Hoisin sauce goes great with every Asian-inspired dish I make. But since my wife needs to eat only gluten-free products, finding GF hoisin is not easy. And when I did find it online, it was ridiculously expensive. So it was time to make it myself. The recipe requires gluten-free soy sauce, which is easily found in any supermarket under the La Choy brand. You can also use Japanese Tamari sauce instead of soy sauce, but read the label: some tamari sauces do contain wheat. (The San-J brand is gluten-free.)
If you do a side-by-side taste test with jarred hoisin, you’ll find that this tastes quite different. But if you use it in your favorite Asian recipe, you’ll see that it works beautifully.
4 tablespoons GF soy sauce
2 teaspoons natural creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon Sambal chili paste
Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and mix thoroughly, stopping and scraping down the sides of the bowl to incorporate all the ingredients. Keep it in a tightly sealed container, refrigerated.
For the dish above…
1 1/2 lbs. boneless country-style pork ribs, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons corn starch
coconut oil
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 summer squash, diced
2 scallions, chopped (green and white parts)
2 heads of broccoli, washed and chopped into individual florets
hoisin recipe (above)
Once you’ve cut the pork into inch-long pieces, place it in a bowl and toss with the corn starch until it’s coated.
Heat a pan til hot. Add a tablespoon or 2 of the coconut oil and then the pork. Cook until the pork has browned on all sides and has cooked through. Scrape the pork out into a bowl and put the pan back on the stove, setting the heat to medium. Add another tablespoon of the coconut oil and saute the onions until translucent. Add the squash and saute for a few minutes until softened. Add the scallions and saute a couple of minutes more. Add the broccoli, tossing the pan ingredients to combine, and then spoon out about 2 tablespoons of the hoisin sauce into the pan, mixing well.
Add the pork and any juices in the bowl back into the pan and toss to combine. Taste carefully to check for seasoning. Add more hoisin if needed. Don’t add too much or it will be too salty.
Serve over rice, if desired.
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