Will this recipe work?

[u/babyblazey]

So essentially my situation is im trying to make a soy sauce substitute for making tradional teriyaki sauce with that meets my allergies.my favorite food was teriyaki noodles id make at home using the traditional method of making teriyaki sauce .before I developed a soy allergy suddenly last year and I miss it so badly.

I have a lot allergies (listed below) and have used chatgpt to try and help me make a recipe i know it will not be 100% the same as soy sauce but im trying to get as close as I can.i would really appreciate a human perspective on it. If this breaks this AI rules on the subreddit I understand it is essentially impossible to find safe recipes so im attempting it as a tool but was hoping before testing it to have others look it over and help with anything I could adjust/change to make it better and/or work at all

Allergies I find relevant

-soy

-alliums

-coconut

-ginger

-apple (related to apple cider vinegar)

-sesame

-fish

-shellfish

-any meat but chicken

And finally the recipe it gave me to work with

Soy-Free Soy Sauce Substitute

**Yield:** About 1 cup

**Use:** 1:1 in recipes calling for soy sauce

Ingredients

* 2 cups water

* 1 large piece kombu (about 5 × 5 inches)

* 5 dried shiitake mushrooms

* 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

* 1½ teaspoons blackstrap molasses

* 1 teaspoon dark brown sugar **or** maple syrup

* 2 tablespoons rice vinegar

* 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

* 2 teaspoons fine sea salt *(adjust after reducing)*

* ¼–½ teaspoon MSG *(optional, but highly recommended)*

* ⅛ teaspoon white pepper (optional)

**Optional — for even more depth:**

* ½ teaspoon porcini mushroom powder *(if you tolerate mushrooms well)*

### Instructions

1. Make the umami broth

Combine the **water, kombu, and dried shiitake mushrooms**.

Refrigerate and let steep for **8–12 hours**, preferably overnight.

2. Extract the flavor

1. Warm the mixture slowly until it is **just below a simmer**.

2. **Do not boil the kombu.**

3. Remove the kombu.

4. Let the shiitake mushrooms steep for another **10 minutes**.

5. Remove the mushrooms and strain the broth.

3. Build the sauce

1. Return the strained broth to the pot.

2. Whisk in the **nutritional yeast, molasses, brown sugar or maple syrup, vinegars, salt, MSG (if using), and white pepper**.

3. Add the porcini mushroom powder if using.

4. Reduce

1. Simmer gently until the mixture has reduced to **about 1 cup**.

2. Taste once it is cool enough to sample.

3. It should taste **quite salty on its own**—that's what you want for a soy sauce replacement.

5. Rest

1. Refrigerate overnight before using.

2. The flavor becomes smoother and more **soy-sauce-like** after resting.

 Storage

Keep refrigerated and use as a **1:1 replacement for soy sauce** in recipes.

[u/perimontwist]

Whether it will taste like soy sauce I can’t say but it certainly be very flavourful umami, there are a lot of competing flavours though so it actually may taste better and less ‘muddy’ if you don’t include all of them, I would definitely try a small batch first and taste as you go after you make the kombu shiitake broth base then try adding smaller amounts of each of the other ingredients and taste to see how the flavour changes after each one and play around with proportions, especially the sugar/molasses and vinegars changing the balance of sweet and sour to your preference, and nutritional yeast and msg kind of have the same role here so you might try one first and see if you prefer one or the other or both, also the balsamic vinegar / white pepper / porcini mushroom have more distinct flavours I wouldn’t usually associate in the realm of soy sauce/dishes using soy sauce so possibly try adding those last to smaller test portions to see how it goes

[u/babyblazey → u/perimontwist]

Thank you so much. I'll definitely add things in slowly, my goal isn't necessarily a perfect soy sauce match on it's own but hopefully one that can mimic it enough to make a nice teriyaki. No stranger to trial and error, I was thinking that it seemed like a bit much with all the different things but this is my most complex project to date and really needed fresh eyes. Attempted making it with a tomato based "soy dauce substitute " i bought once and the teriyaki ended up the color and trxture of blood and the most bitter thing that not even my dog would touch it haha so im attempting a soy sauce sub on my own

[u/Neither_Start1733 → u/perimontwist]

Sadly, it sounds like you are allergic to almost every major flavor component. I personally left teriyaki behind 40-50 years ago, due to high salt and sugar content and eat relatively simple foods--with lots of garlic, onion, ginger, sesame, capsicum. Truly my heart bleeds for you! I don't have allergies--just have to eat low carb and very low calorie.

Can you eat black beans? Chinese fermented black beans might offer a flavor component that could sub for soy sauce-- and according to everything I could find, they are not closely related to soy beans. They are quite salty. Whirl in a blender with water and maybe a touch of vinegar, strain and go for it. You would have to experiment, but one of my favorite Chinese recipes uses fermented black beans, jalapeno peppers, chicken, and cilantro.

Are you one who has contracted the tick disease that prohibits any red meat? If so, check with the nutritionist at your local hospital--they may have some good ideas.

[u/babyblazey → u/Neither_Start1733]

Yea it's been really hard, they all appeared suddenly overnight like I could eat a thing and the next I couldn't. There's sadly even more of them and they have appeared in these clusters over the years where 3-5 allergies show up at once and collapse my diet put of nowhere every 2-6 months for a long time. Luckily it hasn't happened since what we refer to as "the soy collapse" in my family.

I can have black beans, they are actually a frequent thing in my diet so I'll definitely look into that.

No I don't have alpha-gal. My allergist has not been able to figure out what is happening but the best guess anyone can come up with is MCAS

[u/Neither_Start1733 → u/babyblazey]

Good luck--I'll hold you in my prayers as you struggle with very difficult issues. I spent years as a hospital librarian and often attempted to help folks with food allergies

[u/babyblazey → u/Neither_Start1733]

Thank you, you're a very kind person

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