How to Buy Healthier Sauces (that Still Taste Great!)

If you’ve been around for a while, you know I try to find little ways to be healthier everyday. I’ve found this is the easiest way to be healthy & happy and not feel like you’re always on a super restrictive diet. It’s all about lifestyle to me and my lifestyle includes dipping, drizzling and dousing my food with sauces, healthier sauces that is!

For about 6 months now, I’ve been trying and tasting new sauces to find healthier sauce alternatives for your go-to favorites. I’ve learned some tricks on what to look for, found my favorites, and now I’m creating this guide to help you too!

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In the photo above, we used the avocado mayo to create a ‘healthier’ grilled mexican street corn!

Last year I did Kinda, Keto and I learned a lot about substitutions and ways to make things healthier. I’ve found it’s easier to create a balanced, healthy lifestyle if you can have your favorites but just make them better for you! One of the easiest ways to make all your favorite meals is by finding healthier sauces! Here are a few tips for searching for sauce alternatives and below I’m sharing our favorites and how we use them.

HUNTING HEALTHIER SAUCES:

Read the Ingredients: One of the easiest rules of thumb is to read the ingredients and see if you can recognize all the ingredients. I like to follow this rule when I’m grocery shopping in general!
Look at Sugar and Sodium Content: This is where sauces can really get you. So many sauces have SO much added sugar or sodium. When we did Kinda, Keto this was a huge eye opener for me. I thought I was being ‘healthy’ but in reality I was adding so much sugar to every meal. Even sauces like Tomato Pasta Sauce can have 9 grams of added sugar! I don’t always buy organic, I don’t always buy sauces at Whole Foods but no matter where I’m shopping I look for the lowest possible sugar and sodium content.
Look at the Preservatives: I like to try and find sauces that are preservative free. Like I stated above, I don’t always have the option for the sauces below so I try to make the best decision at hand. I try to find sauces that are preservative free and lately I’ve found there are many more options for this!

healthier sauces

My Favorite ‘Healthier’ Sauces:

Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Mayo: So I actually don’t even like mayonaise, unless it’s this one. It’s so good and the ingredients are so much better than any other avocado mayo I’ve seen from brands such as Kraft, etc. We use it any place you would normal use mayo.
Tessemae’s Lemon Garlic Dressing: Lemon and garlic are two of my favorite things, so I’m not surprised I love this dressing! One of my favorite ways to eat it- toss shredded lettuce in this dressing, top with tuna salad. DELICIOUS. But really, great on any salad.
Ghee Clarified Butter: I’ve read a lot about how Ghee is a better alternative to butter. I try to eat dairy free as much as possible and ghee is dairy free! It tastes JUST like butter, you can’t tell the difference. We use it anywhere we would use butter.
Sir Kensington’s Special Sauce: This sauce is so good! It reminds me of In & Out’s secret sauce. It’s great on burgers but I also love using it with a sweet potato and shredded chicken. I know it sounds crazy, but so so good.
Primal Kitchen Honey Mustard: This is one of my favorite sauces! I use it multiple ways and usually keep a few in stock. My absolute favorite way is to marinate wings in it, then grill the wings and then toss them in this sauce (full recipe post coming soon!). I also love to use it for ‘Sub in a Tub’ which is basically a sandwich in a bowl on lettuce vs. on bread.
Primal Kitchen Ketchup: RJ and I are big ketchup people. We LOVE it but it’s one of the biggest places to find hidden sugar. We’ve tried many organic, sugar-free ketchups and this one is our absolute favorite. I think it tastes just like normal ketchup and isn’t expensive.
Liquid Aminos: This is a Soy Sauce alternative and you wouldn’t even know the difference! This one is soy based, so when my bottle is up, I’m going to try these Coconut Aminos.
Noble Made Classic BBQ Sauce: We found this BBQ sauce while trying Whole 30 and we’ve continued to use it long after the Whole 30 was up. It tastes just as great as a traditional BBQ sauce and is low in sugar. One of our favorite ways to use it is in this Slow Cooker BBQ.