Here it is – the second of three sneak preview recipes from Sarah Ballantyne, PhD’s The Paleo Approach Cookbook! If you are sensitive at all to nightshades, Sarah’s BBQ Sauce is reason to rejoice. Heck, even if you tolerate tomatoes just fine you won’t miss them at all when you taste this sweet and tangy sauce. Perfect slathered on a tender rack of baby back ribs!
Please share this recipe. Buttons are to the left and at the end of the post.


- 2 tablespoons red palm oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 apple, peeled, cored, and grated
- ¼ cup molasses
- ¹⁄3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
- 1½ tablespoons fish sauce
- ¼ teaspoon ground mace
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- Pinch of ground cinnamon
- Heat the palm oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 10 to 15 minutes, until caramelized.
- Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and purée with an immersion blender.
- This barbecue sauce tastes best on meat cooked on a charcoal grill or in a smoker. If you plan to use an indoor grill or bake your meat in the oven, consider adding a drop or two of liquid smoke to the sauce.
- Replace half to all of the molasses with tamarind paste or pomegranate molasses.
- This recipe cannot be made low-FODMAP.
- Immersion blender
Sarah Ballantyne, Ph.D. (a.k.a. The Paleo Mom) is the blogger behind the award-winning blog www.ThePaleoMom.com, cohost of the top-rated and syndicated The Paleo View podcast, and author of two books, The Paleo Approach and The Paleo Approach Cookbook.
Sarah is an accomplished, award-winning scientist who is passionate about scientific literacy and about distilling scientific concepts into straightforward and accessible explanations. As a scientist both by training and by nature, Sarah is deeply interested in understanding how the foods we eat interact with our gut barriers, immune systems, and hormones to influence health.
Sarah has also always loved food and loved cooking. She loves being creative in the kitchen and finding ways to reinvent old favorites. She cooks mostly for her family, which is why you will see such a diversity of recipes on her blog. She believes that even healthy food should taste amazing and that there can be room in life for celebrations with food and occasional treats (and that what occasional means is individual).
You can also find Sarah on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Are you struggling to sustain a paleo lifestyle change? Or not sure how to start? Or perhaps those around you are resistant and you’re feeling undermined and unsure. The Modern, No-Nonsense Guide to Paleo provides practical tools to ease the transition to a full-on paleo life. Each chapter includes strategies, tips and checklists to identify the actions to power you on your paleo journey and create sustainable change. Buy it at Amazon.com.