If tomato paste is your only option, it’s better than nothing. Tomato PasteĬanned or tube tomato paste offers the right texture to recipes but lacks the necessary flavor.

Harissa paste is usually less spicy than gochujang, so you may need to taste and adjust the amount. Use Harissa paste in an equal amount in dishes like noodles with a creamy sauce that gets a punch from gochujang or recipes that add spice paste to punch up foods like gochujang macaroni and cheese. Its flavor profile is nothing like Korean spices, except heat and slight sweetness. Harissa paste makes a suitable Korean chili paste alternative in dishes where gochujang adds a surprising hit of spice rather than an authentic Korean recipe. To make a paste, mix one-part cayenne pepper with half that amount of soy sauce and a pinch of sugar, then use it in an equal amount in the recipe. The paste consistency makes it a better gochujang substitute. You can add the pepper alone for heat, but you can also use a paste from red pepper flakes and soy sauce. In the United States, all these come from hot cayenne peppers. Your spice bottle might say cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, or red pepper powder. The paste may provide enough garlic flavor that you won’t want to add more. The heat and sweetness will help create the necessary taste in your recipe.Īdd about half the amount you would gochujang and taste before adding more.Īlso, if your recipe calls for garlic, don’t add it until you’ve added this substitute and tasted the dish. If you can find Thai chili paste at your grocery store and the dish you’re making can handle a heavy garlic flavor, this paste works as a gochujang substitute.

You might also want to add some sweetener since sambal oelek lacks the sweetness of most other substitutes.

This replacement for gochujang is spicier, so use about half as much as you would gochujang. Sambal oelek brings a lot of heat and some acidity to dishes, though it lacks the complexity of flavors fermentation adds to foods like miso or gochujang. This thin Asian chili paste is usually available at most large grocery stores in the Asian aisle with sweet chili sauce and soy sauce. Sriracha is thin instead of a paste, so you may prefer a different Korean chili paste substitute if you need something with more texture. Start by adding half as much as the recipe calls for and add more as needed. However, it still makes a tasty, spicy substitute for gochujang. Sriracha is a hot pepper sauce that gets its heat from jalapeños, while gochujang gets heat from Korean chili peppers, so the flavor profile is slightly different. If you have Korean chili powder (gochugaru), use that, but cayenne powder or flakes will work, too.Īdd an equivalent amount of miso to the recipe, and start with a dash or two of paprika and chili powder. Add chili powder and paprika to provide the heat and flavor of the hot peppers. You won’t want to use miso paste alone, however. That means miso paste works well as a substitute for gochujang in many recipes. Miso PasteĪuthentic gochujang and miso paste both use fermented soy as a flavor base.

What Can You Substitute for Gochujang? 1. Most small grocery stores don’t have it, but large stores might have it in the aisle with Asian foods or in the refrigerated case next to the kimchi, which is Korean fermented and spiced cabbage. If you don’t have an Asian market nearby, you might have to purchase gochujang online. It’s one of the staples in Korean cooking. Gochujang is an extremely versatile condiment/ingredient and can be used in many different ways. Whether it’s eaten as a spread, added to stews or soups, mixed with sesame oil for a dipping sauce, or even used as a marinade. Gochujang is a red chili paste made up of chilies which have been fermented with glutinous rice, fermented soybeans, and salt while gochugaru is a chili powder. Gochujang is not gochugaru, they are different.

Tomato paste substitute for sauce