Are you a sucker for a sauce? If so, you’re not alone. It’s considered criminal in my house to make a burger, sandwich, salad, you name it, without some sort of sauce, let face it, the smallest amount of sauce can transform a bang-average burger into a culinary masterpiece (sort of); it does make it a heck of a lot better though.
The only problem is these seemingly innocent sauces can seriously ufrp your sugar intake as well as fill you will all sorts of unknown chemicals! So, whether you’re on a diet or just don’t fancy eating a shed full of sugary, unpronounceable ingredients, these next couple of recipes are going to be your holy grail.
After doing some extensive research into the nations favourite sauces, here are some of our winning healthier alternatives. In no particular order- here goes!
1. Mayonnaise
Recently voted our favourite sauce, surpassing the classic Ketchup with millions of sales in the UK alone, Mayo has certainly got some mixed reviews. The biggest complaint about it usually comes down to the calories and fat, its full of them! Whilst shops sell ‘Lighter Mayonnaise’ with reduced calories and fat, its full of sugars, stabilizers and questionable chemicals.
Try this Healthy Mayonnaise recipe from our friends at Wellness Mama, you won’t ever buy the shop bought stuff again! See recipe here.
2. Ketchup
Good old tomato ketchup, a classic, iconic sauce you might say. You might also take that statement back when you read the ingredients label, you might be shocked that ketchup is primarily high fructose corn syrup, overcooked tomatoes, water and scary amount of sugar. Just one tablespoon contains around 4 grams of sugar, and lets be honest, when do we ever stop at one tablespoon! Don’t be fooled by the label stating ‘natural flavourings’ this is the big companies clever way of saying ‘flavour boosting chemicals’ one of which is MSG… avoid at all costs.
The solution is simple: At home, just make it yourself. Our favourite healthy ketchup recipe is from the Sugar Free Londoner blog. The recipe is so simple and tastes much better than your old Heinz. As tomatoes already have lots of natural sugar in them, home-made ketchup tastes sweet without having to add anything other than spices.
‘All truly great restaurants make their own ketchup, by the way. They don’t just fill it into a pretty jar. You know that moment when you take the first bite and think, wow, that tastes kind of different, special, amazing, actually? The tell-tale sign of home-made ketchup.’
Get the recipe here.
3. BBQ Sauce
Similarly to ketchup BBQ sauce is jam packed with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, sodium and preservatives. Aside from the questionable ingredients, and the fact that one bottle is 25% sugar, BBQ sauce is undeniably delicious and there’s no chance we could live without it. So, our only option was to look for a homemade healthier alternative that still gives that bold, sweet yet spicy flavour.
The result was from the blog ‘Eating Bird Food’, this sauce is healthy, paleo, vegan and gluten free, if you’re interested! Get the recipe here.