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An easy and homemade barbecue sauce that is sweetened with dates, made with simple ingredients and ready in under an hour. This is a must make recipe for the summer and is the perfect addition to any backyard barbecue!
This sauce is sweetened with dates, made with simple ingredients and is ready in under an hour! It is definitely is a must make recipe for the summer and is the perfect addition to any backyard barbecue.
Barbecue sauce was always a must when I got together with my family for summer barbecues or weekend parties. Every time I imagine barbecue sauce, I can just see a big ol’ bottle of Sweet Baby Ray’s in my head. This used to be THE go-to sauce and I can’t tell you how many we probably went through in just one summer!
I haven’t used or even see the sauce in quite some time, so while I was putting together this post, I decided to search for its ingredients online. The ingredients were, well, not great haha. But are we surprised? The bottle contains both High Fructose Corn Syrup (actually first on the list meaning the highest amount of this ingredient is used in the sauce) and Corn Syrup, along with the addition of plain ol’ sugar. 16g of sugar per 2 tablespoons, dadayum!
The good thing is that our sauce is so much healthier AND so much tastier than SBR (for short, lol). For 2 tablespoons of ours, it has only 4,6 g of sugar! Our nutrition facts are taken for 4 tablespoons, but that’s just because we can’t ever just have two lol!
Our favorite way to serve this sauce? Our vegan barbecue tofu sandwiches! It is loaded with homemade coleslaw, pickles and fried tofu doused in this homemade sauce…I am honestly drooling just thinking about it. We filmed a recipe video as well and I will include it below, too!
Make sure you tag us on Instagram @sweetsimplevegan and @consciouschris and hashtag #sweetsimplevegan if you recreate this sauce or any of our other recipes, we love to see your photos!
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Date-Sweetened Barbecue Sauce (oil-free)
- Total Time: 48 minutes
- Yield: 32 (2 tablespoon) servings
Description
An easy and homemade barbecue sauce that is sweetened with dates, made with simple ingredients and ready in under an hour. This is a must make recipe for the summer and is the perfect addition to any backyard barbecue!
Ingredients
- 1/2 medium white onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
- 1 (14.5 oz.) can diced fire roasted tomatoes*
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
- 1/4 cup chopped dates, pitted packed
- 1/2–3/4 cup water, or as needed to reach your desired consistency (we used 3/4 cup)
- 2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire
- 1 teaspoon mild chili powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Optional: 1/8–1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
- Optional: Dash of ground cloves
Instructions
- Saute garlic and onion. 3 minutes
- Add in tomato paste, paprika, and cloves. Cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes.
- Add the remaining ingredients, except the salt and pepper, and turn up the heat to medium high until they come to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to low, and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. You can taste as you go along and adjust, if you like, but I recommend NOT adding more molasses or dates until you’ve pureed in step 4. The dates sweeten the sauce as they cook, and they’ll add even more sweetness when you puree.
- When your 30 minutes are up, remove the pan from the heat and allow for it to cool for about 10 minutes. Transfer it into a high-speed blender and run until smooth.
- At this point, you sauce may be ready to bottle and refrigerate (It will keep for up to a week.).
- Add salt and pepper to taste and adjust seasonings as desired. If it does need anything else, turn the heat on medium low, and let any additions cook for a few minutes before you taste again.
Notes
- You can use plain canned diced tomatoes too, the fire roasted just adds another layer of flavor!
- The nutrition facts do not take into consideration the addition of salt to taste.
- This barbecue sauce will last about 10-14 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 33 minutes
- Category: Barbecue, Sauce, Summer
- Cuisine: Vegan, Oil-Free, Date-Sweetened
Keywords: Vegan, Oil-Free, Date-Sweetened, barbecue, sauce, homemade
Nutrition facts label provided by Nutri Fox.
Disclaimer: This page may contain affiliate links, which simply means that we earn a commission if you purchase through those links, but your price remains the same. Thank you for supporting Sweet Simple Vegan!
This bbq sauce is seriously good! Using it tonight on baked tofu triangles. Thanks so much for a great recipe!
★★★★★
Easy, healthy, delicious. Even better after a couple of days for flavours to blend!
★★★★★
Just made this – amazing!!
Made it without the Worcestershire sauce and used tomato basil passata. And only 1/5 teaspoon salt. Turned out amazing. Making bbq jackfruit tomorrow! ????
★★★★★
You say it is oil free. Then how do you saute the onion and garlic???
You can use water or broth! 🙂
Can you freeze the sauce?
Yes, you should be able to!
Step #2 says to add in cloves, but I don’t see cloves listed in the ingredients anywhere…
am I missing something?
Thanks for catching that, its just an optional pinch of cloves 🙂 We added it in!
Do you mean 1/2 CUP white onions? Or 1/2 of a white onion?
1/2 of an onion 🙂
how long do you think this will last in the fridge?
Hi Anna! This barbecue sauce will last about 10-14 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator 🙂
This sauce is AMAZING! I substituted soy sauce for the Worcestershire, and it turned out so well! I’ll definitely be making this any time I want BBQ
★★★★★
I am so glad that you liked it, thanks for sharing! And that is a great tip with the soy sauce, too.
Made this the other day and put it on as a sauce for my pizza tonight, it was delicious!!
★★★★★
Hi Theresa, this sounds so amazing on pizza and we are going to have to try that. Thanks for sharing, glad you liked it 🙂