If you’re bored with eating the same few meals week after week because you’re too busy to cook more involved dishes, consider adding variety to your diet with different sauces. Read this article for some tips and a great recipe for Indian barbeque sauce.
Everyone knows that cooking can be time consuming, and for those of us with full-time jobs and other obligations to attend to, weeknight meals tend to be quick, easy affairs that don’t leave room for a whole lot of creativity. Many people get into an eating routine during the week, making a few simple meals over and over again because they’re fast and familiar. Eventually, though, it’s understandable to get bored with eating spaghetti for dinner every single week. If this describes you, it may be time to branch out in your weeknight cooking. Rest assured, it’s quite possible to spice up your weeknight meals without adding hours onto your cooking and planning time, and it only takes one word: sauces.
Saucy Cooking
Learning how to make a wide variety of sauces can be a big help when it comes to beating the boredom of those regular meals. In many cases, you can continue to cook the same staple foods, whether it’s meat, potatoes, pasta, or something else. By adding variety to the sauces you use in these meals, you can arrive at an almost infinite variety of dishes for weeknights. The best thing about changing up the sauces is that it doesn’t take any extra time at all, especially in cases where you would make a quick sauce or gravy anyway.
Start With the Basics
The art of making sauces can take a little practice to get just right, and reading about the basic sauce varieties can pay off by helping you understand the basic foundations behind any sauce. Once you have these basics down, you can vary the ingredients and flavors easily. A white sauce or gravy for mashed potatoes can be a rosemary sauce one night, a spicy red pepper sauce another night, or an exotically spiced Indian-style sauce on another occasion. Instead of the same old gravy, you have many different exciting flavor combinations to add variety to your diet.
Indian Barbeque Sauce Recipe
Here’s an easy sauce that anyone can make in only a few minutes, but that adds an exciting flavor that pairs well with many different dishes. Modeled after barbecue sauce with an Indian flavor inspiration, this sauce goes well with vegetables like cauliflower, red or white meats, potatoes, or corn; just about anything you would use a steak or barbecue sauce with is a good match for this Indian barbecue sauce.
The liquid base for the sauce can be water or broth. To each cup of liquid, add about 1/4 of a cup of tomato paste. Alternatively, you can use tomato puree without the liquid base. Stir, bringing the mix to a simmer, and then add the spices: cumin, powdered ginger, and powdered garlic. For one cup of liquid, about 1 tablespoon of cumin, 1 teaspoon of ginger, and 1 teaspoon of garlic are needed. If you have a little more time, you can use equivalent amounts of fresh ginger and garlic. Simmer for a moment to combine, and then add enough honey or sugar to cut the bitterness of the tomato paste. Make sure to taste the sauce as you go to test the flavor. Finally, as the finishing touch, add soy sauce to taste (usually around 1 tablespoon). Voila! An Indian barbecue sauce that tastes like it took much longer than 5 minutes.
Change is Good
As with any sauce, this recipe can be altered to your liking, so go ahead and experiment, adding or removing things for variety and to suit your own personal preferences. Just a few recipes like this, and before long you will feel like you never eat the same meal twice, even on busy weeknights.
