When I was in Peru last fall I met this foodie from Toronto while hiking. He’s not a vegetarian by any means, but we bonded quickly over our love of high quality regional foods and from scratch cooking. When he told me he was going to embark upon a BBQ & Blues road trip through the United States I was intrigued. I decided to go with him for a leg of the trip and I’m glad I did.

While I obviously didn’t take part in any of the traditional BBQ spots he sampled, I did find the concept of all the different sauces, rubs and styles inspiring. Every city and region has its own flavor and tradition. I love barbeque sauce, but the store-bought versions, like most prepared sauces and dressings, are filled with sugar, corn syrup, and preservatives. I haven’t made anything barbeque style in years, but the trip really inspired me to make a sauce from scratch. Why not? It couldn’t be that hard.

A simple Google search turned up thousands of recipes in various regional styles. I decided to go with a Kansas City Style recipe since that was one of the stops on my friend’s tour. Also, it was one of the few that didn’t call for ketchup and I refuse to take any recipe that calls for ketchup seriously.

Making the sauce from scratch was incredibly easy and the result was delicious. I tossed it on some vegan “cutlets” I’d found at a local health food store. These dehydrated soy and pinto bean protein cutlets had a similar texture to seitan, which is a little too,“meaty” for me, but I served them to a friend for dinner and they were down the hatch in no time.

In the future, I think I’d toss this sauce in some tempeh sticks, or even pan fried tofu. You can really do with it what you want, but I encourage you try this over a store bought version. The ingredients are common pantry items you probably have around anyway, and it only needs to simmer for about 20 minutes while you prep the rest of your dinner.

This recipe is modified from the blog Gimme Some Oven.

 

Kat Barry, a St. Joseph, Michigan native, is owner of Kat’s Hot Cakes vegan catering, and co author of “The New Chicago Diner Cookbook: Meat Free Recipes from America’s Veggie Diner.” She also develops recipes for eHow.com, where you can find over 30 of her vegan instructional cooking videos. She is also a certified yoga instructor. Kat currently resides in Chicago, and in her free time she enjoys practicing yoga, sampling local spirits, listening to live music, and getting outdoors. Follow @katshotcakes on twitter. Kat can be reached via email at: kat@katshotcakes.com.

1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
½ cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup agave nectar
1 4 ounce can tomato paste
¼ cup molasses
¼ cup vegan Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
4 cloves minced garlic
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt
Dash cayenne pepper for some kick (optional)

Place all ingredients in a medium size sauce pan.
Whisk together over medium high heat until smooth and combined.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and let simmer covered about 20-25 minutes stirring often. Adjust pepper, garlic, salt, and cayenne to taste.

Toss with TVP or seitan cutlets, fried tofu or tempeh and enjoy.