Soy sauce substitute coconut aminos, and nutritional yeast: should they be part of your diet, and how to use them

Two fringe food ingredients have gone mainstream as more people eat vegetarian, gluten-free and lactose-free dishes. Do you need to add them to your diet?

Nutritional yeast, or nooch, is packed with essential nutrients but could be harmful for some; choose coconut aminos only if your body can’t take soy or gluten

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Coconut aminos, made from the fermented sap of coconut palm blossom, is a gluten-free, slightly sweet alternative to soy sauce. Beware of the fanciful claims made about its health benefits. Photo: Alamy

Published: 10:15pm, 20 Jul 2019Updated: 10:15pm, 20 Jul 2019

Now that vegetarian, gluten-free and lactose-free dishes have graduated from special requests to regular menu items, it follows that once-fringe ingredients that address these dietary concerns are also going mainstream.

Two seasonings – coconut aminos and nutritional yeast – are becoming more common because they meet the needs of today’s eaters. Here is what you need to know to make the most of these unique ingredients.

Coconut aminos

This brown liquid seasoning is made from the fermented sap of the coconut palm blossom, and then seasoned with salt. It doesn’t taste like coconut – rather, it is very similar to soy sauce, but it’s lighter, less intense and somewhat sweet.

Coconut aminos’ spike in popularity is partly because it’s gluten- and soy-free, so it makes an excellent soy sauce substitute for people with coeliac disease, gluten intolerance or soy allergies. It is also lower in sodium than soy sauce, with 90 to 140 milligrams of sodium per teaspoon, depending on the brand, compared with about 290 milligrams for the same amount of regular soy sauce and 162 milligrams for low-sodium soy sauce.