BBQ Sauce
Spring is in full bloom here in Colorado and it's gorgeous. Bright clear days in the high 70's, perfect for hiking, taking the boys to the park and breaking out the grill! While the lucky folks in California probably start grilling a bit earlier, we usually wait until May to fire ours up.
Luckily, Katie had me on my toes with a request for gluten free barbecue sauce a couple of weeks ago. She was looking for something with no sugar or agave.
To be honest, I am not a natural when it comes to the open flame; in general, my husband does the grilling in our family (so manly!) and slathers up the fixins' before he throws them on the grill. In order to get my BBQ bearings I went to bbqrecipesecrets.com. On that site, I learned that there are 3 types of barbecue sauce --tomato, mustard or vinegar. Unfortunately, for me, and perhaps some of you, each of the recipes contains a significant amount of sugar, so I used their Basic Tomato BBQ sauce recipe as a map, adding and subtracting from it to create the new one below. I hope you like it Katie!
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ cup shallots, minced
1 (7 ounce) bottle Bionaturæ Organic Tomato Paste
1 cup orange juice, fresh squeezed
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon dry mustard powder
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
- Warm oil in a saucepan over medium low heat
- Add garlic and shallot; cook until soft
- Add tomato paste, orange juice, vinegar, mustard, paprika, salt and pepper
- Simmer over low heat 15 to 20 minutes, stirring often
- Baste over fish or chicken
- Refrigerate and allow to marinate for 1-3 hours
- Grill and serve
You may notice that grilling instructions are conspicuously absent --you do not want to get them from me. While my husband is not a chef, he is, as I mentioned the grill master in the family and I assure you, that when he starts his food blog, you will find grilling instructions there. For now, try these.
Feel free to use this gluten free barbecue sauce creatively. I imagine it would be delicious on pasta or a sandwich --I must have eaten half a batch by mopping it up with bread the night I first made it.
Posted on May 6, 2008 in condiments by Elana
other entries you may like: Raw Tomato Sauce
or Mustard Marmalade Dressing
or Tangy Peanut Sauce
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Before you leave a comment...
"Check out Elana's FAQ page for info on substitutions -- there are just too many possibilities so she can't answer all of these : ) But the Forums are an excellent resource and I highly recommend posting your substitution questions there; everyone is friendly and helpful." -Katie







Elana~ this recipe looks great! I'm going to the store right now to get these ingredients and i cannot wait to try this sauce! Thank you again for going through the troubles to find this for me, it is much appreciated:)
Good thing it's almost lunch time for me; that photo is making me hungry! :)
I love your blog Elana. I recently made your cupcakes and posted about them: http://thegoodeatah.blogspot.com/2008/05/two-thumbs-up-elanas-cupcakes.html
They were sooooo good. I can't wait to make more of your recipes.
Katie -You are so welcome! It was nice to have the inspiration of your request, in creating this recipe.
LizzieI LOVE the pic of the cupcake with the dog on your site --GREAT! Thanks for reviewing my recipe and glad you liked it.
I am excited by a barbecue sauce recipe that doesn't call for preposterous ingredients like ketchup or liquid smoke.
I do have one question, though:
How much is your "jar" of tomato paste? I have a choice of 6 or 12 oz in my supermarket.
What a great recipe, I love the fact that you didn't use any unhealthy ingredients in it.
I will definitely try this the next time we grill.
This sounds great! Very inventive!
Bucky -Thanks for stopping by and thanks for pointing out my oversight. It is great to have readers such as you that keep me on my toes and make this blog better! Per your tomato paste question, I updated the recipe above with an amount (7 ounces). You could try out the 6 ounce jar, I think it would probably work. Hope this helps.
Emilia -Thanks for your kind words; please let us know how it turns out when you make it.
Jerry -Thanks!
That looks fantastic. I will try it with tofu. Super yummy recipe!
Thanks Erik! Let us know how it works out with the tofu.
It came out great, the Celtic sea salt was a little pricy so I used regular sea salt. I love the smokyness from the paprika. I'll be making this BBQ recipe all summer long. Thanks!
Chef Erik -Thanks for reporting back. So glad you liked it!
I'm new to the world of g/f foods, and this recipe will join my growing catalog. Looks great!
Paula -Welcome to the world of gluten-free foods and thanks for joining us here! Elana
I love the bbq sauce and I got rave reviews on the bbq chicken at my dinner party tonight. It was a hit, Elana. Also served the vanilla cupcakes, spinach salad with pistachios, and lemonade. I was feeding a gluten-intolerant crowd and they loved the food. I am so happy to have found your site. Your creativity and excellent recipes are truly appreciated.
Eden-
Thanks so much for your kind words and for letting me know about your fabulous dinner party --so glad your crowd enjoyed the food.
Elana
I had reveiwed the FAQ page but I didn't see anything about a substitution for apple cider vinegar. Both of my children are grain free, gluten free, dairy free but my youngest daughter is also corn free and apple free. Is there something that I can use other than the Apple cider vinegar as I would love to finally have a barbecue sauce that we all can enjoy. Thanks
Monika,
Not sure how it would turn out, you could try using lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar. Also, you might want to post this query in my forums as others might face this same issue and have ideas for you.
Hope this helps.
Elana
Thanks for the gluten free BBQ sauce recipe. I have a friend that will be able to use it. And for the website bbqrecipesecrets*com, I have to add it to my favs.
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