I must confess, I don’t often make my own vegetarian BBQ sauce. Mostly because there are a lot of vegan BBQ sauces out there already. However, to be totally honest, there is no BBQ sauce in the world that tastes as good as the one you make yourself.
Making a vegan BBQ sauce is really quite simple and to be honest it can be pretty hard to mess it up.
What you’re looking to do is mix up a whole bunch of different flavours. The great thing is, they don’t really have to be complimentary flavours either. Sweet and sour works well, hot and sweet, hot and savoury, tangy and sweet, tangy and hot and on and on.
The sweet flavours are obvious, sugar, syrups etc. The hot flavours are also pretty obvious, chilies and hot sauces. Savoury flavours are things like other steak sauces, HP sauce, your herbs like oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil etc. Tangy flavours are your vinegars.
So with all of that said, use Vegan Valor’s BBQ Sauce as a guide.
Oh yeah, I guess the question is, what the hell do vegetarians use a vegetarian BBQ sauce for. Good question and easily explained. As discussed on vegan and raw food marinades, BBQ sauce is great as a thick marinade. Marinade tofu, veggie burgers, veggie BBQ skewers and even lightly coat your corn on the cob before you BBQ it. This vegetarian BBQ is also great as a dip for fries. Goes well on baked potatoes too.
Use your imagination and you’ll come up with a 101 uses for vegan BBQ sauce.
Vegan Valor’s BBQ Sauce – not for use on meat!
This recipe will make around 3 cups once it has simmered down a little.
1 cup Coca Cola, Pepsi or even store brand cola
1 cup canned tomato sauce
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
0.25 cup vegan margarine
0.5 cup vegan Worcestershire sauce (regular Worcestershire has anchovies)
0.5 cup packed brown sugar
0.5 cup molasses (I like the darker ones for the BBQ sauce like blackstrap)
0.5 cup apple cider vinegar
3 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons HP sauce
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Tabasco
Super easy to make. Chuck everything into a large pot and cook over medium heat until it simmers down to the thickness of ketchup. Another way to ensure it is thick enough is to put a metal spoon in it and if it comes out coated and not dripping it is thick enough.
Basically, you can let it thicken as much as you like, but about a half hour should do it. This vegetarian BBQ sauce will last about a week in the fridge.
They make great gifts for Christmas or other special occasions. Pour some in a mason jar and add a homemade label and you’ll have best friends for life. You can increase the heat quotient by adding more and different kinds of chilies and/or hot sauce.