How to Substitute Ingredients in Chinese Cooking

Chinese recipes are delicious as they are, but they’re also great for tailoring to your tastebuds too. Sometimes when cooking, you might find you’re missing some key ingredients or discover a dinner guest has an allergy or special dietary requirements. Substituting ingredients may seem slightly intimidating at first, especially if you’re unfamiliar with cooking Chinese food. However, our article will help you to simplify your substitutions without altering the quality of your meal. If you are looking for oriental ingredients unavailable in your local store, it might be quicker to find what you’re looking for in our Chinese supermarket online at Oriental Mart!

Meat Substitutions

If you find yourself dining with a vegetarian or vegan, you’ll be looking for meat-free alternatives. If you’re not sure what to look for, this simple guide will make sense of what to substitute.

Extra Tip

It’s worth considering that oyster sauce, prawn crackers, curry sauces and pastes may contain animal products.

Alternative to Chicken

There are loads of wonderful ways to substitute your chicken. You can use fake meats, including tofu and jackfruit. Jackfruit has a smooth, juicy texture with a subtle flavour that’s easy to marinate. Tofu is a very popular option that is often fried.

Alternative to Beef

You can use mushrooms to substitute beef in your homemade Chinese meals. They’re rich in iron and have a meaty texture that will complement the meal nicely. A great recommended replacement is to use shiitake mushrooms or large field mushroom.

Sauces

If you’re feeling spontaneous about dinner, but don’t have the right sauces to accompany your stir-fry, you can always quickly whip one up or adapt the recipe with one of these alternatives.

Alternative to Hoisin Sauce

If you’re out of Hoisin Sauce, you can alternatively use equal amounts of ketchup and molasses. Sweet bean sauce is another option to replace hoisin sauce.

Alternative to Oyster Sauce

Oyster sauce can be easily replaced by thick soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, hoisin sauce or fish sauce.

Alternative to Fish Sauce

Fish sauce is an incredibly popular ingredient; it’s used in curries, salads, stir-fries and more. You can use soy sauce if you’re looking for a vegetarian option. Soy sauce is a lot stronger in comparison to fish sauce, so it’s best to reduce the amount added to the recipe when substituting.

Vegetables

Alternative to Bok Choy

Bok choy is a type of Chinese cabbage that has a crunchy, juicy texture. You can use Chinese leaves, long-stemmed broccoli or spring greens.

Alternative to Bamboo

If you can’t find any fresh bamboo, canned bamboo is a viable alternative. You can find it at our online supermarket at Oriental Mart. If you need a quick replacement, you can always use carrots for pork dishes. Vegetables such as asparagus, white cabbage and broccoli work well in stir-fries to substitute bamboo too.

Spices

Spices are a must when it comes to aromatic meals. They are what help to define the dishes.

Alternative to Chinese Five-Spice

Herbs and spices have played a major part in Chinese medicine as well as their food. Chinese five-spice was originally used as a remedy to restore the balance of the body. If you’re looking to recreate your own, you will need to use equal amounts of cinnamon, star anise, fennel, cloves and Szechuan Peppercorn.

Alternative to Szechuan Peppercorns

If you’re out of Szechuan peppercorns, then you can just interchange them with freshly ground black peppercorns.

For guidance on using different types of noodles, see our guide to which noodles are gluten-free. We hope we’ve helped with substituting ingredients in your Chinese cooking! Let us know how your meals turned out; we would love to hear from you! For more ideas and inspiration in the kitchen, you can browse through our blogs!