26 Delicious Healthy Sauce Recipes

We have the secret sauce! These homemade healthy sauces are easy to make and add a zip of flavor to your favorite recipes. Most of these healthy sauce recipes are ready in less than 10 minutes and many require no cooking! How amazing (and delicious) is that!?!

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Making food at home from scratch can be time-consuming. This is why we specifically chose these recipes. They are easy to make and I have tested each one personally. Whether it is on my own recipe or from another blogger who I trust to make flavorful recipes, these healthy sauces won't disappoint.

Jump to:

• What Makes a Good Sauce Recipe
• What Makes a Sauce Healthy
• Healthy Dressings
• Healthy Pasta Sauces
• Spicy Sauces
• Healthy Dipping Sauces
• Healthy Sauces for Meats and Veggies
• Sweet and Savory Sauces
• 🔪Equipment
• 🌡️Storing Homemade Sauces
• ⭐Reviews

What Makes a Good Sauce Recipe

A good sauce recipe typically includes minimal ingredients but each one serves a specific purpose. They may be adding flavor, acid, healthy fats, or texture. Keeping ingredients in balance is key.

A good sauce may only fresh ingredients and others only use pantry staples, meaning you always have options when maintaining a healthy diet.

Good sauces should be versatile. From how you serve it or the dish you pair it with. Or even doing double duty as a dip and a salad dressing, like our gluten-free peanut sauce.

What Makes a Sauce Healthy

The benefits of making sauces at home include controlling the quality of the ingredients, ensuring they are nutritious, and tweaking the flavor to get it just right.

Many store-bought sauces contain extra sugar and salt to add flavor, make them shelf stable, and cover poor-quality ingredients.

Higher quality more flavorful ingredients often result in using less sauce overall so adding a decadent ingredient here or there is no problem!

By making homemade healthy sauce recipes yourself we can control the ingredients to ensure they meet our own personal dietary requirements and preferences.

Our list of healthy sauces is all naturally gluten-free and many are dairy-free, sugar-free, paleo, or vegan.

Other ingredients that make these sauces healthy include:

• Extra fruits and vegetables
• Healthy fats including healthy oils, Greek yogurt, seeds, and nuts
• Citrus fruits and vinegar to add acid
• Fresh herbs, dried spices, and aromatics for flavor

Healthy Dressings

My most popular salad recipe is my shaved brussel sprout salad with pomegranates. The sugar-free poppy seed dressing became so popular I had to give it its own post. Here are a few more dressing recipes to try!

Healthy Pasta Sauces

From red tomatoes sauces to bright green pestos. These sauces are perfect for pasta and pizzas. Or just to dip your bread into!

Spicy Sauces

Sometimes a firey kick is just what you need to elevate your recipe. These sauces and dips are big on flavor and heat. But if heat is what you like be sure to check out our roasted salmon with spicy pineapple salsa and our harissa beef and noodles. Both will give you a good kick.

Healthy Dipping Sauces

Our favorite shawarma-style crispy chicken wings come with a tangy coriander sauce. I use this cool dipping sauce on for so much more.

Healthy Sauces for Meats and Veggies

My seared bavette steak recipe is served with a balsamic sauce that I also use on chicken. And the sweet and sour dipping sauce on our grilled Vietnamese lemongrass pork is also worth trying.

Plus try some of these other sauces that are perfect for topping meats and fish.

Sweet and Savory Sauces

If you are ready to expand your palate, these sauces balance sweet elements with savory ones for the perfectblance. We recently used the chamoy sauce recipe on our homemade mango and chili popsicles.

🔪Equipment

None of these sauces require specialized equipment to make. But here are a few of my favorite, and highly recommended, tools and utenils for making these easy sauce recipes!

• Small food processor
• High-powered blender
• Microplane
• Lemon/ lime handheld juicer

For storing sauces, I use these bambo lids that fit right on my mason jars.

🌡️Storing Homemade Sauces

Most sauces last at least 3 to 5 days when properly stored. However some last longer with fermentation of canning. And a few of these recipes can even be frozen.

Please see the individual recipes for specifics.

If you try one of these recipes, be sure to post a photo on Instagram with @peelwithzeal so we can admire your creation! Follow Peel with Zeal on Pinterest, Instagram, or Facebook for the latest posts.