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This vegan oyster sauce is thick, dark, sticky, salty-sweet and loaded with deep mushroom umami, exactly what the heck your stir-fry's been missing. All it takes is 8 pantry staples and about 10 minutes on the stove.
Recipe tips tailored to what matters most to you:
Gluten-free as written with tamari. Just peek at your miso label, since a few kinds are made with barley.
Make a double batch. It keeps in the fridge for up to 6 weeks, so your next several stir-fries are already halfway done.
Brown sugar works just as well as coconut sugar here and usually costs a fraction of the price.
Grab low-sodium tamari and use coconut sugar in place of brown sugar.
No mushroom powder? Grind dried porcini or shiitake mushrooms in a high speed blender or spice grinder until fine.
Whisk until every bit of cornstarch disappears before the pot goes on the stove. Lumps that form in hot sauce are lumps forever and that makes Father Time and Old Man Winter very, very sad.
Boiling miso kills its flavor and probiotics. Add it at the end and whisk like a nut job so there's no clumps at all in the sauce.
It thickens a lot as it cools. If you cook it until it looks thick while hot in the pot, you'll end up with sauce jelly.
Oodles more tips, step-by-step recipe photos, info on weird ingredients, and FAQs are all still here. I just tucked 'em out of the way so you can start cooking sooner.
You know that dark, shiny coating on your broccoli and wide noodles at Chinese and Vietnamese take out spots? That's usually oyster sauce, and you guessed right- it's usually made from actual oysters and other such living creatures who aren't food.
In this recipe that isn't mean to oysters for a living, mushroom powder and miso give it umami complexity. It gets its sweetness from coconut sugar, and its salty, brothy, backbone from tamari, which keeps it gluten-free too.
It's the base of the sauce in my pancit bihon, Thai basil noodles and pad ba mee, and it brings its classic caramel flavor to my Thai tofu larb salad too. Leave the oysters snoozing in their little underwater apartments behind the Krusty Krab…
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Why you'll adore this mushroom oyster sauce
🍄 Real Umami, No Shellfish: Hold up- are you the Kosher man? It's OK- you're safe here. Mushroom powder and miso bring the deep, nearly-meaty flavor that makes oyster sauce worth cooking with in the first place.
⏱️ 10 Minutes Start to Finish: Whisk, simmer for a few minutes until it thickens, whisk in the miso, done. It's wayyyy faster than driving to the store but you can still listen to, like, part of a podcast.
🌾 Gluten-Free Stir-Fry Sauce: Most bottled oyster sauces contain wheat, either as a thickener, or by sneaking in through the soy sauce. Tamari makes this one of the gluten-free vegan recipes you can rely on with all of your heart and soul.
Tested and Approved Worldwide: Over 1,000 recipe testers have stirred, simmered and taste-tested every last one of my stinkin' vegan recipes.
I'm on my knees staring weirdly into your eyes, asking you in a soothing voice to be my taste-testing partner in crime. Sign up for the recipe testing crew and get early access to new recipes before they're published.
Vegetarian oyster sauce ingredients
Mushroom powder
A ton of people make theirs with dried shiitake mushrooms. But I am a way bigger fan of using a mushroom powder made either exclusively, or at least in part from dried porcini.
Can't find it? Grind dried porcini and shiitake mushrooms in a high speed blender or spice grinder until fine. If you are sitting on extra powder and don't know WTF to do with it, it's great in vegan Japanese curry too.
The sugar
Coconut sugar gives the sauce its caramel-like sweetness and dark color. Brown sugar or granulated palm sugar works too, and your stir-fry for sure won't know the difference.
Tamari
Tamari is a wheat-free soy sauce, and it's the salty backbone here. Use regular soy sauce if gluten isn't something you are worried about.
Miso paste
The miso goes in at the very end, off the heat, which keeps its fermented flavor from cooking off. Any miso works, but I tend to keep white Shiro miso on hand because it's pretty versatile to use in tons of other recipes.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
Other stir-fry sauces to mess with
Hoisin sauce
Sweeter, thicker and warmly spiced, my hoisin sauce is sweetened with dates and takes all of 5 minutes.
Szechuan chili garlic sauce
When you want your noodles to fight back, my Szechuan chili garlic sauce brings the drama and a kinda silly-lotta garlic.
