Vegan MOFO: Love Me Tender Taco Tuesday–No Peppa Srira-cha-cha-cha

 (No-Tomato Sauce with oregano and basil for Italian sauce)

I've been trying to go nightshade-free for a few months now. Some camps believe that plants in the nightshade family can cause problems–inflammation, leaky gut, achy joints, etc. These foods include tomatoes, potatoes (sweet potatoes are not in the nightshade family), peppers (chili, bell, etc.) and eggplant. Spices include red pepper, paprika and cayenne (curry often includes these spices). Black pepper is not in the nightshade family.

I have found a few recipes online for "No-Tomato Sauce" which are pretty basic and start with carrots and beets as their main ingredients. From there, you can add the appropriate spices to make it taste like a pizza or spaghetti sauce or in this case, a hot sauce. No, it doesn't taste exactly like sriracha, but it's a nice way to get a bit of heat into your tacos without the chili. I had just come to love putting sriracha sauce in so many things–tacos, tofu scramble, mac n' cheese. This is a nice alternative.


No-Peppa Srira-cha-cha-cha Sauce

Base recipe
1/2 cup chopped beets
1 cup chopped carrot
1 tsp ginger juice*
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper (or any hot peppercorn)
1/2 cup water

More water as needed

Add for heat:
Ginger juice
Natural horseradish

Blend base recipe ingredients well in a blender, food processor or Vitamix. Heat in saucepan with enough water to cover. Simmer until veggies are cooked, about 10-15 minutes, stirring often.

Here is where you need to experiment to find your own degree of heat and flavor...

Per 1/4 cup of the base recipe, I added another 1/2 tsp of ginger juice and/or 1/2 tsp horseradish, and stirred. You can add more as you like. I found the ginger to make it a "sweet-hot" and the horseradish, a hot-hot. Add water as needed for the consistency you like. I had simmered mine down a little thicker than I wanted, and just added some water to get it more like a hot-sauce consistency. I'm not a "nose-running" hot spicy girl, so I probably went easy on the hot part...

I'm keeping the rest of the base recipe in the fridge and I'll add the hot stuff as I need it. Of course, with different herbs, you can make this a tomato sauce or ketchup. More on that later as I experiment.


*Ginger Juice by the Ginger People. Available at Amazon and plenty of other places.
I think I got it at Whole Foods. I love the ease of use. Just Ginger and Citric Acid. Refrigerate after opening.