bourbon maple bbq sauce
I’m vegetarian. BBQ sauce might seem irrelevant to me. It’s like the time my grandpa snatched the bottle of A-1 off the table (I was putting it on a baked potato). When I reassured him that it was okay, it was vegetarian, his reply was this: “I don’t care! It’s steak sauce! It’s just not right!” (Actually, my grandpa is a pretty sweet man, despite his aversion to vegetarians. He also told me once that he would disown me if I snuck any of that tofu stuff into his food).
Back to the sauce. Recently, I have been cooking with (and drinking!) more bourbon. It really has grown on me. So, I decided to give my go-to bbq sauce a boost. I slather this sauce on extra-firm tofu before baking it at 400 degrees. I also mix the sauce with canned pinto beans and toss them in the same oven, for some impromptu baked beans.
Make a batch. Put it on whatever you like. Enjoy!
Bourbon Maple BBQ Sauce
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ginger
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon dried mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup bourbon
- 3/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/8 cup blackstrap molasses
- 1/8 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon veggie worchestire
- 2 cans 15 oz. tomato sauce
Instructions:
- Finely dice the onion.
- Heat oil over medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan and add the onion. Cook until soft and beginning to turn a carmel color — about 10 minutes.
- Add all the dry spices and stir. Heating spices in oil helps them “bloom” and develop more robust flavors. Cook for 3 minutes.
- Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced by 1/4.
- Taste and adjust seasonings. The nice thing about this sauce is that you really can tinker around with it, until each batch tastes just right in the moment.
- Enjoy!
Filed under: Mains, Vegan | 1 Comment
Tags: bbq, bourbon, ginger, maple, molasses, vegan
Ingenious recipe, it sounds DELICIOUS!