South Carolina Golden Mustard Barbecue Sauce
When I moved to South Carolina, I was surprised to discover that the barbecue there was yellow instead of red. Tangy and sweet, mustard-based barbecue sauce was very popular, but I don't think I ever got a chance to sample the barbecued pork that the natives raved about because I became vegetarian shortly after moving there. Fortunately, the bottled sauce was available in stores, and once I tried it, I developed an instant love for it.
When we moved to Mississippi six years ago, my husband and I thought far enough ahead to bring several bottles of barbecue sauce with us. After all, we'd been importing Louisiana ingredients into South Carolina for years, and we were now prepared to drag South Carolina staples to Mississippi. Unfortunately, our stockpile of mustard sauce eventually ran out and a decent substitute was not to be found anywhere in Mississippi. What to do? It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that I should just make my own.
So here's the recipe for the sauce. Be careful as you cook it not to lean over the pot or else you'll get a snootful of vinegar fumes!
South Carolina Golden Mustard Barbecue Sauce
(click for printer-friendly version)
1/2 cup prepared mustard (I use spicy brown mustard)
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp molasses
1-2 tsp turmeric (makes it yellower)
3 tbsp agave nectar or other sweetener
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp celery salt (optional)
1/4 tsp rubbed thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne (optional)
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Makes about 1 cup (enough for the tofu recipe below).
To make the Barbecued Tofu and Vegetables pictured above, I combined the sauce with 1 pound of cubed extra-firm tofu, 2 medium zucchini (cubed), 1 medium red onion (cut into wedges), and 1 red bell pepper (cubed). I poured it into a 8 X 11-inch non-metal baking dish (sprayed with non-stick spray) and baked it at 400 F for about 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes.
Tofu benefits from a longer cooking time than the vegetables, so another option is to mix half of the sauce with the tofu and bake it alone for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through; then add the vegetables and remaining sauce and cook for 15-20 more minutes. The vegetables will be tender-crisp while the tofu will firm up and absorb more of the sauce.
Did you know that mustard and turmeric are good for you? Mustard seeds contain phytonutrients that have been studied for their anti-cancer effects, and turmeric contains a powerful antioxidant that is believed to help people with arthritis, protect against breast, prostate, lung, and colon cancer, and do a whole lot more.
For more antioxidant-rich recipes, check out Sweetnicks weekly event ARF-Tuesdays, which is posted each Tuesday night.
Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free ARF/5-A-Day
When we moved to Mississippi six years ago, my husband and I thought far enough ahead to bring several bottles of barbecue sauce with us. After all, we'd been importing Louisiana ingredients into South Carolina for years, and we were now prepared to drag South Carolina staples to Mississippi. Unfortunately, our stockpile of mustard sauce eventually ran out and a decent substitute was not to be found anywhere in Mississippi. What to do? It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that I should just make my own.
So here's the recipe for the sauce. Be careful as you cook it not to lean over the pot or else you'll get a snootful of vinegar fumes!
South Carolina Golden Mustard Barbecue Sauce
(click for printer-friendly version)
1/2 cup prepared mustard (I use spicy brown mustard)
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp molasses
1-2 tsp turmeric (makes it yellower)
3 tbsp agave nectar or other sweetener
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp celery salt (optional)
1/4 tsp rubbed thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne (optional)
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Makes about 1 cup (enough for the tofu recipe below).
To make the Barbecued Tofu and Vegetables pictured above, I combined the sauce with 1 pound of cubed extra-firm tofu, 2 medium zucchini (cubed), 1 medium red onion (cut into wedges), and 1 red bell pepper (cubed). I poured it into a 8 X 11-inch non-metal baking dish (sprayed with non-stick spray) and baked it at 400 F for about 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes.
Tofu benefits from a longer cooking time than the vegetables, so another option is to mix half of the sauce with the tofu and bake it alone for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through; then add the vegetables and remaining sauce and cook for 15-20 more minutes. The vegetables will be tender-crisp while the tofu will firm up and absorb more of the sauce.
Did you know that mustard and turmeric are good for you? Mustard seeds contain phytonutrients that have been studied for their anti-cancer effects, and turmeric contains a powerful antioxidant that is believed to help people with arthritis, protect against breast, prostate, lung, and colon cancer, and do a whole lot more.
For more antioxidant-rich recipes, check out Sweetnicks weekly event ARF-Tuesdays, which is posted each Tuesday night.
Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free ARF/5-A-Day
Labels: gluten-free, Southern cooking, soy
posted by SusanV at 8:26 AM
24 Comments:
I am new to tofu and still learning how to prepare it (I like it a lot, but the husband won't eat, so I always prepare little portions for me and my son).
I like your recipes using tofu, they seem so easy to make and always look delicious!
This one is no different!
One simple question, do you lay the tofu on paper towels to drain some of the liquids or you just use it directly from the package?? (sorry if this sounds silly, as I said, I am still new to tofu world!)
Thanks!
