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5.0 from 3 votes

Homemade Sweet and Sour Sauce

A quick and easy homemade sweet and sour sauce made entirely from ‘normal’ everyday ingredients found in most kitchens… lower in sugar than most recipes and NO KETCHUP (or any other highly processed, additive-laden ingredients for that matter!) This Homemade Sweet and Sour Sauce takes less than 10 minutes to make and tastes incredible – so much nicer than overly sugary, artificial-tasting, store-bought sweet and sour sauces!

Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
5 mins
Total Time
10 mins
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 69 kcal
Course: Condiments
Cuisine: Chinese

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon cornflour (US – cornstarch)
  • 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or white wine vinegar, or rice wine vinegar)
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 3 cloves garlic grated or crushed
  • 1 cm fresh ginger grated
  • 2 tablespoons tomato puree
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar (See Note 1)
  • 165 ml pineapple juice (OR the juice from one 425g / 15oz tin pineapple chunks in juice)

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. Place the cornflour and the vinegar in a small saucepan. Stir to combine thoroughly.
  2. Add the soy sauce, garlic, ginger, tomato puree and brown sugar, and stir to combine. Then add the pineapple juice and, again, stir to combine thoroughly.
  3. Heat the sauce until it starts to bubble, then turn the heat right down and simmer for 2-3 minutes, or until you’ve reached your desired consistency.
  4. Alternatively, if you are using this sauce in a recipe like Sweet and Sour Chicken, then there’s no need to pre-cook the sauce. Simply mix up the ingredients in a jam jar, or similar, and then throw the sauce straight into the Sweet and Sour Chicken for the last 2-3 minutes of cooking time to cook through and thicken up.

Notes

  • My Sweet and Sour Sauce contains only 2 tablespoons of sugar (½ a tablespoon per person), as I found that was the minimum you can get away with and still have a really great tasting sauce. If you really really don’t like adding sugar to your food, you can just about get away with 1 tablespoon of sugar, but any less than that and it really is just ‘sour’ sauce! Alternatively, if you prefer a sweeter sauce, increase the quantity to 3 tablespoons of sugar.
  • Suitable for freezing.
  • Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.

Nutrition Information

Calories 69kcal (3%) Carbohydrates 15g (5%) Protein 2g (4%) Fat 0.1g (0%) Saturated Fat 0.01g (0%) Polyunsaturated Fat 0.04g Monounsaturated Fat 0.01g Sodium 760mg (32%) Potassium 144mg (4%) Fiber 0.4g (2%) Sugar 11g (22%) Vitamin A 43IU (1%) Vitamin C 6mg (7%) Calcium 19mg (2%) Iron 1mg (6%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 4people

Amount Per Serving

Calories 69

% Daily Value*

Calories 69kcal 3%
Carbohydrates 15g 5%
Protein 2g 4%
Fat 0.1g 0%
Saturated Fat 0.01g 0%
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.04g 0%
Monounsaturated Fat 0.01g 0%
Sodium 760mg 32%
Potassium 144mg 3%
Fiber 0.4g 2%
Sugar 11g 22%
Vitamin A 43IU 1%
Vitamin C 6mg 7%
Calcium 19mg 2%
Iron 1mg 6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.