8 Homemade Sauce Ideas (from a sauce fan)

As you guys know, I am a big fan of sauces. In my book, pretty much everything is better with a sauce, especially if the sauce is creamy in some way.

And as you’ve seen, a lot of my egg/potato/veggie bowls have sauces on them.

So, on a recent post, a reader asked for sauce suggestions, especially if they can be made at home.

You can buy sauces at the store, of course, and I would not judge you for that. Anything you buy at the grocery store is gonna be cheaper than eating out, and if a jar of sauce helps you eat at home, go for it.

But if you do want to try making your own sauces, here are a few ideas to get you started.

And some of them are crazy easy, like this one:

1. Chipotle Mayo/Sour Cream

You know how I always keep a jar of blended chipotles in my fridge?

(Here’s my chipotle-storing method.)

Well, if I want a sauce that’s a little smoky and spicy, I just stir some of those into a bit of sour cream or mayo and POOF, I have a delightful sauce.

2. Sour Cream Cilantro Sauce

I originally made this to go with the chipotle chicken kebabs (sauce is included here) that we eat all the time; super quick and tasty.

But it also works great as a salad dressing if you thin it out with a little milk.

I also sometimes do a blended version, with some jalapeños thrown in, but honestly, I usually eyeball the blended version. It’s a sauce…how wrong could it go?

3. Sriracha Mayo

I know they sell bottles of this combo, but you can easily make your own at home just by stirring some sriracha into regular mayo.

Another advantage: you can control the spiciness.

Yum-Yum Sauce

I make this mayo-based sauce for putting on hibachi chicken, mainly.  The site I got my recipe from is no longer up, but there are a million versions of this on the internet, all fairly similar.

Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have any pictures of the sauce itself…just the chicken and veggies that I put the sauce on:

Here’s a yum yum sauce recipe that you could try.

4. Sweet Vinaigrette

This is not exactly a sauce, but…I do usually have a jar in my fridge (the dressing recipe is in this salad post.)

It’s a slightly sweet oil and vinegar dressing, and it works really well in a green salad that has fruit in it.

But mainly, I use it to dress some greens when I eat lettuce for breakfast. I just toss lettuce with a bit of the dressing and eat it as a side to my eggs.

Like I always say, if you want to feel obnoxiously virtuous, eat a salad before 9 am. 😉

By the way! I realized very recently that if you microwave the vinegar, sugar, and salt, and then stir them to combine, the sugar stays dissolved even after many days in the fridge.

I wish I’d figured this out sooner!

5. Mustard Vinaigrette

While I’m thinking about salad dressings…here’s another vinaigrette. This one gets made in the blender, so it’s pretty quick and easy too, and it turns kind of creamy.

These types of dressings do leave your blender pretty greasy, so after I make mine, I blend up some dish soap and hot water to help clean the oil slick off the blender.

And then I wash by hand.

6. Asian-ish Dressing

This is Asian in the same way that Taco Bell is Mexican (i.e. not very), but I don’t know what else to call it! Here’s the recipe.

It does have a laundry list of ingredients, but you just dump them all in the blender, and it keeps in the fridge for a while.

I mainly use it on a lettuce/chicken/mandarin orange salad, but there are probably other good ways to use it!

7. Pesto plus sour cream/mayo/heavy cream

Pesto is obviously a good sauce on its own. But we know I think everything is better when you make it creamy.

Soo, I like to combine it with mayo (for a sandwich spread) or sour cream (for a dip).

And if you want to make a sauce to go on pasta, then a pesto/heavy cream (or half and half) combo is super good.

8. Basil/Red Pepper Mayo

This roasted red pepper sauce is so so so yummy. It does require the step of roasting red peppers, but oh man, it’s so worth it. It’ll seriously elevate a sandwich!

All right…enough from me. I bet you guys have some tried and true sauces that you make at home, so please share!

What homemade sauces do you like to make?