Often considered vegetarian in Thai restaurants, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and shrimp paste readily feature in Thai cooking. Furthermore, even if you find a vegan restaurant that does not use shrimp paste and fish sauce, oyster sauce is still a strong possibility as many Thais consider it to be vegan.
So what are the options and how do you get around the issues?
Fish Sauce
Fish sauce, or nam plaa, is used with abandon in Thai cuisine. Luckily, since some of the country’s cuisine is cooked quickly and often on the spot, it’s easy to customise your meals by asking for condiments like fish sauce and oyster sauce to be left out of a dish.
But what about at home? The fermented umami punch of this ubiquitous ingredient helps to make Thai food taste, well, Thai. But of course it isn’t suitable for vegans, so what are some cruelty-free alternatives?
The Bad Kind of Vegetarian Fish Sauce. Never substitute this for fish sauce.
Here is where I get on my soap box. If there’s one thing that angers me in Thai vegan cooking it’s the fish sauce substitutes that either exist pre-bottled or that vegan recipe authors create. They are as akin to fish sauce as water is to wine. A good vegan fish sauce is made from fermented soya beans and lots of salt. If there is sugar, vinegar, lime juice, chilli, or any bits floating around in a clear or pink-ish liquid then throw the bottle right into the pits of hell. If your recipe includes seaweed or any of the above ingredients, don’t bother. Fish sauce does not taste like any kind of seaweed.
A few okay vegan dish sauce brands (the one in the centre is particularly good).
I have found the odd few vegetarian fish sauce varieties that are suitable (the brands you will find are likely to be Vietnamese), but they aren’t easy to come by. If you can’t find it, use a combination of light and dark soy sauce or all light soy sauce. Adding extra salt is also an option. Sometimes I add salt and a little bit of fermented white tofu for a hint of pungency.
Oyster Sauce
There’s a running debate on whether or not oysters are vegan, which I won’t go into, but in Thailand oyster sauce is often considered fair game in veganism. A Thai friend pointed this out to me years ago, but it didn’t hit home until I was standing in the kitchen of one of my long time favourites in Chiang Mai, Pun Pun, to realise he was right. There are several vegan varieties, but take note if you’re ever in Thailand, even at a vegan restaurant, to specify no oyster sauce if it’s a concern.
Vegetarian oyster sauce
There are many oyster sauce alternatives, which are gloopy in texture and usually made with mushrooms. If it isn’t labelled vegetarian oyster sauce, the bottle might be labelled as mushroom stir fry sauce. Use these interchangeably with oyster sauce.
Shrimp Paste
That gorgeous curry stall with half a dozen varieties, including an all vegetable blend, is about as likely to be vegan as a bean is likely to transform into a bat. Shrimp paste (gapi) is a fragrant fermented mass used in most curry pastes and often added to various Thai dishes for a pungent and salty kick.
You might think it’s gross, but you’ve probably eaten it if you’ve ever ordered a Thai curry in a non vegetarian Thai restaurant. Always ask beforehand if the curry pastes are made with shrimp paste. Most people know to ask for no fish sauce, but shrimp paste is still likely to be lurking.
Vegan shrimp paste varieties from Thailand
There are vegan alternatives, readily (ish) available in Thailand, made from fermented bean protein. They are not dissimilar to a dark miso, but the flavour is a little less in your face. Nevertheless, miso is a good substitution, or a combination of miso and fermented bean paste. Seek dark bean paste from your local Asian grocer first, however, if you feel like you want to spend the time making your own curry pastes.
Great guide! Do you know where you can buy any of those fish sauces in London? I’m ashamed to admit I’ve been using a certain recipe I found online that contains the dreaded seaweed! Had no idea it was so bad!
My words are really harsh on the matter only because I’m dead passionate about that flavour, which is one that is highly fermented. The best way I can think to describe the smell it ought to have is, unappealingly, dirty pants! There’s nothing inherently wrong with other preparations, but they just don’t operate in the same way (and fish sauce doesn’t taste in any way of seaweed). I have spent years looking for good vegan fish sauce and have found it twice. Once was last spring at Star Night supermarket in Hackney (so worth a look again)! If I don’t have any to hand, however, I will use a combination of Thai soy sauce, salt, and fermented white bean curd.
