A vegan guide to condiments, sauces

What’s actually in wasabi anyway? Doesn’t soy sauce contain fish or something?

When it comes to common condiments, sometimes their specific ingredients are a mystery.

Condiments can pose a problem for vegans or for those looking to eat fewer animals products, so many people will just stick to the one or two they are confident in. But since everyone loves to dip and dunk their food, that means no fun — and much less flavor.

Here is a quick PETA- approved guide to show you which condiments are safe for vegans and which ones you should avoid.

Vegan-friendly condiments

A1 Steak sauce: A1 Steak sauce is delicious on grilled vegetables and sandwiches. If you’re vegan, no need to worry here. This flavorful sauce contains tomato purée, raisin paste, vinegar, sugar, salt, orange purée and a blend of spices.

Barbecue sauce: When it comes to barbecue, it’s only the meat you have to worry about. Most barbecue sauces only contain a tomato base with vinegar, brown sugar, mustard, onion, salt and pepper. Stay away from sauces that include Worcestershire sauce on their list of ingredients.

Hoisin sauce: Hoisin sauce is a thick, sweet and salty condiment typically used as a glaze in Chinese cuisine. The word hoisin is Chinese for seafood, but the sauce doesn’t contain any seafood ingredients. Recipes vary, but most are vegan-friendly including only soy beans, red chillies, garlic, vinegar and spices.

Hot sauce: Hot sauce is flavorful and completely guilt free. It’s made with chilies and peppers, garlic, salt and water.

Hummus: Hummus is made with mashed chickpeas and other vegan-friendly ingredients like olive oil, garlic, sea salt and tahini. Dip away.

Ketchup: Ketchup is a sweet and tangy tomato-based sauce — and probably the most ubiquitous condiment of them all. Imagine if you could never have ketchup again! Thankfully, ketchup adds only sugar, vinegar and spices to tomatoes.

Maple syrup: Most maple syrups come from sap collected straight from the tree. It’s a true sugary springtime phenomena.

Mustard: Mustard has been made for thousands of years from the seeds of the mustard plant, vinegar and water. Aside from Dijon mustard and honey mustard, you can count on mustard as a vegan-friendly condiment choice.

Peanut butter: Most PBs are a simple combination of peanuts, oil and salt — and sometimes sugar.

Relish: Add some zing to your vegan mustard-based potato salad by adding relish. Sweet pickle relish is usually only made up of cucumbers, onion, salt, mustard seeds, vinegar and spices.

Salsa: Salsa is nothing more than a delicious mix of veggies, and most of the time, the tortilla chips are too.

Soy sauce: Soy sauce is always vegan. Kikkoman, the most popular brand, is made by brewing then fermenting soybeans, wheat, salt and water.

Wasabi: Wasabi is the seriously tangy, bright green glob you’ll likely find on any sushi plate. Wasabi is the name of the condiment, but also the name of the plant it comes from, so the condiment is totally safe. However, if you’re eating the condiment in its country of origin, Japan, you should know they often grate the plant against sharkskin to get it to soften.

Nonvegan condiments

Dijon mustard: Yellow mustard is vegan, but Dijon typically is not. It’s made using a filtering process that typically contains animal byproducts, and some brands even contain egg yolks or honey.

Fish sauce: Fish sauce is always made from fermented fish and salt, so no hiding here.

Honey: As you probably already know, honey comes from bees. A big no-no in vegan diets.

Horseradish sauce: Horseradish itself is vegan, but many sauces contain cream, so proceed with caution.

Mayonnaise: Mayonnaise contains eggs, but there are a variety of vegan mayos on the market. Also, avocado or yellow mustard can oftentimes adequately replace mayo in recipes.

Nutella: It’s not just hazelnuts and cocoa. Nutella contains milk and whey.

Pesto: Pass on the pesto. Though it seems fresh and vegan friendly, don’t forget about all that Parmesan cheese mixed in there.

Ranch dressing/dip: Ranch products usually contain some sort of cream base like milk, buttermilk or even sour cream.

Worcestershire sauce: That salty taste comes from anchovies.

Source: PETA