Ramp Leaf Garum (Vegan Fish Sauce)

Ramp leaf garum is a fermented, plant-based substitute for fish sauce made from ramp leaves, salt, water, and time. 

A few of my chef friends have been trying to make vegetarian fish sauce recipes using different things to replicate the umami flavor. Most of the techniques include lots of ingredients like coconut aminos, shiitake or other dried mushrooms, soy sauces, alliums and other things. 

I had an idea to make something similar with fewer ingredients. My goal was to make a version made from from foraged ingredients, specifically ramp leaf juice. To be clear, this technique won’t be for everyone as it requires some equipment, but the chefs who’ve tasted it so far have been impressed. 

After enjoying my meat garum recipe I modified from the Noma Guide to Fermentation and becoming obsessed with the almost fishy flavor of fermented ramp leaves, I knew I could make something from ramp leaf juice. Koji rice was one of the key ingredients.

Koji: The Secret

Here's how it works. For something like sauerkraut, I might season cabbage with 2% of it’s salt by weight. Soy sauce and garum usually have a concentration of around 18% salt. 18% is too salty for the liquid to ferment on its own, but the beauty of koji fungus is that its able to lacto-ferment liquids that are high in salt.

To make the sauce, I combine pure ramp juice with koji rice, salt, and chopped ramp leaves. After the liquid has fermented for a couple days, I put the jar in a dehydrator and cook it slowly at 145-150 F. Over a period of thirty days the low heat causes a Maillard or browning reaction. The slow browning turns the yellow brine a rich caramel color, as well as adding toasted notes and depth of flavor.  

Necessary Equipment

The ingredient list is small. All you need is some koji rice, lots of ramp leaves, a little water and salt. The equipment is the most important. Here's what you'll need. 

• Goggles (to protect your eyes from ramp fumes).
• A juicer.
• Wide fermentation vessel.
• Large box-style dehydrator.
• Gloves (optional) 

There’s a few different ways you can make this using other combinations of equipment. I’ll try to describe how that might be done below. If you experiment with a different method that works, please let me know. 

Simplifying the recipe

• No ramp leaves? You might try using half onions and half garlic, starting with the same weight of the ramp leaves in the recipe.
• Instead of a dehydrator, some people have used a rice cooker to slowly heat liquids.
• If you don’t have a juicer, you can puree ramp leaves in a blender with water.
• If you don’t have koji rice, you can ferment the liquid with a 3% salt concentration first, and add the rest of the salt after the fermentation.

How to use it

The finished sauce is a fish or soy sauce substitute that tastes like toasted ramps, and you can use it anywhere you’d use fish sauce. Here's some tips I've noted after a year of cooking with it. 

• You can use the sauce for all-purpose cooking for say, pad Thai, but you’ll have to use a little extra as the flavor is more mild than regular fish sauce.
• I like it best by itself or mixed with only a few ingredients.
• It makes great Japanese-style dipping sauces.
• For a tempura-style dipping sauce, mix 2 parts ramp garum with 2 parts maple syrup or mugolio, 2 parts mirin and 1 part dashi broth, vegetable stock or water, or to taste. 
• Mixed with melted butter and a squeeze of fresh lemon it’s great spooned over baked or steamed fish.

I hope you've enjoyed this foray into experimental cooking. Whether you get inspired to make your own vegetarian fish sauce or not, I think we can all agree that the potential of what you can make with ramp leaves is only limited by your imagination.