Easy Copycat Japanese BBQ Sauce

I’m always trying to make things just a little bit healthier and/or more affordable and this copycat Japanese BBQ sauce might be my favorite one yet. 

This sauce recently came into my life by a friend who was so kind to put it in a gift bag she made for me. That bottle was gone so fast and I was immediately hooked. I love love love Asian food so when I tell you I put it on everything…

But, I knew the store bought version not only was a little pricey, but also pretty sweet so I decided to make it myself! I looked at the bottle and found that the ingredients of the original are actually pretty simple:

• Soy sauce 
• Sugar
• Mirin
• Tomato paste
• Ginger
• Green onion
• Rice vinegar
• Garlic
• Salt
• Sesame oil

so I gathered everything and got to work figuring out the ratios. Ingredients are always listed on food products as most to least so that helped me figure out the measurements of each ingredient, but I needed to figure out how I was going to make this a lower glycemic option. I opted for coconut sugar which has a lower GI (glycemic index) than regular table sugar.

Sugar in the body

Of course, sugar is sugar but my main objective was to use ingredients that didn’t spike my blood sugar as much. The higher the initial spike, the worse consequences. 

Fiber is also another way to curb insulin spike. Fiber, however, adds bulk to foods and because this is a sauce, that wasn’t going to work. 

If something needs sweetness and you don’t want to go too far off the recipe, I suggest less refined sugars. For more info on sugars check out my post here.

If I am going to enjoy sweeter things, I try to add in something with fiber along with it. This will help keep me satisfied and help stabilize my blood sugar.