Easy Healthy BBQ Sauce
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This Healthy BBQ Sauce Recipe is made with pantry staples and no ketchup! Easy to make, this BBQ sauce is sweet and tangy. Perfect for summer grilling!
There is nothing we love more than lathering a good BBQ sauce on bbq chicken, crockpot ribs, or bbq vegetables on the grill! We were tired of using highly processed BBQ sauces filled with sugars, gums, and oils, so we decided to make our own!
This easy healthy BBQ sauce doesn’t even use ketchup!
All you need is tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, worcestershire sauce, honey, and some basic seasonings and spices! A quick cook in a pot and some time in the blender and you will have a silky smooth and tangy barbeque sauce ready to go.
Tyler’s Tips for the Best healthy bBQ sauce
- Tomato paste is the key. Rather than using highly processed and sweetened ketchup, we use cooked down tomatoes (tomato paste) to build flavor into a delicious, healthy, easy bbq sauce.
- A good blender is your best friend. Using a blender to create a silky smooth sauce is super helpful. If you don’t have a blender on hand you can try using an immersion blender or a food processor but it may not get as smooth!
Ingredients:
substitutions
Olive Oil: You could use avocado oil, but we really recommend extra virgin olive oil
Garlic and Onions: You can swap the garlic and onions for a teaspoon of garlic and onion powder. You can remove this altogether, but it may impact the flavor of the BBQ sauce.
Tomato Paste: Since we tried to avoid ketchup in this recipe, we opted for tomato paste, which worked really well. 1/4 cup of tomato sauce may be an ok substitute, but it will need to be cooked down a bit to thicken up and develop some flavor, so this may extend the cook time.
Honey: Maple syrup is a great alternative for honey in this recipe. We have tried both, but have a preference for the flavor that the honey provides. Plus, it’s a much better sweetener than high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweetener in the store-bought sauces.
Apple Cider Vinegar: You can sub the apple cider vinegar for red wine vinegar or white vinegar, lemon juice can work as well, but each has a slightly different flavor profile, which may create some variability in taste.
Worcestershire Sauce: Coconut Aminos can be a good substitute for worcestershire sauce.
Spices: Regular paprika will work in place of smoked paprika, and yellow mustard can replace the mustard powder if needed.
How to Make Healthy BBQ Sauce
- In a small pot over medium heat, sauté onions and garlic in olive oil for 3 minutes.
- Blend the cooked onions and garlic, water, honey, apple cider vinegar, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, and dried spices on high until smooth.
- Add back to the pot and bring the sauce to a simmer over medium heat, and reduce for 10 minutes, stirring frequently so it doesn’t burn.
- Remove the sauce from the heat and let it come to room temperature. Enjoy!
What to Serve with this Recipe:
This easy homemade bbq sauce can be used on just about anything. Here are a few great recipes we recommend trying out! Crockpot Pulled Pork, Crispy Baked Chicken Wings, BBQ Chicken Breast, Vegetable Kebabs.
storage
Storing: Store this in an airtight container or glass jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
We don’t recommend freezing this bbq sauce as the texture and flavor may change upon thawing.
Other Healthy Dressings and marinades
Here are some of our favorite dressings and marinades for all of your summer cookouts!
Easy Healthy BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup diced onion
- 1 tablespoon diced garlic
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon dried mustard powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon cumin
Instructions
- In a small pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat.
- Sauté onions and garlic for 3 minutes or until translucent. Remove the onions and garlic from the heat and pour them into a blender.
- Add the water, honey, apple cider vinegar, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce and dried spices to the blender. Blend on high for 90 seconds or until smooth.
- Add the BBQ sauce back to the pot and turn the heat to medium. Bring the sauce to a simmer and reduce the sauce for 10 minutes, stirring frequently so it doesn’t burn.
- Remove the sauce from the heat and let it come to room temperature before using.
- Use this healthy BBQ sauce on BBQ chicken, BBQ grilled vegetables, pulled pork, or chicken wings and enjoy!
Notes
Add a ½ cup of cherries, blueberries, peaches, figs, even mango to the blender to create your own flavored bbq sauce.
Made this for the first time tonight. It tastes great! I however only ended up with about 1 1/4 cup total sauce and it says it makes eight 1/4 cup servings. Is that an error? My hubby and I are tracking calories so we just want to be sure we calculated it correctly.
Hi! Maybe yours just reduced more than ours? It should yield 8 1/4 cup servings. If you’re tracking calories, I always recommend inputting the recipe into your macro tracker – calories/macros can vary quite a bit depending on the ingredients used. Hope this helps!