Vegan XO Sauce

With traditional XO sauce as a seed of inspiration, we set out to create an uncompromising vegan equivalent. Our Vegan XO Sauce is a mix of five unique components, each special in their own right and sourced from some of the most skilled producers in the world: house blended rose oil, umami-laden dried tomatoes, pumpkins that smoked and dried for months, Kanzuri chile that we confit and smoke, and beautifully distinct wild peppercorns. It’s the result of years of dedication to the exploration of flavor and technique, the discovery of unique traditions through research and travel, and experimentation in our kitchens – a true expression of craft, innovation, and time.  

This paste has been used in the kitchen of noma on top of crisp butter-toasted bread and  alongside cooked fish. It’s the perfect condiment: sauté mushrooms or roast potatoes and add a spoonful of Vegan XO Sauce or mix the paste into a vinaigrette for an unexpected layer to a salad. 

One of our favorite aspects of Vegan XO Sauce is an ingredient we callPumpkin-bushi, an especially exciting breakthrough in technique and flavor that evolved out of our years of devotion to craft and innovation.It’s a product that we’ve developed with a fourth-generation katsuobushi craftsman, where we take perfectly ripe pumpkins and process them through a combination of drying and smoking that takes anywhere from one to two months – katsuobushi being the delicious smoked and dried fish shavings that are one of the foundational ingredients of Japanese cuisine. Pumpkin-bushi is an incredibly umami rich plant-based ingredient that we believe holds huge potential and we can’t wait to share much more about it in the future.