Soy Sauce Substitutes
Tamari and other alternatives to soy sauce, including how to adjust salt and colour when you swap them.
Tamari: the closest swap
Tamari is brewed with little or no wheat, so it brings the same savoury depth as soy sauce with a rounder, less sharp edge. Use it one for one in marinades, dressings and stir fries.
It is also saltier than many everyday soy sauces, so taste before you add the salt a recipe calls for. In a dish with several salty ingredients, start with two thirds of the amount.
Coconut aminos and other mild options
Coconut aminos are much less salty and noticeably sweeter, which makes them useful in dressings but weak in a hot pan. Replace soy sauce by volume and then reduce any sugar in the recipe.
Miso dissolved in water works in soups and braises, where its fermented flavour has somewhere to go. It does not belong in a quick stir fry, where it will not dissolve evenly.
Adjust salt and colour together
Soy sauce brings salt and dark colour at the same time. When you swap it for a paler alternative, the dish will taste flatter before it tastes wrong, so add salt in small steps and taste between them.
If the colour matters, a teaspoon of dark miso or a little molasses restores some of the depth without changing the salt level much.
Reviewed on 2026-10-19 · Basis: Seed substitution table (A7)