stew). Onion rings can be added to this mass if desired, but they must be pickled for a whole day.
  • For a kebab, you can make a sauce from mayonnaise, water, lemon juice and a mixture of black and red peppers. Plum vinegar and salt can also be added to give these dishes a unique flavor.
  • How to replace the sauce to add not only salty, but also sweet notes to the dish? Combine 90 ml of balsamic vinegar and 240 ml of molasses. Then add granulated sugar, focusing on your own sweetness preferences. Stir and cook the marinade meat.
  • Try a dressing with red wine vinegar. A quarter cup of this liquid is mixed with the same volume of honey and 3 cups of water. Also pour in a quarter of a coffee spoon of ground ginger, the same amount of dry garlic and black pepper, a little more salt. All this mixture is put on fire, after boiling, it is left on the stove for 20 minutes.

How to make soy sauce at home


  1. Soak 100-150 grams of soy overnight. In the morning, boil the beans for 1.5 hours and add 2 tablespoons of chicken broth to the finished soybean gruel. Also add sea salt and a spoonful of wheat flour to taste. Stir the mixture, put on fire. After boiling, keep on the stove for 5 minutes.
  2. To make your homemade soy sauce recipe sparkle with new colors, you can add different seasonings to it. To the previous option, it is enough to add a ground mixture of garlic cloves, onions, mayonnaise and hot Japanese pepper. This recipe is perfect for creating honey-soy marinade in the best traditions of the East.
  3. A quick option can be obtained based on ready-made monosodium glutamate. This flavor enhancer is available at the store and simply needs to be diluted in water. Sea salt is added to the mixture, and then a crust of rye bread is added to add a dark color and aroma. You can also buy soy concentrate in a briquette, soak it in hot water and boil it. Then salt, glutamate, sugar and vinegar are also added to the mixture.
  4. Sweet soy sauce can be made with original spices. Rub the ginger root (about 1.5 cm) and the zest of one orange. In a saucepan, send the grated mass, as well as finely chopped leeks, 100 g of sugar, 50 ml of wine or sherry, soy, ground cinnamon and anise. Boil the mixture for an hour over low heat, then strain.
  5. Hot soy sauce is made from red peppers. First, you should soak 120 g of soybeans overnight and boil them. In a blender, soy is turned into porridge, salt to taste, hot pepper and 50 ml of chicken broth are added. Gently add 50 g of rye flour to the mixture, ground onion and garlic in a blender. At the end, 160 ml of mayonnaise is poured in. Boil the liquid over low heat for 3 minutes after boiling.

Japanese dishes have long ceased to be exotic and are firmly rooted in our kitchen. Many people make sushi, rolls, sashimi at home, but we continue to buy soy sauce. Making soy sauce yourself is a tricky task, but the more interesting it is to solve. In addition, a properly prepared sauce is very useful, since it contains sea salt, and lactic acid bacteria are formed during fermentation.

This sauce can be used not only with Asian dishes - it will accentuate the aroma and give a new taste to the most common salads, vegetable stews, fish or meat. The sauce does not require special storage conditions and at the same time retains a piquant aroma and pungent taste for a long time. If you are deciding how to make soy sauce at home, you will be interested to know how it works in Japan.

Japanese soy sauce

Wheat and soybeans are cleaned and boiled, a solution with sea salt and Koji fungus (sourdough) is added. The fermentation process takes place in the resulting mixture for two to three months, then it is filtered and boiled to kill bacteria. Depending on the salt content and the intensity of the taste, the Japanese distinguish three types of sauce:

  • Koi-kuchi - very salty and dark sauce;
  • Ushi-kuti - it has a less intense taste;
  • Tamarin is an almost salty, very delicate soy sauce with a rich bean flavor.

If you are not ready to experiment and will buy store-bought soy sauce, try to read the label carefully. Remember: this sauce is made only by natural fermentation and does not contain monosodium glutamate (E621) and preservatives.

Homemade soy sauce

It is rather difficult to find the Koji fungus in our supermarkets, so it will not be possible to repeat the Japanese technology, but the soy sauce for which we offer is in no way inferior to the original. You will need:

  • soybeans - 100-150 g;
  • butter - 2 tablespoons;
  • clarified chicken broth - 2 tablespoons;
  • wheat flour - 1 tablespoon;
  • sea \u200b\u200bsalt to taste.

The cooking technology is as follows:

  1. Boil the beans in a little boiling water.
  2. Strain and mash with a ladle.
  3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.
  4. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

You see how simple and accessible everything is. This self-made sauce from natural ingredients will add richness to the taste of meat, fish, rice and many other dishes. This is a great analogue of store-bought ketchup and mayonnaise. If you still find it difficult to decide how to make soy sauce, photos and videos posted on the Internet will help you better understand the cooking process.