Yields:
1 Serving
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 5 Mins
Cook Time:
15 Mins
Total Time:
20 Mins
XO sauce is a fancy pants condiment created in a high-class kitchen in 1980s Hong Kong. Back then, XO cognac was the bourgeoisie drink of choice, and so this very schmancy seafood-infused sauce adopted the same name. Unfortunately, most XO sauces in the market are chock full of seafood. Fortunately, vegan homemade XO sauce is easy!
So, say goodbye to sipping XO in sleazy smoky KTV rooms with loud businessmen. Say hello to a delicious umami sauce and the great variety of food you can make with it.
Ingredients
Adjust Servings
Instructions
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Wash, then soak the dried shiitake mushrooms and chilli to rehydrate. Finely dice the chilli, garlic, shallots, and spring onion whites. If you are worried about the spice level, remove the seeds from the dried chilli.
- Heat 3 tbsp of oil in a non-stick pan over medium-low heat. I accidentally added an extra tbsp of oil because I wasn't paying attention so there's a lot of oil in my photo! Make sure you use a neutral-tasting oil, so it doesn't impart too much of its own flavour into the sauce.
-
Add the shallots and spring onion whites and slowly cook them until slightly golden.
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While the onions are browning, mince the mushrooms, separating the stems from the caps.
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Add the mushroom stems, cinnamon, star anise, and dried chilli, and stir until the dried chilli turns dark and the spice becomes aromatic.
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Add the mushroom caps, seaweed and garlic and stir until the raw smell of the garlic is gone. The mushrooms will absorb almost all the oil.
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Add 1 tbsp of vegan oyster sauce and 1 tsp of radish or seaweed stock powder. You can also add 0.5 tsp black or white pepper here if you like.
- Turn the heat down to low. As you cook the mushrooms, they will start to release the oil and moisture. Slowly cook the sauce down until all the moisture is evaporated, there should only be chunky mushroom sauce and oil left.
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Remove the cinnamon and star anise from the pan. Separate the chunky mushroom sauce and the oil. There should be about half the amount of oil compared with my photo.
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Put the chunky mushroom sauce into the blender and give it a few pulses until it is of a finer texture to your liking. I like it fairly chunky so I can choose whether or not to further mince it in future use.
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When the sauce cools, put the mince into a clean glass container. Top with the oil from the pan.
I like your recipe. However, as a vegan I could not use the pungent onion and garlic in the recipe. I substituted ginger. It’s all good.
thank you!