Vegan Fish Sauce
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This Vegan Fish Sauce can be used to mimic the traditional version, a staple of Southeast Asian cooking, with an equally savory, salty, and pungent flavor profile.
Ingredients
  • 3 cups water
  • ½ cup soy sauce
  • 4-5 whole dried shiitake mushrooms (around 10g)
  • 3 large sheets of nori seaweed, torn into pieces
  • ¼ cup wakame seaweed (around 6-7g) or the same amount of kombu kelp or a combination of both
  • 1 shallot (or small onion), roughy chopped
  • 1 large clove of garlic, smashed
  • 15 peppercorns
  • 2 teaspoons tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon miso
  • ¾ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
  1. Put everything into a medium pot and bring it to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover with a lid.
  2. Simmer on low for 20 minutes to extract all of the flavors out of the ingredients. When done, you'll want to clarify the liquid, as it will have become slightly cloudy. Simply pour it all through a fine cheesecloth or coffee filter and let the liquid drip through. You can help it along by pressing the solids gently with the back of a spoon.
  3. After it is all drained, transfer your homemade vegan fish sauce to an airtight jar or bottle and put it in the fridge until you are ready to use it. Because of the high salt content, it lasts in the fridge.
Notes
-This recipe makes around 2½ - 3 cups of finished vegan fish sauce

-Use full sheets of nori---the size you would use to make sushi. (8 inch x 7.5 inch -- 20cm x 19cm)

-If you're not familiar with wakame seaweed, it's the kind that is floating around in miso soup, so you've probably eaten it many times! Kombu kelp is the seaweed that is used to flavor dashi, the stock that is an essential building block of Japanese cuisine.

-Make a quick dipping sauce for spring rolls, tofu, or veggies by mixing 1 Tablespoon of this fish sauce with 1 Tablespoon of lime juice, a little lime zest, 1 teaspoon sriracha, 1 teaspoon sugar (or sweetener of choice), and a pinch of any fresh herbs you have on hand (cilantro, mint, basil).
Recipe by Lands & Flavors at https://www.landsandflavors.com/vegan-fish-sauce/