Ana
Hi Ana--not a silly question! Actually, it never hurts to press some of the water out of the tofu, but I don't always do it if the tofu is nice and firm. This time around, I skipped that step, but if I had thought it needed it, I would have sliced it into about 6 slices, laid them out on paper towels (2 or 3 thick) and put another layer of paper towels on top. Then I would have pressed each one lightly with the palm of my hand until the paper towels were saturated. For a real, heavy-duty pressing, you can put a cutting board on top of the tofu and weight it down with a few cans of tomatoes. Some people press their tofu for 15-30 minutes, but I rarely find that necessary.
I love the "kid friendly" rating - we'll try this one over the weekend :)
-MIkaela
I love that you became vegetarian while living in South Carolina! Now, that's doing it the hard way!
:)
I also love that you include so many southern-style recipes. I love the South, but the food is often so meat-intensive, that I don't get to eat much of it when I visit.
Just the other day, in fact, I made some Boiled Peanuts in celebration of the south!
:) Amey
Ack. I just wrote a comment and it got deleted. What did I say... the sauce sounds so delicious and so SIMPLE that I have to make this soon - and with the abundance of zucchini at the farmer's market, I have no excuse not to make this with a heaping pile of veggies. Thanks for the recipe!
This sounds great, but I have one major problem, I just can't stomach vinegar. EVER. I know this is a travesty, since I do love to cook. Are there any capable substutions for this recipe? thanks
When going vegetarian, one of the very few things I missed was bbq sauce. I know the sauce is vegan, but I was used to having it daily, since my family always had meat and bbq sauce at dinner. I've been wanting to make my own for some time and am so excited to try this recipe. One question that I have- can you use blackstrap molasses? Thanks
My mom used to make a cough syrup for us using tumeric, mustard and honey...it tasted disgusting but it worked! :)
wow, that sauce looks great. i love tofu with bbq sauce and this looks like a different twist.
Amey, actually Columbia, South Carolina, is probably the most vegan-friendly place I've lived (which isn't saying much!) There definitely were more health food stores and fellow vegetarians there than there are here. But I figure you can be a vegan anywhere as long as you like beans and know how to cook! :-)
Sarah, I'm so afraid that without the vinegar this wouldn't work. But, if you really want to try, you could replace the vinegar with a mixture of lemon juice and water. That would give it some acidity. If you do this, I'd love to hear how it turns out.
MaybePigsCanFly, I think blackstrap molasses will work if you like it; I'm personally not a fan of it, so it wouldn't be an ingredient I would include. You might try less of it, just to avoid overwhelming the flavor of the other ingredients.
Thanks everyone for all your great comments!
Thanks so much for answering my questions!!
Ana
I've been searching for a good homemade BBQ sauce, and this recipe looks like it. Thanks!
Wow! That's great. I love mustard and i love BBQ sauce so this just looks so great to me!!
Wow...never heard of a yellow barbecue sauce. This looks sooo good, I'll just have to try it. I've had good results with everything I've tried from your site, so I have high hopes. Thank you, Susan!
This looks great! Will have to try very soon.
If you think being vegan in the South is tough, try being a vegetarian in central Montana...(I left and now live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula...a little bit better...at least, I don't watch cattle going by in trucks every day).
BJ
One of my favorite BBQ joints here in Portland (OR) makes a yellow sauce that I have wanted to replicate for a long time. I can't wait to try this!
I made this and it was pretty incredible. The aroma of the sauce while cooking was fantastic. I thought my sauce might be simmering too quickly because it seemed to be reducing at a fairly rapid rate. I took it off the heat and reduced the cooking time. There was still enough sauce to coat the tofu and veggies so perhaps i was stressing unnecessarily?
I especially enjoyed the tumeric!
Do you know what the equivalent of spicy brown mustard is in Australia? Is it like a sweet French or German mustard? I used a grainy-honey mustard as a replacement. It tasted great but as this mustard is fairly high in calories, i was wondering if it there was something better.
Bathsheba, the spicy brown mustard I use is grainy, with a touch of horseradish, I think, for the spiciness. If you can't find something like it, feel free to sub your favorite mustard.
I have kind of played around with both vegan concept off and on for a while now....with recipes like this I am all in now!!!
awesome recipe
Hi Susan,
I'm trying to update my comments about your recipes that I've been trying in the past weeks :) and I want to tell you that this is a Very GOOD one!
A few weeks ago I was craving for mustard, I really like mustard, and then I had the thought of doing something that could take mustard as a sauce. I came to your blog to search for a similar recipe and I found this one.
I was making it totally amazed by the combination of colors, tastes and fragrances.
When it was done, I really enjoyed it with some greens, a little bit of brown rice and a big smile in my face. :)
Thanks!
Susana.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I added a carrot to this dish, cut in circular slices. I thought some orange color would be great here and I love carrots!
Susana.
Hi! I can not find rubbed thyme anywhere, nor any information about it on the internet. Can you use a different form in the recipe? Thanks for your help!
Kyla, rubbed thyme is more powdery than dried whole leaf thyme. If you want to substitute dried, I would just use twice as much.
Thanks for the quick response - I was hungry though and decided to give my dried thyme a try (before I received the info on doubling it). I have to say .. WOW! My husband (meat & potatoes guy) who absolutey refuses to touch tofu, LOVED this meal. I never make anything he likes anymore (since I've become a vegan). Thank you!
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