Sweet Onion Barbecue Sauce

Always on the lookout for a sugar free barbecue sauce--especially since the KC Masterpiece classic sauce has been discontinued. When I browse the condiment aisle, I see all these fancy names for exotic sauces I would love to sample. Unfortunately, they are always loaded with sugar! Tonight I did a little experimenting. What I set out to make was less than wonderful. What I ended up with was pretty good. It is a sweet onion sauce--the only catch is, you need some prepared traditional sauce in order to make it. Catch 22? Yup.

Sweet Onion Barbecue Sauce

1/2 onion, very finely diced
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
5 packets Splenda
1/4 cup water (or more)
1/3 cup traditional barbecue sauce

Use a blender to finely dice the onion. Combine it with all the remaining ingredients except barbecue sauce. Saute the mixture in a non stick pan until onions are tender. Add water as necessary if the mixture thickens too much. Just before serving, add in traditional sauce.

The recipe I was working from did not call for the traditional sauce. Without it, I found this too tart and too oniony. Next time, I may try roasting the onion, then pureeing all the ingredients together.

John liked this the most. Christian did not like the celery seed, so leave that out if you agree with him. I am an onion lover, so it appealed to me. I served it with oven baked chicken breasts and cauliflower with cheese. Another day, another experiment in the kitchen. It keeps life interesting.