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All you need to know about Chili bean paste substitute

Chili bean paste is yummy. It makes our cuisine, especially Asian, richer. However, sometimes it runs out of your kitchen. So do you know what to use to replace it or not? This Battersby article will save you.

What is a substitute for chili paste?

The top 5 best substitutes for chili bean sauce. 

  • Miso paste and Tabasco hot sauce
  • Sriracha with Miso paste
  • Sriracha with Miso paste
  • “Toban Djan” – Lee Kum Kee bean sauce
  • Doubanjiang sauce

chili bean paste substitute battersby 2

Chili garlic paste substitute search 

1. Miso paste and Tabasco sauce

Miso is already familiar with Asia cuisine. Miso is a Japanese sauce made from fermented soybean paste. It has a tangy flavor. But it doesn’t have a hint of chili pepper in the sauce.

However, miso soy sauce alone is not enough to replace chili sauce. You need to add a little Tabasco or other hot sauce. This will add to the heat and acidity of the vinegar. As a result, we have a mixture to replace the word chili bean paste.

Recipe:

1 teaspoon chili sauce = 1 teaspoon mixed miso + 5 drops Tabasco

Without Tabasco, you can use another hot chili paste substitute.

2. Sriracha sauce

This Thai sauce has chili as the main ingredient. So you can use Sriracha as a red chili paste substitute for chili bean paste.

Sriracha is a combination of many ingredients. It has a distinctive smell, consisting of red chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, salt, and sugar.

Sriracha chili sauce has the same name as the coastal city of Thailand. With the famous spicy flavor, this chili sauce is popular with Asians. It is also popular with the whole world. Sriracha chili sauce has grown so much that cookbooks and authentic recipes use it as the main seasoning. Sriracha has become an indispensable sauce in all fish and seafood restaurants.

When eating Sriracha, you will feel the richness. You can eat it directly or use it as a condiment.

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Chili bean paste substitute 

3. Sriracha with Miso 

Based on the idea of the two recipes above, we have the 3rd recipe. 

This is the perfect combination of sriracha and miso paste. It is a combination of chili and beans in a chili bean sauce.

Recipe:

You just need to mix miso and Sriracha in a ratio of 50:50. Sriracha combined with Miso paste is perfect as a substitute chili paste. It will be a bit hot, though. So it would help if you considered using it properly.

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4. “Toban Djan” – Lee Kum Kee bean sauce

This is a Korean chili paste substitute for “Szechuan” chilli bean paste. It has another name, Lee Kum Kee chili pastes, named after the region where it is from.

The ingredients of this chili paste substitution are entirely natural. They are mainly fresh chili, sugar, broad bean, and soybeans.

Lee Kum Kee chili sauce specializes in serving fried, grilled, sauce, and spaghetti dishes.

In particular, it is excellent for marinating and grilling roast duck or roast duck. It will enhance the delicious flavor even more.

Toban Djan chili sauce has the delicious flavor of fresh chili mixed with other spices. It makes the flavor of the food more prosperous and attractive.

5. Doubanjiang sauce

Doubanjiang consists of 4 main ingredients. They are fava beans, hot peppers, salt, and wheat flour. Doubanjiang sauce is quite thick. Many beans are still intact, so are chili peppers. Doubanjiang is reddish-brown. It has a strong aroma of fermented broad beans. Besides, Doubanjiang has a salty and spicy flavor.

Many shops are selling Doubanjiang soy sauce. Each brand will have a different spicy and salty taste. So depending on the brand, you will be able to adjust the umami flavor in the food accordingly.

Doubanjiang soy sauce makes the food more delicious and more decadent. But it comes with a spicy flavor, so you need to pay attention.

Doubanjiang soy sauce with a short incubation time will have a light red color, slightly thickened. Meanwhile, it will have a dark brown color if aged for a long time. At this point, the soy sauce is no longer whole.

The incubation period of Doubanjiang soy sauce can last from 1 to 8 years.

