Some barbecue enthusiasts will tell you it’s all about the sauce. That’s certainly the case with the new recipe I share this week my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. You can’t buy one off the shelf that duplicates it—especially if you want a vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free option. Homemade barbecue sauces and other marinades also lack the high-fructose processed sweeteners so common in commercial bottles. Plus, you can make them for a fraction of the cost if you already have many of the base ingredients in your kitchen.

I developed this tomato-based barbecue sauce recipe intending to pair it with smoked and grilled mushrooms and then tested it with a couple of meaty types. Full-size portobellos pick up the most flavor in their large gills, but baby bella (aka cremini) mushrooms also work. The thick stalks and wide caps of King trumpet mushrooms would hold up as well to smoking as they do to pickling. As another variation, we’ve enjoyed this sauce with eggplant that has been smoked over very low heat, so that it stays firm, and then grilled until it softens but still holds shape. Of course, you can always serve this sauce with smoked brisket or pulled pork.

Learn more about smoking mushrooms and get the complete recipe for Vegan Memphis-Style Barbecue Sauce in my column.

Make it, share it.
Tag @twiceastastyblog and #twiceastastyblog

Twice as Tasty

Like DIY salad dressings, homemade marinades and grilling sauces come together easily, taste better, and cost less than store-bought bottles. If you make them as you need them in small batches, they won’t hog precious fridge space—which in my kitchen leaves more room for pickles and ferments.

If you want to make a full bottle, most vinegar-heavy dressings, sauces, and marinades will keep well for about a month in the fridge without commercial preservatives and may hold out even longer. Some sauces, especially ones without dairy, also freeze well enough that you can load them into an ice cube tray and defrost just the portion you need throughout the year.

Here are just a few other recipes on the blog for sauces and marinades that I use when grilling. Even where the recipe includes my favorite use for the sauce, you can always let it flavor a different vegetable or protein. You can find more grilling and sauce ideas in the recipe index.

• Veggie Shish Kebabs with Garlicy Marinade
• Grilled Shrimp with Chermoula
• Wasabi-Marinated Shrimp
• Whiskey-Basted Grilled Salmon

You can also learn more about grilling and smoking vegetables in this blog post. We use an old Weber charcoal grill for all of our grilling and smoking, but in the last couple of years I’ve switched from briquettes with woodchips to a smoke tube packed with pellets to supply the smoky flavor. I’m currently testing both smoke tubes and charcoal grill starters for The Spruce Eats, so look for more on those from me soon.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.