Is Oyster Sauce Vegan? Everything About Oyster Sauce & Its Vegan Alternatives In 2024

Oyster sauce is a delicious sauce that adds flavor to Chinese cuisine and other Asian dishes like Vietnamese and Thailand cuisines. This sauce gives a sweet and salty taste–an umami flavor. 

Asian cuisine is heavily influenced by oyster sauce, which is often used for meat marinades and is good for adding flavor to vegetables. 

Ingredients of a traditional oyster sauce will include oyster extracts, soy sauce, sugar, salt, starch, and monosodium glutamate. Alternate ingredients have been added to make other styles of sauces. These additional styles of sauces may include other ingredients for a richer flavor, production improvement, or increased shelf life. 

However, some may wonder if there are real oysters in oyster sauce and Is oyster sauce vegan?

Or are there vegan oyster sauce substitutes? Read on to find out if oyster sauce is vegan.

Is Oyster Sauce Considered Vegan?

Oyster sauce is not vegan; it’s made from oyster juices made from a live animal. Vegans that choose to follow a true vegan diet avoid animal-based foods, including foods derived from animals. 

However, some vegans may not consider shellfish animals, including oysters, mollusks, and clams. These are considered bivalves with no brain and a less complicated nervous system. 

Because they are also immobile and plant-like, they filter food around them rather than actively search for food they may still be eaten by some vegans. 

Each vegan individual is different and may or may not want to consume oyster juices in their vegan food. Vegan sauces are a possibility for people who want to consider oyster animals. 

What Is Oyster Sauce?

Oyster sauce is a caramel color sauce used in Chinese cooking, made from caramelized oyster extract.^[1] It was invented by Lee Kum Sheung, a food vendor that left his simmering oysters cooking a bit too long and ended up with a caramelized sweet, salty, and slightly burnt flavor. It’s made by Lee Kum Kee and is known as the original brand. 

Oyster sauce is traditionally used in noodle stir-fries, vegetable stir-fries, and as a topping for other dishes. 

How Is It Made?

The traditional oyster sauce is produced from boiling oysters, and the resulting white opaque broth is simmered until it becomes thick and the liquid has become brown. That is it; nothing else must be added to obtain the umami flavor. 

Other methods are more cost-effective. This includes using oyster extracts and adding modified cornstarch to thicken the sauce, salt and sugar for flavor, and caramel to make the brown sauce and give it its signature caramel color. 

Also, in some cases, soy sauce and monosodium glutamate are added for increased color and flavor.

Oyster sauce is originally made from simmering oysters; nowadays, it’s manufactured with oyster extract. 

It is one of several umami-rich sauces. The other similar sauces have a similar umami taste, like soy sauce, fish sauce, hoisin sauce, and teriyaki sauce.

What Other Umami Sauces Of Asian Cousine?

Traditional soy sauce takes a while to make; it’s a Chinese liquid condiment^[2] made of fermented soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and particular molds. A more common production that is faster, cheaper, and with a better shelf life is made with hydrolyzed vegetable protein. Soy sauce may contain wheat flour, a common food allergen. It is often also added to the oyster sauce to improve flavor. It can be used to add directly on top of food, as a sauce to dip food in, or to add salt flavorings. Commonly eaten with sushi, rice noodle, sashimi, and mixed with wasabi. 

Fish sauce, a light brown-colored sauce,^[3] is made from krill or fish fermented with salt added. It’s traditionally used in South East Asian cuisine. It is often used as a seasoning before and after cooking.It is not vegan.

Hoisin sauce is a thick, dark-colored sauce made of soybeans, fennel, red chili peppers, fresh or powdered garlic, vinegar, sugar, and five-spice powder. A hoisin sauce may contain wheat flour, a common food allergen. It’s used as a dipping sauce or as a glaze for meats, but it is suitable for the vegan diet if the sugar used in making the hoisin sauce is beet sugar or organic sugar.  

The teriyaki sauce is the closest in flavor and color, made into a glaze with soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar. Sometimes fruits and veggies can be added to the teriyaki sauce. It is often used in Japanese cuisine when grilling meat and glazing the sauce over it. It can also be used as a dipping sauce. It is a vegan-friendly sauce, but you must be sure the sugar in teriyaki sauce is also vegan, as some sugar production processes may include animal-derived products.  

Oyster Sauce Vegan Substitute

Vegan-friendly versions are possible. Vegan oyster sauce brands can now provide this option and other plant-based sauces similar in taste.

A vegan oyster sauce is made of shiitake mushrooms or oyster mushrooms instead of marine oysters. The sugar added in these vegan oyster sauces should be made without the use of bone char. Bone char is used in the sugar refinement process to bleach cane sugar, which is then used to make brown sugar and caramel. However, beet, coconut, and organic sugar are all vegan-friendly.

Another way to substitute for oyster sauce is using a briny sauce similar to oyster sauce. These are all caramel color: soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and teriyaki sauce. 

Final Words

Lee Kum Kee makes the original oyster sauces, a regular oyster sauce that adds a delicious flavor to food. Because the source is from an animal, oyster sauce cannot be considered vegan. But now there are vegetarian and regular versions available that taste like original oyster sauce.

For vegans that are interested in consuming oyster sauce that is more of a vegan version and still has the oyster sauce taste, the option is possible. You can use soy sauces, hoisin sauces, and teriyaki sauces. 

There are, however, vegan oyster sauces made of vegetables and dried mushrooms.

You can now enjoy mushroom stir-fry sauce on noodle dishes without needing the real oyster sauce. Even when eating out at vegan restaurants or using vegan meal delivery services, eating plant-based umami sauces is now possible.

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