Paleo Peach BBQ Sauce

 

When The Husband and I were in Pennsylvania for Labor Day, we stopped at my favorite orchard for fruit before heading back home on Sunday night. Amongst other things, we ended up with a half bushel of fresh peaches. Let me tell you, our car smelled awesome on the drive home. Fresh peaches = best car freshener ever.

The first few days it was easy to use some of our new stash. I packed one in my lunch each day, The Husband ate some at breakfast…but it soon became apparent that we’d have to do something with the rest of our peaches, and fast. I had a couple of ideas, but the one that wouldn’t go away also happened to be a bi-product of the Labor Day weekend.

BBQ sauce.

There isn’t a lot I miss from my non-paleo days, but one of the few things I do find myself craving is a sweet and spicy BBQ sauce. I’ve never made homemade BBQ sauce before and to be honest I don’t actually think I’ve ever eaten peach BBQ sauce before, but because I happened to have a whole bunch of peaches on hand, well…

You get the picture.

So we looked up some recipes online and after finding recipe after recipe that contained sugar, brown sugar, or honey, I finally found one that didn’t use any added sweeteners at all! The secret ingredient? Mango!

The combination of the super ripe peaches and the super sweet mango created the perfect blend of sweet to balance out the heat from the jalapeno and the tang from the apple cider vinegar and lime juice.

The recipe was fairly easy as well. I simmered the peaches and mango with some onion, jalapeno pepper, chicken stock and tomato pasted and cooked down for a while before tossing it into a blender to form a sauce. Then I added the sauce back to the pot on the stove, added apple cider vinegar, lime juice, ancho chili powder and a healthy dose of Stubbs BBQ spice rub, and let it simmer away!

Amazing.

 

While I was making the BBQ sauce, The Husband threw a bunch of pork ribs in the crockpot with some seasonings of his own. Once they were ready, we tossed them with the BBQ sauce and dinner was served!

PALEO PEACH BBQ SAUCE

adapted from this recipe

yields: approximately 2 cups BBQ sauce

prep time: 15-20 minutes

cook time: 1.5 hours

INGREDIENTS:

4 peaches, peeled and chopped

1 mango, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup onion, diced

1 jalapeno, diced

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 4.5 oz tube tomato paste

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 lime, juiced

2 tbsp stubbs BBQ spice rub

ancho chili powder (sprinkle to taste)

2 tbsp olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat olive oil in a dutch oven and add peaches and mango. Cook to soften, about 5-10 minutes. Add onion, jalapeno, chicken stock and tomato paste and cook on medium heat for approximately 20 minutes, until all ingredients begin to combine and are soft enough to puree. Working in batches, puree your mixture in a blender to the consistency you desire – I left mine still slightly chunky because that’s how I wanted it, but you can puree until smooth if you’d like. Return the mixture to the pot and add vinegar, lime juice and spices. Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for approximately one hour, stirring occasionally, until sauce darkens and thickens, again to the consistency you desire.

Enjoy!

I also highly recommend this with barbecued chicken on a grill. Nom.