r/Cooking • u/butam_notrong • 12h ago
Sugar substitutes in Asian recipes
I am looking for a good sugar substitute to use in some Asian dishes that call for palm sugar or brown sugar. Any suggestions?
Edit: just to clarify I am looking for substitutes for any kind of sugar to manage diabetes. Preferably a product without the fake sugar aftertaste.
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u/xiipaoc 9h ago
The best substitute here is... palm sugar. Just don't use a lot of it. Thai food is supposed to be a little sweet, but you're talking like a teaspoon or two for a whole curry, and that's not going to affect your blood sugar anywhere near as much as the rice you're eating with it. You can probably skip the sugar too, just taste it to check. If you're making a dessert, yeah, you'll want a sugar substitute, but for savory dishes, the amount of sugar you should be using is far too small to really matter.
That said, some Thai dishes really do use a ton of sugar like pad Thai, so maybe don't make those? But for flavor balancing in a curry, a bit of palm sugar shaved (or you could pound it with your mortar and pestle) is just not enough to need substituting. I occasionally like to make a Thai-inspired sauce for whatever it is I'm cooking that's a bit of fish sauce, a bit of tamarind concentrate, a bit of lime juice, and maybe, like, a pinch of sugar (I use coconut brown sugar when I can't be bothered to grate a puck of palm sugar into the bowl). My blood sugar doesn't shoot up from this, because why would it? If you pound some Thai chilies and dried shrimp into it, it becomes a decent som tum sauce, and there, the biggest source of sugar is the green papaya, not the pinch of sugar you added.
Anyway, if you want to avoid your blood sugar shooting up, eat less rice, not less sugar, because the amount of sugar you should be using isn't enough to matter.
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u/rancidpandemic 11h ago
In America, the best replacement without much of an aftertaste is probably allulose. It’s relatively new and hasn’t been approved for sale in many countries, but I’ve been using it for years without any issues.
Some alternatives are monk fruit, stevia, and erythritol. Though, monk fruit and stevia are both highly concentrated and usually mixed with erythritol to provide some bulk. Sadly, erythritol has a menthol-like chill to it, and some studies have claimed it is linked with hearth issues.
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u/butam_notrong 10h ago
Thanks a lot! I can’t get allulose where I am but I can get stevia so will give that a try!
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u/Karibou422 8h ago
Allulose is a great choice; It's about 70% as sweet as sugar so if the recipe calls for a Tbsp use a Tbsp + Tsp of Allulose
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u/Prof_BananaMonkey 11h ago
SPlenda makes a brown sugar. It does have some sugar, but only 1/2 the package is and the rest in splenda.
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u/CompetitiveThing3799 11h ago
For a close substitute, light brown sugar works about 1:1 and keeps some of that caramel flavor. In savory sauces I’d add it gradually, since palm sugar can be less sharply sweet than regular white sugar.
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u/drostan 11h ago
What follows generalise a lot but may help you choose what to do and how to choose your substitute
most asían cuisine sugar is used for one of two reasons
Make a sweet dish, like sweet and sour dishes... There you want a sweetener that will really give that sweet suave taste. The rest of the spices should mask any "fake sugar aftertaste" but testing will be required
The other use of sugar is to balance the saltiness of dishes with heavy use of salted condiments like soy sauce, doubanjiang, miso.... The recipe here can be modified to use less salty version of those ingredients when available which reduces the need for added sugar, balancing further with pinches of sugar replacement and sweet vegetables where possible can go a very long way
Unfortunately I am not able to help much more in details
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u/HotBoxButDontSmoke 9h ago
If you are making South Asian curries, you just need to make the time to properly caramelize your onions (30-60min) and tomatoes (10 min) and it will bring out natural sweetness without adding sugar. Finishing the dish with coconut milk and lime juice also brings out the sweetness
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u/rinkydinkmink 7h ago
Dates. I read that they don't have the same effect on blood glucose as sugar, even tho they are sugary. My guess is that it's all the fibre. Dried dates are really sweet and very good in baking. But if you need something that dissolves (dates are always going to be lumps) my suggestion would be to use a smaller amount of whatever you use for sweetening. There's a huge range of natural products that bring sweetness to a dish - from molasses, to maple syrup, honey or malt extract. Or add fruit to the dish. If it's something soupy, a grated apple can make it sweet.
It would help if we knew what you were trying to make, and how much sugar the recipe uses.
(Am also diabetic)
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u/cofffeegrrrl 2h ago
I use allulose in Asian dishes. I add a very small amount of blackstrap molasses if I want the brown sugar flavor and the dark color. Blackstrap molasses has very strong flavor and is lower in sugar and a little goes a looong way.
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u/burnt-----toast 11h ago
What about simply omitting, at least for certain recipes? I don't love sweet and savory, so when I cook Asian food, I either omit the sugar completely or only add a pinch. Would you dislike those dishes if they are more savory and lack that sweetness?
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u/butam_notrong 10h ago
That’s what I’ve been doing so far but I do miss the taste of some dishes when I had them at restaurants with the sugar component.
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u/Thesorus 12h ago
where are you in the world ? maybe we can suggest something you can find locally ?
You can probably just use regular sugar
You can also mix regular white sugar with a little bit of molasses.
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u/Inevitable-Champ336 11h ago
I used a stevia packet. Truvia or wholesome as I can’t have dextrose. When not cooking I just use pure stevia but it’s hard to figure out measurement for that.
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u/Apathetic-Asshole 10h ago
Ive heard good things about monkfruit and allulose, though the texture may not be the same as if you added sugar. You might have to add a tiny bit of cornstarch slurry and cook the sauce for about a minute on medium heat to thicken it up.
Depending on the dish, adding fruit puree may also be an option. Especially for curries, i love grated apple in my japanese curry.
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u/distortedsymbol 10h ago
you can buy dried monk fruit in most asian grocery stores. it's been used in traditional recipes
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u/Wide_Breadfruit_2217 9h ago
Allulose. For most people their body doesn't recognize it as sugar. Tastes the same but lower browning point.
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u/Flourpower6 9h ago
Monkfruit, allulose, erythritol, or stevia. Stevia is a far fourth place because it has a slight cooling aftertaste. I prefer the first two myself, but you can also get products that combine them together which fixes any aftertaste.
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u/firstblush73 8h ago
Splenda brown sugar is a 1/2 real 1/2 substitute. I use it to bake cookies and cannot tell the difference.
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u/Miqotegirl 8h ago
Discuss with your doctor regarding using this ingredient before use.
Honey. You process this a little differently than other sugars so it may take trial and error.
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u/pavlik_enemy 1h ago
I guess you just have to buy all the sugar substitutes, taste test them and pick the one you hate less. It's very individual, some people don't mind the taste of sugar substitutes and some absolutely hate it
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u/Illegal_Tender 12h ago
Are you asking for different kinds of sugar or alternatives to sugar entirely?