Haha. I have to admit the version I made using an online recipe I found didn’t smell like dirty pants! I’ll have to check the place in Hackney I guess… 🙂 Thanks for the tip!
veg oyster sauce http://www.souschef.co.uk/vegetarian-oyster-sauce.html
google is your friend 🙂
They are a great company too! Very fast delivery and great quality products.
This is an amazing post! I had some of that vegan fish sauce in the middle on your photo whilst in Vietnam a few months ago and every night I am whipping myself for not buying a bottle to carry around for my South East Asian backpacking adventure.
It’s interesting to know you actually saw it in Vietnam. Do you recall where exactly? It’s so hard to come by a good vegan fish sauce in the UK that I stockpile when I find anything (I’m hoping the shop I bought that particular bottle from will do an order for me when my supply finally runs out).
I saw it when taking a cooking class at a restaurant called Karma Waters in Hoi An. The lady there said she bought it from a Jay food supply store, but I don’t know where that was. They definitely have none of that in Thailand, I’ve been here for 4 months and looking for it to no avail.
Thais don’t use faux fish sauce, opting instead for seasoning sauce, soy sauce, or salt as a substitution. Sometimes they’ll use vegan shrimp paste (which you can find at any of the jay shops) or fermented beans. Vietnam seems to be the only place! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Hoi An. I haven’t been for years and it’s such a cute spot to spend a few days.
Dried porcini mushrooms add a lovely and fishy umami flavor. You can soak or simmer them in tamari.
That’s a great tip for adding umami to a dish. The nucleotides in the mushrooms plus the glutamates in soy sauce, when combined, are the perfect umami recipe.
This is a great post! Where can you find any of these in the US east coast?
Thanks, Toni. I’m not sure about sourcing products in the United States, but your best bet would be an Asian market. Chinese and Vietnamese grocers are good place to start.
You might try the H Mart which I heard is equivalent of the west coast’s Ranch 99 Market. 🙂
Thank you SO MUCH for knowing the difference between shrimp paste and soy sauce. lol I have ranted the same as you after purchasing some of the other suggestions I’ve found online only to discover their flavors amount to soy sauce with added MSG. OMG. I’ve been trying to find non-ocean subs for asian ingredients for my husband who has a seafood allergy and this is exactly what I needed! Wishing you great karma/luck and holidays for such a wonderful contribution! Thanks again. 🙂
Happy to help 🙂 I’m obsessed with strong, fermented flavours. It does my head in when people act like throwing some nori into a recipe will taste the same as every single possible seafood related item on the planet.
I’m surprised about the debate over oyster sauce. Did you hear this from Thai vegans? I lived there for a bit over three years as a vegan, and never heard of it, though I speak Thai and frequented various Thai vegan and vegetarian establishments. Maybe I was blissfully unaware of what I was eating…bleah.
Now if you go to a meat-serving restaurant, you will have to explain to them about kapi, nam pla, and oyster sauce (nam man hoy), and maybe that it’s not OK to just pick the pork out of pre-made laat naa sauce-that thick, sometimes gooey stuff served over wide noodles. I would expect a vegan place not to have any of the above in their kitchen though.
I have seen it used heavily in the kitchen of one well known vegetarian restaurant in Chiang Mai (and I have seen it written on jay menus) and it has been pointed out to me by Thais.
So how good is the Au Lac brand you mentioned above? I ask because I think I found it here in the US on Amazon–but I’d have to buy it as a 12 pack (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00HK4RBHO/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new&tag=messvegecook-20)
I don’t mind stocking up if it’s good, but I’m hesitant to buy a 12 pack and then find out I hate it.
The Au Lac brand is my favourite because it is the most similar to fish sauce that I’ve tried. It has a very funky saltiness to it that lacks in most other brands. I don’t know whether or not that means you’ll enjoy it, but it’s the best alternative (that I’ve found anyway).
