PALEO LEAP CHEAT SHEET

PALEO SAUCES

Sauces add flavor to any meal, and jazz up the protein-and-vegetable combination with some delicious variety. Using sauces strategically is one simple way to take your Paleo cooking from good to great. But even a basic marinara is hard to find at the grocery store if you don’t want a whole bunch of junk along for the ride.

To solve that problem, here ’s a guide to DIY Paleo saucemaking , with strategic substitutions for ingredients like f lour, milk , and cornstarch. Browse all the categories or skip down to your favorite:

Tomato and tomato-based sauces

Fat-based sauces

Savory flour and cream-based sauces (e.g. alfredo, gravy...)

Sweet sauces

Miscellaneous sauces

TOMATO AND TOMATO-BASED SAUCES (e.g. ketchup, marinara…)

FAT-BASED SAUCES (e.g. Hollandaise, butter sauce…)

SAVORY FLOUR AND CREAM-BASED SAUCES (e.g. Alfredo sauce, gravy…)

SWEET SAUCES (e.g. caramel sauce, fruit sauces)

MISCELLANEOUS SAUCES

These sauces shouldn’t take much tweaking at all: the main attraction is the tomatoes, and all you have to do is not put in a bunch of junk. Here’s a breakdown:

Fat-based sauces are a delicious way to get more healthy fats into a meal, especially if you’re serving something lean like fish. Most of them use butter or ghee, but if you react to all dairy, you can also find fat-based sauces that rely on coconut oil or other Paleo fats instead.

Here’s where it starts getting tricky. For gravy, you’ll have to get a floury texture without the flour. For something like white sauce, you’ll need to replace both flour and milk, if you don’t do dairy.

Sweet sauces range from fruity glazes to spicy-sweet to sweet-and-sour with everything in between. They’re tasty with dessert, but they’re also great with dinner: try pork chops with a sweeter sauce for a delicious combination.

And now for the “everything else:” sauces that didn’t quite fit the categories above.

Type of sauce Tips and Recipes Eat it With…

MARINARA/ PASTA SAUCE

Just about any homemade marinara sauce will already be

Paleo: use your favorite recipe or try this basic marinara (Against All

Grain).

Paleo pasta (made with roasted spaghetti squash)1,

meatballs, or anything else.

BBQ SAUCENo, it doesn’t have to

be full of sugar! Here’s a recipe for Paleo barbecue

sauce.

Wings, ribs, pulled pork, meatballs…

KETCHUPStore-bought ketchup is a corn syrup minefield; here’s a simple Paleo

ketchup to use instead.

Burgers, oven-roasted sweet potato fries, or anything else you’d

otherwise eat ketchup on.

COCKTAIL SAUCE Here’s a recipe for Paleo-friendly cocktail sauce.

Shrimp (you could even buy a shrimp ring for a

party and just replace the sauce)

HOT SAUCE

There are all kinds of Paleo hot sauce recipes.

Try…- Sriracha sauce- Homemade Hot Sauce (Naked Cuisine)- Chipotle hot sauce (CaliZona)

Eggs, sausages, roast vegetables…anything you

can think of!

Type of sauce Tips and Recipes Eat it With…

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

You don’t have to modify Hollandaise at all unless you’re completely dairy-free. In that case, here’s

a recipe made with coconut oil (Against All

Grain).

Eggs Benedict or roasted asparagus (or both!)

BÉARNAISE SAUCE

Like Hollandaise, Béarnaise is all about

the egg yolks and butter; there’s not much to

argue with there from a Paleo point of view.

Here’s a Paleo recipe (The Domestic Man).

Steak, grilled chicken, or anything else you like.

BUTTER SAUCES

Butter sauces give you that rich taste, but without the pain of

whisking egg yolks. Just melt the butter (slowly!)

and add lemon juice, lime juice, black pepper, garlic, or whatever else you like.

Scallops (with lemon butter), grilled chicken (with lime butter), cod

(with herb butter), or any other lean meat.

NUT-BUTTER SAUCES

Use any nut butter except for peanut

(peanuts aren’t actually nuts; they’re legumes). Try almond butter or

cashew butter sauce for Thai curries instead: it’s

delicious!

Pad Thai, or try it as dressing for chicken

salad.

Type of sauce Tips and Recipes Eat it With…

ROUX-BASED WHITE SAUCE

(BÉCHAMEL SAUCE)

This casserole recipe includes instructions for making Paleo béchamel

(The Healthy Foodie). Here’s one with a roux made from butter and

coconut flour, with almond milk as the base

of the sauce (Paleo in PDX).

Casseroles, Paleo lasagna, drizzled over roasted cauliflower or

other vegetables…

ALFREDO SAUCE

Alfredo has so many variations that you can’t

just stick with one!- Here’s a mushroom Alfredo sauce with cauliflower and coconut milk (the recipe also links to a pumpkin Alfredo) (Perchance to Cook)- Here’s an interesting cauliflower-free Alfredo recipe using cashews (Paleo Plan).- If you do a little bit of dairy, here’s another cauliflower Alfredo with parmesan cheese (Cupcakes OMG).

