No gochujang, gochugaru, or fish sauce where you live? Here's a real, tested ingredient substitution guide for cooking authentic-tasting Korean food using local ingredients from Africa, Europe, the US, and beyond.
No gochujang, gochugaru, or fish sauce where you live? Here's a real, tested ingredient substitution guide for cooking authentic-tasting Korean food using local ingredients from Africa, Europe, the US, and beyond.
Why I Had to Learn This the Hard Way
The first time I tried to cook Korean food after moving abroad, I stood in my kitchen holding a recipe that called for gochujang, gochugaru, and fish sauce — and realized I had none of them, and no way to get them anytime soon. The nearest Korean or Asian grocery store was either nonexistent or hours away, and international shipping for a jar of chili paste felt a little ridiculous.
So I started experimenting. Some attempts were genuinely bad — one early "gochujang substitute" tasted more like spicy ketchup than anything Korean. But over time, through a lot of trial and error across different countries and different local markets, I built a substitution system that actually works. This guide is everything I learned, ingredient by ingredient, so you don't have to repeat my early mistakes.
If you've searched "Korean cooking substitute ingredients" or "how to cook Korean food without Asian grocery store," this is the guide I wish I had on day one.
The Core Idea: Match the Flavor Function, Not the Ingredient
Before getting into specific swaps, here's the mindset shift that changed everything for me: stop looking for the exact ingredient, and start asking what job that ingredient is doing in the dish.
Korean cooking generally leans on a few flavor functions:
- Umami/saltiness: soy sauce, fish sauce, fermented pastes
- Heat with a slightly sweet, fruity edge: gochugaru, gochujang
- Fermented depth: doenjang, kimchi, aged pastes
- Aromatic base: garlic, ginger, green onion — usually the same everywhere
Once you identify which job an ingredient is doing, local substitutes become much easier to find.
Gochugaru (Korean Red Pepper Flakes) Substitute Guide
Gochugaru is coarse, bright red, moderately spicy, and slightly sweet and smoky — very different from generic chili powder, which is often much hotter and more bitter.
What Actually Works
| Region | Local Substitute |
|---|---|
| Europe | Sweet Hungarian paprika mixed with a smaller amount of hot paprika or crushed chili flakes (ratio roughly 3:1 sweet to hot) |
| Africa | Local dried chili flakes (many West and East African chilies are fruity and smoky) mixed with a pinch of sugar and paprika if available |
| US/UK | Korean-style Aleppo pepper flakes when available, or a mix of regular crushed red pepper and paprika |
The trick I discovered: Gochugaru's flavor comes largely from sweetness plus smokiness plus moderate heat, not from pure spiciness. So I always blend a mild paprika (for color and sweetness) with a smaller amount of a hotter local chili (for kick). This combination consistently tricked my own taste memory better than any single substitute alone.
Gochujang (Fermented Chili Paste) Substitute Guide
This one took the most experimenting, since gochujang is fermented, thick, sweet, salty, and deeply savory all at once — not something you can replace with just "chili sauce."
My Go-To Homemade Substitute
- 3 tablespoons of the paprika/chili flake mix above
- 2 tablespoons white or yellow miso paste (widely available internationally) — this replaces the fermented depth
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey or brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar or any mild vinegar
- A small splash of water to loosen it into a paste
Blending miso paste with chili and a touch of sweetness turned out to be the closest homemade match I found anywhere. Miso is surprisingly common in supermarkets across Europe and even in larger stores in parts of Africa and the Middle East, since it's used in many international and health food aisles.
Fish Sauce (Aekjeot) Substitute Guide
Korean fish sauce adds a salty, funky, savory backbone, especially important in kimchi and many soups.
What Worked Locally
| Situation | Substitute |
|---|---|
| Fish sauce available locally | Use it directly (Thai, Vietnamese, or local fish sauce) — the flavor function is nearly identical. |
| No fish sauce at all | Soy sauce plus a small pinch of salt, or Worcestershire sauce, which surprisingly mimics the umami-salty-fermented profile well. |
| Vegetarian/vegan needed | Soy sauce alone, or soy sauce with a tiny bit of mushroom powder for extra umami. |
I found that many African and European supermarkets carry some version of fish sauce, even if it's not labeled Korean — often in the international, Thai, or Vietnamese food section. When there was truly none available, Worcestershire sauce became my most reliable stand-in, since it shares that same salty-savory-slightly-funky quality.
