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Traditional Cultured Teriyaki Sauce is empowering and easy to make! Perfect for Paleo, Keto, Low Carb and GAPS meals, this sauce works great for a quick stir-fry dinner or as a salad dressing. Make it in just 10 minutes, let it sit out overnight, then use and enjoy! — I’ll show you how and why! 🙂
Whole food, cultured condiments are exciting! Knowing they are alive with probiotics makes mealtime a provocative experience. You are putting something healthful into your body that also happens to be intensely flavorful.
There is added satisfaction when you used to buy a factory-made version of the product, laden with ingredients that taxed your body.
What ingredients are in store-bought teriyaki sauce?
Teriyaki Sauce is one of those foods that even seemingly nice Asian restaurants do not make homemade. I worked at a high-end sushi restaurant in Seattle where we made almost everything from scratch. The exceptions were tempura batter, pound cake that we wrapped deep-fried green tea ice cream in 😉 and teriyaki sauce.
Even homemade recipes that you find online contain mostly unfermented soy sauce and white sugar, two of the most dangerous modern foods. Others contain Worchestershire sauce, ketchup and oyster sauce, all factory-made foods with factory-made ingredients.
Here are the ingredients in 3 leading brands of teriyaki sauce, just to give you an idea and points of contrast. I have listed the more gourmet, “healthy” ones first. The third product reflects most teriyaki sauces on the market; but even the first two are laden with disease causing ingredients:
- Product 1- Soy sauce, water, sugar, cooking wine (water,rice,malt), sweet cooking wine (corn syrup, rice, water, malt) modified food starch, fresh dried onion, fresh ginger root, fresh garlic, lactic acid, spices.
- Product 2- Soy sauce, water, sugar, dried onion, sesame seeds, garlic, water, vegetable oil, and ginger.
- Product 3- Soy sauce (water, wheat, soybeans, salt, sodium benzoate as a preservative), sugar, high fructose corn syrup, Yoshida’s mirin (water, dextrose, mirin [rice, alcohol, enzymes, salt], lactic and succinic acids), water, dehydrated garlic, spice, modified corn starch, sunflower oil.
Alas! There is a better way!
What to use Traditional Cultured Teriyaki Sauce on …
Simple whole foods come together in perfectly balanced proportions to make this savory-sweet treat.
Enjoy Traditional Cultured Teriyaki Sauce with baked, barbecued or stir-fried meats and veggies. Here’s one favorite preparation we enjoy: Skirt Steak Stir Fry. It’s also great as a dressing, over noodles or zoodles, cold or hot. Even try homemade teriyaki sauce on Asian salads with shredded chicken.
Once you have this easy sauce made up, dinner comes together quickly, with very little leg work. The sauce does all that for you.
Why and how to make Traditional Cultured Teriyaki Sauce
Regarding the culturing, it is a simple overnight matter of adding whey (or VAD and non-dairy versions included below) to the teriyaki sauce.
Super easy, but it boosts the flavor and nutrition in all the ingredients — and extends the shelf-life of the product, as well as adding probiotics (which are preserved if you use this recipe as a raw salad dressing).
I have also added turmeric to my version of Traditional Cultured Teriyaki Sauce, thus the golden color and additional health benefits.
See sourcing below for ingredients.
Traditional Cultured Teriyaki Sauce (or dressing | Paleo | Keto)
Ingredients
- 2 cups coconut aminos , or real fermented soy sauce
- ¼ cup sesame oil , toasted
- ¼ cup honey or use 1/16 teaspoon monk fruit for Keto version (see link below in Recipe notes)
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 2" nub fresh ginger chopped into 4-6 pieces
- 2" nub fresh turmeric chopped into 4 pieces
- 2 Tablespoons whey OR sauerkraut juice for VAD and non-dairy; see Recipe Notes for how to extract whey and for more non-dairy versions
- 2 large cloves fresh garlic
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients, except whey, in blender. Puree on high speed for 30 seconds.
- Pour into a colander-lined bowl to filter out any bits that aren't smooth, mostly ginger skin or fibers.
- Stir in whey.
- Pour sauce into 1-2 jars that fit its quantity and screw on lids loosely.
- Leave sauce at room temperature overnight to culture.
- In the morning, screw lids on tightly and refrigerate. Keeps 3 weeks.
Notes
Monk fruit can be found here.
What is Whey and how to use it
Whey is simply the clear liquid that comes off of yogurt or kefir. For non-dairy versions it can be extracted with the same method. Make sure to find a fully cultured, high quality non-dairy yogurt, such as Nancy's brand, that is full of probiotics. This is especially important with soy. Soy is only safe when it has been fermented. Directions to obtain whey- Nest a small-medium size bowl beneath a colander. Line the colander with cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Pour 2 cups high quality plain yogurt or kefir into the colander. Allow the yogurt to sit for several hours or in the fridge overnight. What gathers in the bowl beneath the colander is whey. It is full of probiotics and used to inoculate or culture foods. (The yogurt that remains is delicious. It is now considered yogurt cheese, thick and rich.) Recipe can be halved.Nutrition
Emily @ Recipes to Nourish says
This sounds absolutely delicious! Pinned it. Can’t wait to try this!
Megan Stevens says
Yay!!!
Marjorieann1977 says
I love that this is cultured AND contains fresh turmeric! Awesomeness 🙂 Pinned!
Megan Stevens says
Thanks, Marjorie!
Andrea Kessel Fabry says
I love the coconut amino – but have never thought to do this! I truly can’t wait. I happen to have fresh turmeric and ginger on hand.
Megan Stevens says
Oh great, so glad. It tastes JUST like the “normal” store bought stuff, only better. 🙂
naturalfitfoodie says
Cultured teriyaki sauce? Get outta here! You’re genius woman. Gonna try this soon.. 🙂
Megan Stevens says
🙂
linda spiker says
Wow! Looks much easier than I thought.
Megan Stevens says
I agree, so easy!
Jessica from SimplyHealthyHome says
I can’t wait to try this. It looks super good.
Megan Stevens says
Delighted!
Renee Kohley says
Oh YEAH! This is right up my alley! YUM!
Megan Stevens says
Great, Renee! 🙂
Chloe says
Yum! I’ll definitely be pinning this for later. I know my husband would appreciate more sauce options.
Megan Stevens says
Great, Chloe!
Rachel says
This seems almost too good to be true, I MISS teriyaki sauce so much!
Megan Stevens says
So glad, Rachel. 🙂
Naomi says
Oohh, great idea! We are sadly lacking in condiments in our house (besides fermented veggies) because I can’t bear to buy the junk, but don’t make them enough myself. I can handle throwing ingredients into a blender 🙂 Instead of ‘non-dairy whey’ I think I’ll try using some juice from fermented veggies. And I can’t imagine finding fresh turmeric here.
Megan Stevens says
The turmeric is definitely optional. Let me know how it turns out with fermented veggie juice. Sounds good!
Biggi says
Can any kind of home made probiotic juice be used, like sauerkraut, pickles or cauliflower instead of the whey? And how do I know soy sauce is truly fermented since I can’t have any coconut? Thank you!