Sure you could buy your sauce from the store. You wouldn’t know everything that is in it and you would be bringing home more plastic waste but you could do that.

That shop bought sauce also couldn’t be adjusted to your own taste. I will give you the basic recipe I use here but you can change bits to fit your tastes. This recipe actually started off as three ingredients that my mother taught be to mix: ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and sugar when I was about 10 years old and have evolved over time.

First I started by wanting to avoid the fish in the Worcestershire sauce. Then I wanted to reduce the cost of the sauce so needed to switch out the ketchup for chopped tomatoes. Eventually, then recipe had evolved into what I am presenting today. Sometimes I probably use a bit more garlic or a bit more sugar but this is a good base to start with.

BBQ Sauce

800g chopped tomatoes

3 Tbsp liquid seasoning (liquid smoke)

2 tsp garlic purée

1/4 cup brown sugar (maple syrup or honey would also work)

1 Tbsp Molasses

1 Tbsp tomato purée (tomato paste)

1 tsp smoked paprika (I heap it)

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp mustard powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 vegetable stock cube

1/2 tsp hot chilli powder

First thing to remember…blend the tomatoes before heating if you want your sauce smooth. I forgot this step and had to do the risky step of blending the hot bbq sauce as my family are picky about hiding the tomatoes. You got add all the ingredients before blending and then cooking but the sugar might want to stick to the side of the blender. I usually just blend the tomatoes then add all the rest in the pan.

Mix all the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer while stirring regularly. You want the sauce to get to a deeper red and reduce a bit. Once you get your sauce to a consistency you like turn off the heat and use a silicone spatula to scrape in all into a container to cool before keeping it in the refrigerator. I made enough for two jars of sauce (my jars are 500ml size).

We will have ours on tofu burgers and probably dip chips in it as well. I also love to have a bit of this sauce on a baked potato with some beans and greens. If you are an omni eaters it is also great for cooking meat in.

These two jars of sauce might have cost as much as £1 in total to make but probably closer to 80p. It not only can be just the way you want, probably healthier but also save you money. Let me know if you like this sauce and how you prefer to use it.