Featured Recipe - Not So Soy Sauce

I love soy sauce. I find that is one of the best ingredients that can kick up an otherwise boring marinade.

Unfortunately, there are numerous reasons why I avoid soy sauce. Most pre-made soy sauces in America contain gluten which cause a lot of obvious issues for me. If it’s not the gluten than it’s the MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate) that can cause issues. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain – which sounds fun, but it really isn’t. It can be an excitotoxin which can cause cell damage and cell death (1). I like my cells where they so I dropped soy sauce like it was hot (including the gluten-free varieties).

Not a sip of soy sauce touched my lips for over a year until I decided to start experimenting more with my salad dressings (more to come on that!) I wanted something with that sweet and salty tang that only soy sauce could provide and I decided to DIY it.

When it comes to cooking, I am some-what of a free spirit, running around making a mess, using a dash of this and a pinch of that. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it prevents me from having to wash 100 measuring cups. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I USED a measuring cup. As for the soy sauce, I had a good idea of the basic ingredients – broth, ginger, balsamic, molasses or honey, garlic, and water to thin it out. For those of you who prefer numbers, the general breakdown was like this:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of water
½ cup of chicken broth (I typically like to use DIY bone broth. You can also use premade bone broths such as this brand)
¼ cup of balsamic vinegar
2-3 tsp of molasses or honey ( here I only had agave available, which worked out just fine!)
¼ tsp ginger (I like Simply Organic spices, which you can get on amazon here)
¼ tsp garlic powder
Note: You can use fresh ginger or garlic but you will have to blend it very well and likely be a little chunkier than you might desire.

Directions: boil these ingredients and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Let it cool and then put it in a container (I like to recycle olive oil containers for these purposes). It can keep in the fridge for about 3 weeks. This recipe is Gluten-free, AIP compliant, paleo, nutrient-dense, and delicious!

Sometimes I will literally just blend the mess out of the ingredients instead (20 seconds or so) and I think it turned out great as a marinade. By the way, if you don’t have an awesome blender, this one is brilliant! Great price and does everything I need it to do (I am not endorsed by Kitchen Aid, I promise!) Look for a future post on choosing the perfect blender for you!

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