Natto substitute

Best substitute

Tempeh, Crumbled and Steamed

Use the same amount by weight as the natto you are replacing

Best for rice bowls

Taste and texture differ

There is no true substitute for natto, so decide which part you need. For its savoury funk, use 1 tablespoon of red miso or 1 teaspoon of rinsed, mashed fermented black beans per 50-gram pack. For its slippery stickiness, use grated nagaimo yam or chopped okra. For a natto-style rice bowl, crumbled steamed tempeh with soy sauce, mustard and scallion is the closest whole-bean stand-in.

Other natto substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Red or Dark Miso
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 tablespoon for every 50g pack of natto
A fermented soybean paste that supplies natto's deep savoury note in concentrated form.
What changes
Best for
soups, sauces, marinades, dressings, anywhere natto was a flavour ingredient
Gives you umami and fermented depth but no texture at all, and it is considerably saltier, so cut other salt in the recipe. Miso is sweeter and rounder than natto, missing the sharp ammoniac top note. Fine when natto is stirred into something, useless when natto is the topping.
3Fermented Black Beans (Douchi), Rinsed and Mashed
Taste and texture differ
Use 1-2 teaspoons for every 50g pack
Salt-cured fermented soybeans with the closest funk of anything easy to buy.
What changes
Best for
stir-fries, sauces, braises, dressings
The aroma is genuinely in natto's neighbourhood, but these are intensely salty and dry, with no stickiness whatsoever. Rinse for ten seconds, mash, and use sparingly. Nothing about them works as a rice topping.
4Grated Nagaimo Yam or Chopped Okra
Different taste
Use About ⅓ cup for every 50g pack
Two vegetables that produce natto's exact slippery, ropy mouthfeel.
What changes
Best for
rice bowls, over noodles, cold summer dishes
This solves the texture and none of the flavour. Grated nagaimo, called tororo, is slick and clean-tasting; chopped okra is slick and faintly green. Combine either with a teaspoon of miso and a splash of soy sauce and you get startlingly close to the experience of natto over rice.
5Cooked Whole Soybeans or Shelled Edamame
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Plain soybeans seasoned in the natto style, for people who want the bowl without the ferment.
What changes
Best for
rice bowls, salads, grain bowls
Right bean, right size, zero fermentation. Toss with soy sauce, a dab of mustard, scallion and a little rice vinegar. It tastes clean and nutty and pleasant, and it will not remind anyone of natto, which for some cooks is exactly the point.
6Nothing At All (Honest Answer for Natto Gohan)
Taste and texture differ
Omit
If the recipe is natto over rice, natto with egg, or natto sushi rolls, the natto is the dish.
What changes
Best for
natto gohan, natto maki, natto with raw egg
No substitute reproduces both the stringiness and the fermented funk, and none reproduces natto's nutritional profile either, since the vitamin K2 it is known for is created by that specific fermentation. If you cannot get natto, cook a different dish rather than a hollow version of this one.

What is Natto?

Natto is whole soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis until they turn sticky, stringy and powerfully savoury, eaten over hot rice at Japanese breakfast, and it is doing two jobs at once that almost nothing else does together: deep fermented umami, and a slippery ropy texture.

Cooking tips

Stir it before you season it. Natto needs 30 to 50 vigorous strokes with chopsticks to develop the long glossy strings that are the whole point, and adding the sauce packet first makes it loose in a worse way. Stir, then add the tare and the mustard, then stir a few more times.
Do not boil natto. Heat above a gentle warm-through destroys the sticky threads and pushes the ammonia note from savoury to harsh. Add it to hot rice, or to soup off the heat, never into a simmering pot.
Natto freezes perfectly, which is why it is almost always sold frozen or refrigerated in stacked packs. Thaw a pack overnight in the fridge, not on the counter, and the texture is indistinguishable from fresh.
If the smell is the obstacle, mute it rather than fight it. A raw egg yolk, a spoonful of kimchi, grated daikon or a squeeze of Japanese mayonnaise all cut the ammonia sharply, and a wrap of toasted nori around each bite works better than any of them.
Do not confuse natto with annatto. Annatto is a red-orange seed used for colour in cheddar, Filipino kare-kare and Latin American cooking. The two are unrelated and cannot substitute for each other in any direction.

Frequently asked questions

Is there any real substitute for natto?

Not really, and it is worth saying so plainly. Natto is the only common food that is simultaneously sticky, stringy and Bacillus-fermented. You can replace the savoury flavour with miso or fermented black beans, and the slippery texture with grated nagaimo or okra, but nothing does both at once.

Is natto the same thing as annatto?

No. Natto is fermented Japanese soybeans. Annatto is a seed from the achiote tree used as a yellow-orange food colouring and mild flavouring. They are spelled similarly and are otherwise completely unrelated ingredients.

Can I use miso instead of natto?

For flavour, yes, at about a tablespoon of red miso per 50-gram pack of natto. Miso brings the same fermented soybean savouriness in a smoother, sweeter, saltier form. It brings none of natto's texture, so it works stirred into soups, sauces and dressings but not as a topping.

Can I just leave natto out?

If it is one topping among several on a rice bowl, yes. If the recipe is natto gohan, natto maki or natto with egg, leaving it out leaves you with seasoned rice. In that case swap the dish rather than the ingredient.

Can I make natto at home from ordinary soybeans?

Yes, but it needs a proper natto starter culture and a steady 100 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit for around 24 hours, which usually means a proofing box, a yogurt maker or an oven with the light on. Follow a tested method rather than improvising the temperature or timing. Plain cooked soybeans left on the counter will not become natto; they will simply spoil, and beans that smell sour or look mouldy rather than stringy and white should be thrown out.

Related substitutes

More legumes substitutes

Natto substitute

Other natto substitutes

2Red or Dark Miso

3Fermented Black Beans (Douchi), Rinsed and Mashed

4Grated Nagaimo Yam or Chopped Okra

5Cooked Whole Soybeans or Shelled Edamame

6Nothing At All (Honest Answer for Natto Gohan)