Why Coconut Aminos Should Replace Soy in Your Kitchen

A dash of salty, slightly sweet, jam-packed incredible flavour is what you get with coconut aminos.

Coconut aminos, made using the coconut sap and coconut nectar, with some delicious garlic and sea

salt thrown in, is subtly more complex than soy sauce, but can be used in much the same way. But

this vegan-umami of the kitchen store cupboard has an extra secret weapon: it’s only got about half

of the salt content compared with traditional soy sauce.

In short, you can either get more bang for your buck with a smaller salt hit, or you can use more of

this all-natural flavour, without so easily tipping the salt scales out of your favour.

Learn more about coconut aminos and how to use them.

The everyday seasoning

If you’re a fan of East Asian dishes, with tastes of Japan, Vietnam and China, then soy sauce is likely a

store cupboard essential in your home. It is soy sauce that forms the bedrock of many recipes, and it

can be difficult to think of how to recreate the same taste (or better!) without it. But for many, there

are good reasons why they need to be careful of how much soy sauce they use.

Soy sauce is very high in salt. It is also, as its name rightly gives away, soy, which is an allergen or

intolerance for many people. What’s more, and in a way which its name definitely doesn’t reveal,

soy sauce usually contains gluten.

This is because ‘soy sauce’ is a slight misnomer. Traditionally, soy

sauce is made by crushing wheat and fermenting it with soy in a briny mixture over several days.

What’s more, many brands of soy sauce contain MSG too, and that really doesn’t float our boat.

However, no matter how it’s made, soy sauce is delicious. What it brings to our dishes is a whole

new layer of flavour. So, if you take it out, what can you use instead?

That’s where coconut aminos come in. They aren’t just a good alternative; we actually reckon

they’re better.

Tell me more about coconut aminos

Coconut aminos are a savoury seasoning which looks much like soy sauce. At The Coconut Company,

we have the All-Purpose Coconut Amino which can be used as a straight swap for soy sauce in terms

of flavour (but we’ve added a hint of garlic too). But we also have the Teriyaki Sauce and the

Barbeque Sauce which pack in even more flavour with ginger and tarragon respectively.

However, these vegan alternatives to soy sauce are made using fermented coconut sap and coconut

nectar, without any wheat or soy in sight. And we can assure you that you won’t be thinking of

coconuts when you snaffle a taste either (much as we love them, they aren’t the flavour here).

Because coconut aminos are so similar to soy sauce in terms of strength, colour and consistency,

they are ideal for swapping in wherever soy sauce is used in a recipe.

Why avoid soy sauce

There are various different reasons, like we’ve explained above, why people may wish to avoid soy

sauce. However, in our experience, the biggest issue is the amount of sodium it contains. Salt may be

one way of wedging flavour in which packs a punch, but it’s not good for cardiovascular health.

It’s difficult to perfectly compare the two as it depends on the individual soy sauce make and type as

well as the individual coconut amino make and type, but generally speaking, coconut aminos contain

around half of the sodium that the same quantity of soy sauce will. If it’s not light soy sauce then the

difference can be even greater.Nonetheless, coconut aminos aren’t low salt per se. They are still salty, and that’s what helps with

the vibrant flavour. The difference is that you can use less to get the same intensity, and that’s

super-duper.

Coconut aminos are also made from coconut sap which is bursting with health giving benefits such

as zinc, magnesium and potassium. Find out more about how we collect the sap for our coconut

aminos. The jury is still out on how much of the nutrient profile of the sap carries over through the

fermentation process, but we certainly know that it’s got a good nutritional background.

How to use coconut aminos in your cooking

Really, it is as simple as swapping out the same quantity of soy sauce and replacing with an All-

Purpose Coconut Aminos. Wherever you see soy sauce in a recipe, from your favourite gyoza dipping

sauce, through to your favourite laksa or stir-fry, you can simply use the All-Purpose Coconut Aminos

in exactly the same quantity.

You could even try your hand at our Miso Baked Tofu and Coconut Broth or our Poached Egg,

Asparagus & Coconut Aminos if you’d like to try recipes which have been specifically designed with

coconut aminos, instead of soy sauce.

But we’re not limited to simply trying to mimic soy sauce in a gluten-free, vegan, soy-free MSG-free

alternative. We’ve gone a step further to create the Teriyaki Sauce version of our Coconut Aminos,

and the Barbeque Sauce version too.

The Teriyaki Sauce Coconut Aminos has the subtle garlicky-salty tang of the All-Purpose but adds in a

gentle hum of ginger. This heavenly bottle of deliciousness is a perfect pal for marinades, glazes and

dipping sauces. Again, you can swap it in where a recipe calls for Teriyaki sauce, but we dare you to

go out on a limb and get creative too.

The Barbeque Sauce Coconut Aminos also has the comforting nudge of garlic and salt, but we’ve

sweetened this one a little more, using natural coconut sugar, and then popped in some tarragon to

give it a classically smoky BBQ taste. This one wants to be in on the action for all American style

dishes from marinating veggies for the grill to adding a secret ingredient to your burgers.

Can’t decide which of the three to go for? No problem, that’s why we’ve bundled them up into the

Three Aminos – they will certainly be your new best friends.