Vegetarian Secret Sauces

I'm not vegetarian, but since my husband is, I've been learning about new sauces I never knew about! I used to be at a loss for what to cook vegetarian since I've grown up eating meat as a main. Some of the sauces I've used in the past also work, but several also aren't vegetarian when you take a closer look at the ingredients. Here are a five of my favorite vegetarian sauces!

"Barbecue" is a funny name for a Chinese sauce because it tastes nothing like barbecue at all. This one below is a good staple in general. We use it a lot for sauteing tofu. You can get it in the sauce aisle at any Ranch 99 Market.  

My mother-in-law introduced my husband and I to this "Toona Sauce" below. Once again, it doesn't taste anything like Tuna lol. It tasted amazing with sauteed eggplant. We bought some at the Heartland Society grocery store, but if there isn't one near you, you can also order online here. The lady at the store also told us it's a great marinade for baked salmon if you eat meat too. 

The three sauces below from left to right are: Chinese Spaghetti Sauce, Olive Paste, and Bull Head Toona Bean Paste. You can get all three from a Ranch 99 Market as well. If you don't know the Chinese characters, you can show the picture to somehow who works there. They should be able to direct you to the right aisle.

The Chinese Spaghetti Sauce goes really well with a traditional marinara to make a hearty, vegetarian bolognese pasta. Otherwise, it's great for mixing in with some boiled Taiwanese noodles or even ramen. 

The Olive Paste is another great staple sauce. My favorite is using it to cook fried rice. A little goes a long way as it's pretty salty. It's also really tasty in stir fry veggies. Careful not the grab the other olive paste brand as the other one has MSG.

The last sauce, Bull Head Toona Bean Paste is a heartier version of the other Toona Sauce. Also very tasty.

Hope you enjoy!