Back in March 2010, Eric decided to clean up his diet. We were on vacation in Florida when he realized that most of his favourite foods and drinks (such as Coke, Kellogg’s Raisin Bran, Ketchup, multigrain bread, etc) contained high fructose corn syrup. We found this odd because the labels in Canada do not list this ingredient on the very same products. After reading up on it, we realized that high fructose corn syrup is often called ‘glucose-fructose’ on Canadian labels. We were shocked.
When we got home from our vacation, we discovered that many of the same cereals, sauces, and dressings in our kitchen contained ‘glucose-fructose’ so we did a pantry overhaul. Since that vacation, not one pop has crossed Eric’s lips and he also gave up his go-to products that contain glucose-fructose. This meant switching to Nature’s Path cereal, organic ketchup, Silverhills Bread, and 100% natural fruit juices, to name a few.
One of the glucose-fructose containing condiments is our beloved BBQ sauce! We use BBQ sauce a lot in the summer to give a little kick to whatever we’re grilling. We recently purchased an ‘all-natural’ BBQ sauce from Whole Foods only to find out that it contained corn syrup and a few other questionable ingredients. That’s when I decided to take matters into my own hands and try to make some myself.
Before the BBQ on Saturday, I made my first batch of homemade BBQ sauce adapting a recipe from Veganomicon that I saw on Matt’s blog. Any you know what? It really wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The sauce was thrown together in no time. I’ll be making a couple modifications to this recipe next time I make it (I’ll talk about them below), but I think it was a good starting point!
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Homemade BBQ Sauce
Adapted from Veganomicon (recipe found here).
Yield: 2 & 1/4 cups sauce
Ingredients:
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium-sized sweet onion, chopped finely
- 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (less if you don’t like it spicy)
- 22-oz crushed tomatoes (or 28oz can if that’s what you have)
- 1/3 cup blackstrap molasses (see note)
- 1/3 cup white vinegar + 1 tbsp apple cidar vinegar (or just use more white vinegar)
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp yellow mustard (Dijon works too)
Directions:
1. In a large saucepan, sauté the onion in oil on medium heat for about 7 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients except for the mustard and cook for about 30 minutes uncovered over low heat. Stir occasionally and make sure not to burn it.
3. Add the mustard and taste for sweetness/sourness. Add more sugar, salt, vinegar, etc if you think it’s necessary to achieve your desired flavour. Cook for another few minutes.
4. Optional: You may puree the sauce in a blender, but it isn’t necessary. I left mine chunky as I didn’t want to dirty the blender! Makes 2 & 1/4 cups sauce.
Note: I found this sauce to have a fairly pronounced molasses flavour. Next time, I will probably reduce the molasses to 3-4 tbsp and slowly add it in to taste.
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The sauce was much easier to throw together than I thought it would be! You basically just chop the onion and garlic, sauté, and then stir everything in, simmer for 20-30 minutes, and adjust the sauce to taste.
The sauce smells wonderful when it’s cooking in the saucepan. The flavour is quite nice, however I found the molasses flavour to be more pronounced than I prefer, so next time I will reduce the molasses to 3-4 tbsp. Other than that I loved it. The original recipe also called for 2 tsp liquid smoke, which I didn’t have, so you can always add that in if you prefer!
I’m not sure how long it keeps for in the fridge, so I decided to freeze half the batch. Hopefully it freezes ok.
Yesterday, we used some of the leftover sauce and made up some yummy BBQ lentil sandwiches for lunch!
The sandwiches contained:
- Silverhills sprouted grain bread
- hummus
- lentils + bbq sauce, heated up
- grilled red onion and yellow peppers
- tomato slices
- spinach
- Cucumber
- S & P
They were glorious. And messy. ;)
In other news…it’s June 6th which means…
Happy Birthday to my Sister, Kristi!
I’m looking forward to the 3rd week in July when Kristi, Pete, and my nephews come to stay with us for a week! Kerrie and fam are also staying here for a weekend during Kristi’s stay…it’s going to be a good time! I better start planning some kid-friendly meals. ;) Any ideas?
Also, Happy Anniversary to my loving in-laws, Ken and Margaret!
oh my gosh, you read my mind!
