Kitchen: Gluten-Free Sauces
- Charles
- Sep 23, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 13
When it comes to cooking, I take the Chinese-American restaurant approach of permutations and combinations: Protein (chicken / beef / sausage / etc.) + carb (rice / potato / gluten-free noodles) + veggie (fresh or frozen) + sauce (no shame in store-bought) = a meal. As a celiac household, we can’t just buy any sauce we fancy, but the good news is that the world of naturally gluten-free (and even certified gluten-free) pre-made sauces is rapidly expanding!
To help you save time and money, we've scoured sauces far and wide for the best in every category of cuisine. We've started with our favorite Asian sauces below, but we'll continue to expand this post with new sauces and regions in the coming months. We can’t guarantee they’ll all be available where you are (we often find ourselves importing sauces on our travels), but we hope this will expand your options and perhaps inspire you to find new favorites of your own!
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If there are any sauces you'd like to add to your pantry, you can easily order each sauce at the Amazon links below (click the sauce names) or check out our shopping list on Instacart to find local stores near you.
Asian Sauces
Gluten-Free Soy Sauce and Alternatives
Soy sauce: the ubiquitous base for Asian cuisine — and the main reason gluten-free diners can’t eat out at most East Asian restaurants. Thankfully, for those of you comfortable with home cooking, there are now numerous soy sauce options for all types of cooking.
Confession time: there are currently 5 bottles of different soy sauces in our fridge and pantry at the time of writing, and we intentionally aim to keep at least 3 at all times (1 Japanese, 1 Chinese, and 1 Sweet). Suffice it to say, we take soy sauce seriously in this household! Our recommendations:
The basic substitute for soy sauce, this is our go-to for most dishes. We recommend using this option for Korean and Japanese dishes.
Tamari, as many will tell you, is typically naturally gluten-free. But as with everything, do NOT take that for granted, as we've definitely seen other brands of tamari with added wheat. Nonetheless, tamari is the most likely version of soy sauce to be gluten-free, and we've found this brand to be the go-to for sushi restaurants that provide a gluten-free soy sauce option. Unsurprisingly, it is great for sushi.
Unlike Japanese soy sauces, which are milder and sweeter, Chinese soy sauces are stronger and saltier. This is why it's important to use the appropriate soy sauce when cooking each type of cuisine. Lee Kum Kee (LKK) seems to be the only brand selling gluten-free Chinese soy sauce, so we recommend stocking up if you come across it. This soy sauce is great over steamed fish and beef chow fun.
Note: If the seller is trying to sell you a bottle for $20, do not pay anywhere near that much for it. Look for the bulk bottle on Amazon or try to find it locally.
In addition to soy sauce, this bottle of delight also includes sugar and sake. We bring this with us when we travel to Asian countries, as the combination of sweet soy sauce and furikake means we can turn any bowl of rice into a "good enough" meal in a pinch. This is also our sauce of choice for fried rice (recipe to come).
Other brands:
San-J and Lucky Foods both sell a great selection of gluten-free sauces, including soy sauces, and will likely be your best bet if you don’t have an Asian supermarket near you. We personally prefer the above sauces, but others will do in a pinch. For those of you trying to avoid soy, Kikkoman also sells a Umami Joy Sauce based on tomatoes, and coconut aminos are another popular replacement.
Gluten-Free Hoisin and Other Umami Sauces
Heavy in umami, I’d consider the following sauces “the missing link” if your meal feels like it just needs *something* more, but you can’t quite tell what that more is. Below are our go-to's:
This is my go-to hoisin sauce to flavor dishes. I also include this in my curry sauce (recipe below), macaroni breakfast soup (recipe to come), and plenty of other dishes needing a bit more flavor.
I can’t really decide if I prefer the Kikkoman or the LKK sauce, so pick up whichever is available. We’ve found other brands’ hoisin sauces to be lacking, but you can’t go wrong with these top two.
As my wife also has a shellfish intolerance, we were happy to find this alternative that was both gluten- and shellfish-free. It is a lot saltier than regular oyster sauce, though, so if you’re trying to make that swap, we’d go light on the sauce. The most basic way to consume Chinese veggies (bok choy, gai lan, etc.) is to boil them to tender and serve with a side of oyster sauce.
We haven’t personally tried this due to my wife’s aforementioned shellfish intolerance, but if you can have shellfish, this is likely the better option over the vegan sauce. Put it on blanched gai lan or other Chinese veggies, and you have a delicious and easy way to add greens to your meal.
Filter for gluten-free on Hikari Miso’s product page, and you'll see there’s a plethora of options when it comes to getting certified gluten-free miso bases. Mix it with hot water to get miso soup, add rice to make it a meal, or use it for something more elaborate like miso cod. The possibilities are endless!
Other Gluten-Free Sauces
To make a scrumptious gluten-free curry, we advising you mix one part cornstarch, one part S&B Oriental Curry Powder, one part hoisin sauce, and 8 parts water together to make the base curry sauce, then throw it on whatever you want.
We prefer the curry powder above, but with some adjustments, this Japanese curry powder can be decent as well. It comes with easy-to-follow preparation instructions, but we recommend throwing in some hoisin sauce as well to round it out.
Rice, chicken (thigh preferred, breast okay), and this sauce packet is all you need to make a delicious, home-cooked Hainanese chicken dish. Hainanese chicken is typically my benchmarking dish when eating out, but with this easy-to-use flavor packet, I’ve found many restaurant versions to be disappointing when compared to what we can make at home.
Note: Although this isn't certified or specifically labeled gluten-free, there are no gluten containing ingredients in this flavoring, and Alina has been able to eat it safely many times.
I’ll be posting my own bulgogi recipe soon, but until then (or in a pinch), we’ve found these sauces to be a great alternative for when you have a Korean BBQ craving.
Similar to making your own teriyaki sauce (3:2:1:1 of Soy sauce/mirin/sake/sugar) but far more convenient, we also keep a bottle of Bachan's gluten free in our fridge when we want to make a lazy teriyaki meal. It also works well when making fried rice.
For other flavors, LKK also makes a Beyond Celiac certified sriracha mayo and sriracha chili sauce. Kikkoman also has other gluten-free sauces, so don’t be afraid to try something new and expand your possibilities!
For even more substitutions, we recommend checking out Laura B Russell’s The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen.
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