Korean BBQ sauce
Sweet, smoky and gochujang-spicy, my Korean BBQ sauce is a stir-fry sauce and a marinade all wrapped up in one.
Grab my easy-yo-use app that builds your whole week with real, chef-tested vegan dinners in 30 seconds, customized to your budget, time, and taste, with a shopping list sorted by aisle.
How to make vegan oyster sauce
If you can whisk and stare at a pot for 4 minutes, you're qualified to rock this recipe so hard it won't even know what hit it. Step photos below, and the recipe card has the quick version.
Step One
Whisk You Were Here:
Combine the mushroom powder, garlic powder, 5-spice powder, coconut sugar, tamari, cornstarch, and water in a small saucepan. Whisk thoroughly until the cornstarch is fully dissolved and no lumps remain.
Step Two
Sim Simmer, Who's Got the Keys to My Bimmer:
Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer over medium heat, whisking frequently. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 3-4 minutes, whisking constantly, until the sauce thickens.
Step Three
Miso Impossible:
Remove the saucepan from the heat, whisk in the miso paste thoroughly, and let the sauce cool.
Whisk the miso into a few spoonfuls of the hot sauce in a small bowl first, then stir it back in. No stubborn miso lumps.
Step Four
Jar Jar Binks:
Transfer the sauce to a clean glass jar and refrigerate. It will thicken further as it cools, so stir or shake it well before using.
Serving ideas
Stir-fries are the obvious move. Toss it with wide rice noodles to make homemade vegan pad see ew or pad kee mao, or add some to Filipino pancit canton or Vietnamese mi xao xi dau for a darker, deeper, more complex sauce.
A spoonful over some garlicky stir-fried water spinach or a pile of steamed broccoli gives you that Chinese restaurant side dish you always order (hoping it's actually vegan) and never make at home. It's also killer in vegan Thai fried rice.
Or just drizzle it over plain-a** rice at 11:40 pm, hovering over the stove like a stinky ol' raccoon who found the dumpster with the goodies in it.
Top tips
- Kill the Lumps Before the Heat: Whisk until every bit of cornstarch disappears before the pot goes on the stove. Lumps that form in hot sauce are lumps forever and that makes Father Time and Old Man Winter very, very sad.
- Miso Goes in Last, Off the Heat: Boiling miso kills its flavor and probiotics. Add it at the end and whisk like a nut job so there's no clumps at all in the sauce.
- Don't Panic If It Looks A Tad Thin: It thickens a lot as it cools. If you cook it until it looks thick in the pot, you'll end up with sauce jelly.
Recipe FAQs
Well, grass fed, free-range vegan oysters of course. Uh, just kidding.
This one is mushroom powder, miso, tamari, coconut sugar and a few spices, thickened with cornstarch. Store-bought vegetarian versions are usually based on mushrooms too, but have 50 zillion different types of BS, artificial coloring, and melted airplanes or whatever.
Nope. Traditional oyster sauce is made from oyster extract, which is cooked down oyster juices (ewwww 🤢). Some brands sell a vegetarian "stir-fry sauce" made from mushrooms, but allllllways check the label.
They're different. Oyster sauce is more salty and savory, and hoisin sauce is sweeter and thicker, as is kecap manis, which is more prevalent in Indonesian and Malaysian cooking. They're often used together in the same stir-fry, though.
🧊 In the Fridge: Keep it in a clean glass jar for up to 6 weeks. Stir or shake before using.
❄️ In the Freezer: Freeze it in an ice cube tray, then move the cubes into an airtight container for up to 3 months.
You'll also love these vegan Asian sauces:
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Vegan Oyster Sauce Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons mushroom powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon 5 spice powder
- 1 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
- ½ cup tamari
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons miso paste
Instructions
- Combine the mushroom powder, garlic powder, 5-spice powder, coconut sugar, tamari, cornstarch, and water in a small saucepan. Whisk thoroughly until the cornstarch is fully dissolved and no lumps remain.
- Bring the mixture to a gentle simmer over medium heat, whisking frequently. Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking for 3-4 minutes, whisking constantly, until the sauce thickens.
- Remove from the heat, thoroughly whisk in the miso paste, and allow the sauce to cool.
- Transfer to a clean glass jar and refrigerate. The sauce will thicken further as it cools. Stir or shake well before using.
Notes
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