I was just thinking of playing with the BBQ sauce because my kids love it, but every major brand is so full of preservatives and I hate the “fake” taste.
This is a must try for this grilling this weekend!!
Corn syrup (or glucose fructose – I’ll keep my eyes peeled for that one when I’m in Canada!) is in nearly every BBQ brand. I’m not surprised because high fructose corn syrup is already in ketchup and most other most commonly used condiments.
I love how you took it into your own creative approach to make your own BBQ sauce. I’m saving this recipe for future use!
This looks good, I’m trying it this afternoon for a bbq tonight. How long do you expect it will keep? In the fridge? Or should I freeze some leftovers?
I froze leftovers as Im not sure how long it keeps in the fridge. :) I would guess 1-2 weeks in the fridge but im not positive! A wait and see type thing as its my first time making it. I also dont know how it freezes, but hopefully fine!
YAY!!! I am SO excited to try this BBQ recipe! I’m gestational diabetic & can’t have a lot of sugar, so traditional BBQ sauces were out.
What a cute jar! I think this recipe sounds great and I love that it uses ingredients that most folks are likely to have around. Thanks!
I’d love to try making BBQ sauce, and your recipe looks perfect (as always)… except that I can’t find molasses in any of my local stores! The joys of living in small-town Switzerland. Any suggestions on what I could substitute it with?
Hi there, this looks yummy – can you tell me how long it keeps and how to store it? x
I am a newbie to your site, and quite obsessed actually. I think I have made 7 or 8 of your recipes in the last week! I just wanted to say regarding the kid meal thing that my girls LOVE everything I have made from this site. I made the chickpea pizza snack for a meal but served it with homemade sweet potato and carrot fries with a side of asparagus and they liked it but I should have warmed up the chickpeas and will do that next time. Dunno why I didn’t think of that to begin with! It was a lifesaver since their old favorite meal use to be regular pizza and fries. I am sure you will come up with some amazing satisfying meals for the kids!
Hey Alisha, thanks for your feedback! I am glad you enjoy the recipes :)
I started making this today to serve in slow-cooked pulled pork, and already it tastes amazing! I added some chipolte chilli powder, which is giving my whole house this amazingly smoky smell. Can’t wait to serve it tonight!
I stumbled upon this post when looking for a bbq sauce recipe for EXACTLY the same reason…how strange. My 2.5 year old has a severe corn intolerance, and I thought I had eliminated all sources of corn from our diet, until this summer….when we were on vacation….in Florida….and I noticed that HFCS was in labels where glucose-fructose would be in Canada. How creepy…haha! I’ll give this recipe a go in a few days. Citric acid is also often sourced from corn, and I’m currently waiting to see if we can get away with SilverHills bread without causing a reaction, since the CA is the last ingredient….then I might try canned tomatoes, otherwise, this is gonna be tricky… ;) Hey, question…do you know if the liquid sugar listed in Heinz ketchup in Canada would be a corn sugar? I can’t seem to find an answer to that one….
Im not sure, but I know glucose-fructose is the same as High Fructose Corn Syrup. I’ve seen fructose-glucose on so many packaged goods in canada.
Been meaning to make this for a year. Finally did last night and was thrilled! This will be a definite go to for all things BBQ in the future….except maybe the dog treats. Not sure their taste buds are up for it yet. Thanks for sharing :-)
I just made the sauce and mixed it with lentils, absolutely delicious! I had to use maple syrup and red onion but it turned out great. The pictures looked so scrumptious I didn’t even notice until after the food is presented on Fiesta! Kudos to the recipe and the greatest dishes in the world :)
I am in need of some suggestions. I LOVE BBQ and it is one of the things I really miss since going vegan. I made BBQ sauce, but I have no idea what to put it on. Hubby and I are not fans of tofu or tempeh. Any suggestions would be great thanks! -H
Could I replace the sugar with maple syrup? (Or if not, coconut sugar or honey?)
Hi Silvia, I think maple syrup would work well as a sweetener here. A few other readers have tried it and liked the results, too! If you give it a try, I’d love to hear how it goes. :)
I made these for the OMG vegeburgers and it was a total HIT with my guests. I thought that I would have extra sauce to freeze but they ate it all :O
It was easy to make…
So glad the sauce was a hit, Doreen!