What is chili paste?

Chinese chilli bean paste is a spicy sauce thick like a sauce and has a red color. The main ingredients of chilli bean paste include pureed chili and some other spices. Countries that grow chili have a custom of making chili pastes, especially in the Sichuan area.

Chili paste is generally very diverse in flavor. It is due to the combination of additives (garlic, vinegar, sugar, tomato, sesame, galangal, water-fat or cooking oil…).

Chili paste is either freshly ground chili or coarsely ground dried chili. People often stir-fry it in fat to bring out the smell and create consistency. The sour chili sauce uses both tomatoes and vinegar to reduce the spiciness. It is suitable for some dishes such as pho, fried rice.

Sweet chili sauce is suitable for savory cakes such as burgers, which have a lot of sugar.

In some countries, people use very sour and spicy tabasco chili sauce. But there is also a sweet chili sauce that is more tomato-based than chili.

chili bean paste substitute

Chinese chili paste substitute 

Types of Doubanjiang Sauce

There are three popular types of Doubanjiang soy sauce. In terms of flavor level, we have three types of Doubanjiang soy sauce as follows:

1. Pixian Doubanjiang

There is a Doubanjiang soy sauce made in Sichuan province, China, called Pixian Doubanjiang. It is the standard and the best in terms of taste. This kind of Douban is suitable for cooking standard Sichuan dishes.

It has two types: 1 dry type and 1 type of oil distillation.

2. Taiwan Doubanjiang Sauce

There are two types of soy sauce. 

One is spicy. The other is a non-spicy fermented broad black bean paste. People often use Taiwan’s non-spicy version for cooking non-spicy Sichuan tofu.

3. Cantonese Doubanjiang sauce

It is mainly from soybeans and broad beans. So it’s a bit different from Pixian Douban.

The Guangdong region does not widely use Doubanjiang soy sauce. So, of course, the taste won’t be as good as the first.

If you don’t have the above two types, buy this type temporarily as a chile paste substitute.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Where is Chilli bean sauce substitute?

With the above suggestions, you must have many ideas when the chili bean paste in your house runs out. You can buy these items at the grocery store. More conveniently, you can also buy them online on Amazon.

2. Which dishes specialize in using Douban sauce?

Lots and lots of dishes.

Typically Mapo tofu, Kung pao Chicken, Sichuan beef, Sichuan taro duck, Sichuan hot pot.

3. How to preserve Douban sauce?

With non-oiled Douban, you can continue to dry in the sun to allow the fermentation process to continue. The longer you brew, the better the Douban sauce. If not, you can put it in a glass container. Please keep it in the refrigerator.

4. How to use Douban soy sauce?

When cooking, people use a knife to mince the Douban sauce. The reason is that this sauce has many unbroken whole beans and large chili skins.

Some people put it in a blender and puree it. You can also puree it and then put it in a jar to preserve it for later use.

5. How many spoons of Douban should I put in the dish?

Usually, you will use:

One spoon to give the dish an umami taste

Two tablespoons if you want a douban flavor in the dish (Mapo Tofu)

Three tablespoons if you want a rich and spicy dish (e.g., Sichuan hot pot or beef jerky)

Douban sauce already has a salty taste, so you need to pay attention to adjust the salty taste when cooking.

6. Is Pixian Doubanjiang paste salty?

Yes. It contains about 18% salt.

7. What is black sauce?

Black bean sauce is a typical Chinese condiment. Then imported to Korea by Chinese workers to cook to help remember their homeland.

Later, the Koreans made it again by adding caramel. This gives the sauce a new savor. So it’s very popular in this country.

Black soy sauce is a sauce suitable for processing many different dishes. It includes black soy noodles. This is one of the world famous noodle dishes.

Conclusion

The posted article gave you an unbiased look at the substitutes for chili bean pastes. Battersby hopes the above tips help you in life. Feel free to experiment and leave a comment if you have any trouble.

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