When Natural Delights sent me an email with their new “naturally sweet” summer recipes, I knew I had to give their Medjool Date & Citrus BBQ Sauce a try! My kitchen is always stocked with medjool dates for raw vegan dessert recipes and my crazy sweet tooth. Although I do throw medjool dates in an occasional salad, I never really thought about using them in savory recipes. I was excited to see a naturally sweet barbecue sauce recipe since I’m always looking for ways to lower my refined sugar intake. This recipe does call for half a cup of brown sugar, but I actually omitted it, using only the dates as sweetener and LOVED how it turned out!
Homemade barbecue sauce= gluten free, vegan, and naturally sweet with no refined sugars!
Just in time for the 4th of July!!!
My friend Behnaz brought me a huge bag of fresh picked grapefruit from her backyard! Perfect timing!
Medjool Date & Citrus BBQ Sauce
Adapted from Natural Delights
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup grapefruit juice
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup low-sodium tomato paste
12 Natural Delights Medjool Dates, pitted & coarsely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
Chop onions and mince garlic. Heat oil in a large saucepan set over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients (grapefruit juice, red wine vinegar, tomato paste, chopped medjool dates, and spices) and let simmer for 15 minutes. Transfer to a blender or immersion blender and purée the mixture. Transfer the completely blended mixture back to a saucepan and let simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.
Note: Great for basting tofu, or tempeh for a mock BBQ chicken salad!
Visit NaturalDelights.com for the original recipe (using brown sugar) and nutrition information!
If you’re a visual learner, Natural Delights has an excellent YouTube video showing step by step insructions on how to make the BBQ Sauce!
Whitney @ True Whit
June 27, 2013 at 5:29 pm (11 years ago)A-mazing!! I hate giving up BBQ sauce but the sugar kills me. Can’t wait to try this!
http://truewhit.wordpress.com
Kim
June 27, 2013 at 11:59 pm (11 years ago)This looks awesome! How long will it keep in the fridge for?
Kelly @ hidden fruits and veggies
June 28, 2013 at 8:37 am (11 years ago)I’m so obsessed with barbeque sauce, but it’s hard to find ones that don’t have high fructose corn syrup (or at least a whooole lot of sugar). Cant wait to try it out.
rebecca
February 27, 2014 at 1:47 pm (11 years ago)could u substitute something for the grapefruit juice?
rebecca
February 27, 2014 at 1:47 pm (11 years ago)could you substitute another citrus juice for the grapefruit juice?