nightshade-free, tomato-free BBQ sauce built on strawberries, beets, carrots, and balsamic, with smoked salt for the BBQ note and black pepper omitted

Every bottled barbecue sauce on a grocery shelf starts the same way: tomato first, then usually a pepper of some kind, both nightshades and both set aside for Core AIP. This sauce gets its color and body from beets, carrots, and strawberries instead, with balsamic vinegar carrying the tang and smoked salt doing the work a whole rack of spices usually does. It tastes like barbecue sauce because the mechanics are the same: tart, sweet, dark, and thick, just built from a different set of vegetables.

The fiber and plant polyphenols in beets and carrots are doing something real for a body trying to calm down, and the strawberries fold in some vitamin C along the way. It stays a condiment. A spoonful or two on a plate, not a health food, just a better-built version of something you already reach for at a cookout.

Watch the color while it cooks down, that deep ruby that has no business existing without a single tomato anywhere near the pot. Real vegetables did that, not a lab. Brush it on generously and let a cookout food that finally works with your body be exactly as ordinary and good as it should have been all along.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 cup carrots, chopped
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 1/3 cup raw beets, chopped
• 3/4 cup strawberries, chopped
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp coconut aminos
• 1 tsp smoked salt
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder

The only swap for Core AIP is to omit the black pepper the source lists, since pepper is a seed-spice. Everything else is already compliant: this is a deliberately tomato-free, nightshade-free sauce that uses beets, carrots, and strawberries for color and body, coconut aminos in place of soy sauce, and garlic powder as a permitted ground vegetable. The smoked salt is essential to the BBQ flavor and is not interchangeable with plain sea salt, so keep it. Balsamic vinegar carries the acid and depth and is the backbone of the flavor. Maple syrup can be reduced or swapped with water if you want it less sweet, with some loss of complexity.

Method

Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 2 to 3 minutes, then add the beets and carrots and saute for about 5 minutes, until lightly softened.

Add the strawberries, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, maple syrup, water, coconut aminos, smoked salt, garlic powder, and ginger powder. Stir well, lower the heat to a gentle simmer, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the mixture has reduced and the vegetables are soft.

Take the pan off the heat and let it cool slightly. Blend with an immersion blender or in a high-speed blender until completely smooth. Taste and adjust the salt. Use as you would any BBQ sauce.

Store in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.

*Adapted from unboundwellness.com*