A day of Experimentation with "un" soy sauce!

This afternoon I was excited to finally try out an amazing new recipe my friend had sent me.  I happily pulled out the recipe box, collected up the ingredients, and came….. to a screeching halt.  Yep, there was an ingredient, a rather important one at that, which was something I could not use, due to the Gluten and soy it normally contains.  So, being the resourceful person I am, I started hunting for alternatives.  This led me on a windy little road of exploration and experimentation.

The problem child for the day was Soy sauce, or more specifically, Tamari.  Tamari is made with more soybeans, resulting in a smoother, more balanced, and complex flavor than the typical soy sauce seen in most restaurants and stores.  Okay, that was your food lesson for today, let's get back to the ingredient problem. ;)  My new recipe needed Tamari and I had none I could use, so I must create one. Oh joy!  I get to create! I dug up two recipes and crowned them the best of the feeble bunch and got down to the next portion of research and development.  My list of ingredients seemed odd, but promising.  Here is trial number one; it ended up looking and tasting fairly similar to real Soy Sauce.

Ingredients

• 4 Tablespoons vegetable broth + aprox. 1/2 tsp salt to taste
• 4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons raw dark blue Agave
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 pinch white pepper 
• 1 pinch garlic powder
• 1 1/4 cups water

Directions

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together the broth, balsamic vinegar, Agave, ginger, white pepper, garlic powder and water. Boil gently until liquid is reduced to about 1 cup, about 15 minutes.

Substitutions:

4 T beef bouillon instead of vegetable broth and salt. Add ¼ c water if you use bouillon.
Molasses instead of Agave.

Any fresh ground pepper will work. 

   

(This recipe was created from a variation to a recipe from allrecipes.com) 

 

For recipe number two, I ended up with a very different, but extremely tasty sauce.

 Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3 Tablespoons Vegetable broth + Aprox. 1/3 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 Tablespoon dark blue Agave
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 pinch ginger
•  1 pinch garlic powder
  
  

I followed the same directions as above to simmer it.

Substitutions are the same as above, but the author stated she tried Canola oil.  Personally I would try and stick to the Sesame seed oil, it smells Amazing!

For both recipes, store refrigerated in an air tight container (I prefer glass)

(This was a variation of a recipe originally from RecipeZaar.)

Now that I have two new great Gluten free Soy Sauce substitutes, it opens a wide range of possibilities for more creations to come.  That, and I can make the other recipe I wanted to try out earlier today.  Catch you soon, good eating to you.