Doenjang (Fermented Soybean Paste) Substitute Guide
Doenjang is Korea's version of a deeply savory, salty, fermented soybean paste, often used in stews.
Best Substitute: Japanese miso paste (the darker, red or brown varieties specifically) is the closest match I found anywhere in the world. It's fermented, salty, and deeply savory in almost exactly the same way. If miso isn't available either, a mix of soy sauce and a small amount of peanut butter (unsweetened) can approximate the thickness and umami, though it's a more distant substitute.
Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil, and Rice Vinegar
These three are the easiest to find internationally, since they're used widely in many cuisines beyond Korean food.
- Soy sauce: available almost everywhere, including most general supermarkets.
- Sesame oil: found in international or health food aisles in most countries; if unavailable, a neutral oil with a pinch of toasted sesame seeds crushed in adds a similar nutty aroma.
- Rice vinegar: if unavailable, white vinegar diluted slightly with water and a pinch of sugar works nearly identically.
A Simple Table to Keep in Your Kitchen
| Korean Ingredient | Flavor Job | Best Local Substitute |
|---|---|---|
| Gochugaru | Sweet, smoky heat | Paprika + hot chili flakes blend |
| Gochujang | Sweet, salty, fermented heat | Miso + chili flakes + honey + soy sauce |
| Aekjeot (fish sauce) | Salty, funky umami | Local fish sauce, or Worcestershire sauce |
| Doenjang | Savory fermented depth | Dark/red miso paste |
| Saeujeot (salted shrimp) | Extra umami | Skip, or a tiny bit of soy sauce |
| Sesame oil | Nutty aroma | Neutral oil + crushed toasted sesame seeds |
| Rice vinegar | Mild acidity | Diluted white vinegar + pinch of sugar |
Where to Actually Look in a Regular Supermarket
Before assuming an ingredient is impossible to find, I learned to check three specific sections that most people overlook:
- The "international" or "world foods" aisle: this is where miso, fish sauce, and chili pastes often hide, even in small local supermarkets.
- The health food or vegan section: miso paste, tamari, and specialty vinegars often show up here.
- Local spice markets or open-air markets: especially in parts of Africa and Europe, where dried chilies and fermented condiments from other cuisines are often sold loose and can be repurposed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Can I really get close to authentic Korean flavor without any Korean ingredients?
Yes, in most cases. Korean flavor relies heavily on the balance of sweet, salty, spicy, and fermented notes — and that balance can be recreated using miso, paprika, chili flakes, and soy sauce almost anywhere in the world.
Q. What's the single most important substitute to get right?
Gochugaru and gochujang matter most, since they define the color and signature flavor of dishes like kimchi and tteokbokki. Getting the paprika-to-chili ratio right makes the biggest difference.
Q. Is miso paste really a good substitute for Korean fermented pastes?
Yes. While not identical, miso shares the same fermented soybean base as doenjang and gochujang, making it the closest widely available substitute in most countries.
Q. What if I can't find any substitutes at all?
Even a simplified version using just soy sauce, garlic, chili flakes, and sugar can get you most of the way to a satisfying, Korean-inspired flavor — it won't be perfectly traditional, but it will be close enough to genuinely enjoy.
Final Thoughts
Cooking Korean food without Korean ingredients felt impossible at first, but it turned into one of the most useful cooking skills I picked up while living abroad. The secret wasn't finding a perfect one-to-one replacement for every single item — it was understanding what job each ingredient was doing, and then finding something local that could do that same job.
If you're living somewhere without a Korean grocery store nearby, don't give up on the flavors you're craving. With a jar of miso, some local chili, and basic pantry staples, real Korean flavor is closer than you think — no matter where in the world you happen to be cooking from.