Tomato-Free BBQ Sauce

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Here at Our Southern Odyssey we have created our own Tomato-Free Barbecue Sauce.  We created this recipe out of wanting a barbecue sauce as well as needing a barbecue sauce for different recipes we wanted to create.  The recipe went through many trials and errors and a lot of taste testing to come up with this version.  We hope that you enjoy our Tomato-Free Barbecue Sauce as much as we do.

When deciding to march to the beat of a different drummer the path can become almost impossible at times to follow.  Valancie and I have experienced this several times on our journey to healthy living.  Not being able to go in the grocery store and purchase all the items you need to prepare a meal can be frustrating to say the least.  Having to prepare most items at home using only whole organic ingredients has been rewarding but at the same time, very time consuming.  Not only because we are using whole organic ingredients but because we have to create the recipes.

Our barbecue sauce recipe is one of the reasons Valancie and I started our food blog.  We wanted to be able to share our recipes that take a different approach on the classic recipes we grew up with.  I had a delicious barbecue sauce that I had made for years.  It was my version of my mother-in-laws secret recipe that I had to promise never to share with anyone except her granddaughter (Valancie).  I never shared her recipe, not even today.  She used tomatoes and brown sugar like most barbecue sauce recipes.  As you know we do not use tomatoes or brown sugar.  But it was her secret ingredient that made the sauce.  It was this secret ingredient that helped us unlock the door to our tomato-free barbecue sauce.  

My mother-in-law (Emalene) loved to cook, grow her own vegetables, and preserve vegetables for the winter by either canning or freezing them.  She attended a boarding school in her youth where she was assigned kitchen duty.  This was her favorite department to work in at the boarding school.  She always gave the school the credit for her love of cooking.  

She also loved the challenge of creating new recipes, and she was extremely good at it, as well.  She had a determination that she would figure it out no matter what.  She never left a recipe that she had started incomplete.  If she was still with us today our food blog would be right up her alley.  So this tomato-free barbecue sauce is for her.  I (Valancie) think that she would be proud that I took a page out of her book and just went with it to create my own recipe, like she did so many times.  

We needed a barbecue sauce that did not use tomatoes or brown sugar.  So Valancie worked for months on this recipe until she had perfected it.  Her dad, my husband, (Bruce) asked when we had started adding tomatoes back to our diet.  He could not believe this barbecue sauce was tomato-free.  I know her Mama would be so proud of her and I also think she would love this new tomato-free barbecue sauce.  It is our hope that you will love it too.

Provided is a step-by-step guide to this recipe.  This is a really simple recipe to make that does not require many kitchen tools.  Basically everything goes into one saucepan and is heated.  I (Valancie) like simple recipes that do not require me to mess up every dish in the kitchen.  Mainly because I do not like to wash dishes and a dishwasher is only so big.

Instructions:

Our Tomato-Free Barbecue sauce uses only six kitchen tool and fifteen ingredients.  I know that that sounds like a lot of ingredients; however, it is not as bad as it sounds.  Start by measuring out the first thirteen ingredients: the organic garlic powder, Himalayan pink salt, organic turmeric, organic cinnamon, organic tellicherry black pepper, stone ground brown mustard, organic lemon juice, organic 100% beet juice, organic 100% ginger juice, organic 100% apple juice, apple cider vinegar (with the mother), organic maple syrup and coconut aminos.  Add all those ingredients to the saucepan.  Place the saucepan on the eye (burner) and turn the eye (burner) on medium heat.  Note that we use an electric stove; therefore, our directions are for an electric stove.  Take a whisk and mix all the ingredients in the saucepan together, making sure none of the ingredients stick to the bottom of the saucepan.  You will need to stay at the stove constantly whisking the mixture until the mixture has come to a boil.  This will take about seven to ten minutes.  After the mixture has started to boil  mix the arrowroot and fresh room temperature filtered water in a small bowl together, as shown in the step-by-step guide, until the arrowroot is fully dissolved in the water.  Pour the arrowroot and water mixture into the saucepan with the boiling sauce.  Continue to whisk the mixture for an additional two minutes.  The arrowroot helps the mixture become thick.  Do not under any circumstance add the arrowroot directly to the saucepan without first mixing it with room temperature water.  If you do, the arrowroot will not dissolve and you will have a ruined barbecue sauce.  Remove the Tomato-free Barbecue Sauce from the eye (burner) and allow to cool.  Now you have a delicious Tomato-free Barbecue Sauce to enjoy over chicken, pulled pork or ribs.  Enjoy!

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