Barbecue sauce is not just for pork or chicken! I make baked beans and sloppy joes with it, and even use it as a sauce for grilled portobello mushrooms.
By Del Sroufe,
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Chef Del Sroufe is co-owner and executive chef of Wellness Forum Foods, a whole-food, plant-based meal delivery and catering service in Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of Forks Over Knives – The Cookbook and Better Than Vegan. Del teaches cooking classes and helps people transition to a healthy plant-based diet.
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Comments (19)
It wouldn’t thicken for me. But it was tasty!
This recipe is a favorite in our house. It’s also easy to vary, based on your tastes and availability of ingredients. I love onions, so I alway use much more than the recipe calls for, and I sauté them to a golden brown before adding the rest of the ingredients. I use whatever mustard I have on hand yellow or brown. I’ve often used a large (16 ounce) jar of crushed tomatoes instead of tomato sauce and water. Once the sauce is cooked down a bit, I add the beans and slow cook the whole thing on the stove top rather than heat up the oven. It’s delicious. We like to serve this with kale and baked sweet potatoes — a perfect meal.
Can I use blackstrap molasses?
Hi Belinda,
Yes, blackstrap molasses will work just fine in this recipe. Let us know how it goes!
If you are at Del’s sauce just because you want to make Easy Vegan Baked Beans, I have a hack for you.
I don’t really like cooking, but I like to eat, so I cook. I can follow a recipe just fine. I was planning on making this sauce and the beans this week, but my son asked for Impossible burgers last night and I decided to make the beans to go with. However, waiting 45 minutes for the sauce to thicken was not in my timelines.
Here’s my hack. Take all the ingredients for the Del BBQ Sauce minus the cup of water and put them in the instant pot. Then add two cans of pintos or whatever your preferred beans are. I set the instant pot for 20 minutes and let the steam release on its own.
Tada, beans! In half the time of making the sauce and then the beans. I admit, I had low expectations, but the beans came out pretty darn good. I will be using this recipe in the future. This is a great alternative to the higher sugar canned baked beans.
Kathy,
I love to cook! but am always looking to save time. Thank you so much for sharing your time saving hack.
Adding that I did not saute anything first and I eyeballed all the ingredients. I also used frozen diced onions. Don’t be afraid to substitute for your likes and/or to make things easier.
How much is a medium onion? 1 cup? more? less? Maybe give this by weight instead?
I don’t think it’s critical and depends more on your taste/tolerance for them. Except for some forms of baking, most recipes have a lot of wiggle room as long as you maintain the liquid to solid ratio. After my first attempt I rarely make a recipe as written and sub in things I prefer.
Whatif we don’t have unsulphured molasses? What can be used as a substitute?
Adding 1 cup of water is mentioned in the recipe but not in the ingredients. It would be helpful if FOK could amend this. It would be easy to overlook the water requirement!! I did make this recipe today to make BBQ backed beans. The sauce is delicious and easy to make.
I have made this BBQ sauce many times. It is reliably yummy. Thank you, Del.
Lorraine it’s yellow hotdog mustard
Could someone please tell me which mustard to use. If its English, wholegrain or dijon?
How can this yield 2 3/4 cups from 1 cup of tomato sauce and 1 cup water?
Consider ALL the ingredients
It is yellow mustard like French’s. Also called hot dog mustard.
Besides the tomato sauce and water which total 2 cups, the rest of the liquids in the recipe total 7 oz so a yield of 2 3/4 should be correct depending on how much you reduce the sauce in cooking.
It must be all the onion?