Ohhhhh exciting. I googled vego subs for fish sauce (I usually combine light and dark soy and add salt) and saw some pretty gross recipes, wandered into one of the many mixed asian grocery stores in my area (viet dense suburb if sydney) and found the exact fish sauce that you said it the best! So excited! Making green papaya salad tomorrow for lunch so its good timing. Thanks for the tips!!
Ace! I hope it turns out well. You are right about the extra salt though, I think. I know I have read something written by at least one Thai that they think using only soy sauce as a fish sauce replacement doesn’t make a dish salty enough.
Jesse James Where was this? I have been looking all over – https://www.reddit.com/r/sydney/comments/5j3p0n/au_lac_vegetarian_fish_sauce/
Do you have the brand names of the good vegan fish sauces?
Hi Wim,
Yes, the one in the centre is Au Lac brand and that is the best. Lucky Eight and Coconut Tree are the other two brands.
I love seafood so it’s good to know the differences between the sauces
I recently bought the Au Lac brand ‘fish’ sauce (Star Night supermarket, Hackney; except my bottle has different labeling) and must say that although I’ve yet to cook with it I’m genuinely impressed with the flavour, especially considering the limited ingredients.
Regarding shrimp paste substitutes, which type of miso would you recommend, and ideally which brands, if any. You also mention mixing miso with fermented bean paste, and suggest seeking out dark bean paste for making curry pastes. Can you possibly elaborate further on these suggestions?
Anyway, congrats on a very informative and helpful article.
Hi Tommy,
With miso I would go with aka or hatcho and/or then add a bit of fermented Chinese tofu and/or fermented bean paste for a balance of saltiness and funkiness. Since I haven’t been diligent enough with my notes on miso, I can’t recommend specific brands. Consequently my advice is somewhat vague and relies on tasting for these qualities. If you’re making a vegan curry paste, for example, the mix will be quite salty when it’s finished. If it’s accidentally too salty or not salty enough (based on the substitutions you’ve made), you can adjust for this in the cooking of the curry itself. A recipe might call for the addition of fish or soy sauce toward the end of cooking, but if the curry tastes like it’s either too abundant or lacking in salt you can add more or less to taste. Thai cooking is all about adjusting and tasting as you go anyway! You could even just make a curry paste with a little miso or fermented bean paste (or none even) and then add more to taste at the end of the cooking process…
Great article! I was wondering if you know of a substitute for dried shrimp? Not the paste but just dried shrimp? I want to make vegetarian Laksa soup and wanted to stay as close as possible to the original flavors.
Hi Sharmila,
My experience with dried shrimp substitutes are for garnish and texture than for flavours in pastes. For instance dried shrimp are common salad ingredients in Thai cuisine, like in som tum, and one way Thais mimic that texture and taste is to cut up tofu puffs, deep fry them until crispy, and then coat them in a little bit of salt, sugar, and/or MSG. But that would seem a waste of time to use in a paste. I would lean toward using a decent vegan fish sauce to season after cooking TBH. Regardless of what you do, I would love to hear about it and how the laksa turns out! Good luck.
I have a question on the Oyster Sauce. Before I went vegan I always found Healthy Boy Thin Soy Sauce to be the best soy sauce (as did most Thai chefs I knew at the time which is where i learned some of the authentic recipes) and in terms of Oyster Sauce the MaeKrua brand of Oyster Sauce was the most frequent and best used – both of the above were what I used and the dish flavours were great. Would you say the shown vegan stir fry sauce is a decent alternative to the MaeKrua brand Oyster Sauce if you tried it before? Thanks mate.
Hey Ryan,
I haven’t tried non vegan oyster sauce brands, but Healthy Boy has a good alternative mushroom sauce used by vegan Thais and those participating in the annual vegetarian festival. I’m not sure what the availability is like outside of Thailand though… I tend to use vegan Chinese brands as they are the easiest for me to find in the UK. I’ve been happy with them.
Thanks so much for sharing this information on the fish sauce and shrimp paste. Very enlightening. I shall pass it on to friends and family.