Paleo “pasta” (made with roasted spaghetti squash).

CHEESE SAUCE Paleo cheese sauce (Eat Drink Paleo).

Burgers, roasted cauliflower, or anything

else that could use a little cheese.

YOGURT SAUCES

You can make Paleo yogurt sauces out of

coconut-milk yogurt or just plain coconut milk, like this Paleo Tzatziki

(Stupid Easy Paleo).

Salads, burgers, lamb, or as a dip for vegetables if you like to snack on

them.

BASIC CREAMY SAUCE (COCONUT

MILK VERSION)

Do you just want a basic cream sauce

without fussing around with cauliflower and

nutritional yeast? Coconut milk comes

to the rescue: here’s a mushroom cream sauce and a sun-dried tomato

version.

Baked or grilled chicken, Paleo “pasta,” or anything

else you like.

BASIC CREAMY SAUCE (AVOCADO

VERSION)

Avocado is a great substitute for an easy creamy sauce without

the coconut milk. Here’s an easy recipe to get you

started (Family Living Simple).

Eggs Benedict (as a change from Hollandaise),

salads, or shrimp.

GRAVY AND “BROWN SAUCE”

Gravy doesn’t have to start with flour!

- Here’s a recipe using onions for the texture instead of any kind of flour (Nom Nom Paleo).- Here’s one using starch thickeners and beef broth (Fast Paleo).

Mashed potatoes (yes, white potatoes are OK),

meatballs, pot roast, and of course, the

Thanksgiving turkey.

Type of sauce Tips and Recipes Eat it With…

HONEY-MUSTARD SAUCE

This recipe includes instructions for honey-

mustard sauce.

Chicken, pork chops, roasts, or use it as a

dipping sauce for sweet potato fries!

SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE

Just replace sugar or corn syrup with a Paleo-friendly sweetener and go! Here’s one that uses

dried fruit as a sweetener (Stupid Easy Paleo), but

honey is another popular option.

Sweet and sour chicken (you could also modify

that recipe to use pork or other meat).

BERRY AND OTHER PUREED FRUIT

SAUCES (E.G. FOR DESSERTS)

A basic fruit sauce is simple: just cook the

fruit until soft, puree in a food processor, and add

sweetener to taste.

Fruit banana split (with mixed berry sauce), Pork

loin (with pear sauce), shrimp (with mango

sauce). Or add berries to BBQ sauce for a special

effect.

CARAMEL SAUCE Paleo caramel sauce (The Iron You).

Banana ice cream or any other favorite Paleo

dessert.

Type of sauce Tips and Recipes Eat it With…

PAN SAUCE

Pan sauce is the easiest sauce of all. Just pour

some liquid (wine and/or stock) into a skillet or roasting dish after

cooking meat, scrape up the delicious browned bits from the bottom, and keep the heat on

until the sauce reduces.

Everything! Any time you sauté meat in a skillet,

you can make a pan sauce to go with it. Here’s

a steak recipe to start you off.

FRESH HERB SAUCES

Herb sauce is easy: just stick everything

in the blender. Try any combination of olive

oil with mint, cilantro, parsley, garlic, basil,

or other favorite fresh herbs, maybe with some

hot peppers or citrus.

Grilled fish, any kind chicken, or even steak to add a fresh flavor

contrast.

SPICY COCONUT-MILK SAUCES

Combining coconut milk with spices gives you a delicious flavor and texture. Try Thai curry

sauce or experiment with your own favorite spice

combinations.

Any meat that could use a little perking up,

especially lean meat like chicken or fish.

1 Unless marked otherwise, recipes are from Paleo Leap

ENTER THE SUBSTITUTION HEROES:

- For a rich texture…pureed cauliflower.

- For that slightly funky cheesy taste…nutritional yeast.

- For a creamy smoothness…coconut milk and/or avocado.

- For a delicious velvety “mouthfeel” with a meaty flavor…beef or chicken stock.

- For thickeners and flour replacements…almond flour, tapioca starch, or coconut flour.

With various combinations of these, you can make just about anything work.

SINCE YOU WON’T BE USING CORN SYRUP OR SUGAR TO MAKE A GLAZE EFFECT, HERE ARE SOME TIPS AND TRICKS TO GET YOUR SAUCES PERFECT:

- Tapioca starch is a Paleo-friendly thickener if you want something a little more syrupy.

- Experiment with a variety of sweeteners, from whole pureed fruit to honey and maple syrup to see what you like in which kind of sauce.

Copyright © 2015 by Paleo Leap, LLC.

All material in this cheat sheet is provided for your information only and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action

or inaction should be taken based solely on the contents oæf this information; instead, readers should consult appropriate health

professionals on any matter relating to their health and well-being.