Name: Homemade Sweet and Sour Sauce (Healthy)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Cuisine: asian
Ingredients: 1 cup pineapple juice; 1/2 cup chili sauce or Asian red sauce of choice (check ingredients for hidden sugars); 2 Tablespoons tamari sauce (or coconut aminos); 1/2 cup honey; 4 teaspoons rice wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar; 1 1/2 tablespoons arrowroot starch or cornstarch, combined with equal amount of cold water

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This Sweet and Sour Sauce is even better than your Chinese carry-out favorite, with a healthy twist. It has no refined sugar, but it tastes just like the real thing! Plus, it’s dairy-free, and has no MSG or artificial colors.

homemade sweet and sour sauce in white bowl and on wooden spoon

Let’s Get Saucy!

Back in 2017, when I was creating my Superfoods Nourishing Bowl Cookbook, I came to realize that sauces are the KEY to making healthy food shine. Not store bought sauces, although some are quite healthy these days. But rather, homemade sauces.

My homemade sauce recipes start with simple ingredients you may already have in your pantry. Which brings me to this homemade sweet and sour sauce recipe today. This version is better for you, made with less sugar. Even better news is that the sauce is dairy-free, and has no MSG or artificial colors!

Healthier Sweet and Sour Sauce Ingredients

The problem with many of the store-bought condiments and sauces are the excess sugar and artificial ingredients. Most of the store brand sweet and sour sauces include red food coloring and a lot of sodium, too.

To make the sauce a bit healthier requires just a few simple ingredient swaps. Here’s how we do it:

Sweetener – Rather than using sugar to sweeten our sauce, we use some pineapple juice and honey. Both are sweet, but unrefined sugars. They add to the Asian flavor of the sauce without packing on the calories, too.
Asian flavor-To add some umami flavor to the sauce, many manufacturers use high sodium soy sauce. Not only is it unhealthy, but it’s also not gluten free. Our healthy gluten-free swap is to use tamari sauce or coconut aminos instead.
Chili sauce – It can be difficult to find, but when it’s available, I like to use sugar-free or low sugar chili sauce. Can you use ketchup? Yes, but I find that chili sauce gives this sauce a lot of more flavor!

All ingredients for homemade sweet and sour sauce on white wooden cutting board.

Here’s the full list of ingredients you will need to make the sweet and sour sauce recipe.

Pineapple juice
Chili sauce or Asian red sauce of choice – (check ingredients for refined sugars)
Tamari sauce (or coconut aminos)
Raw honey
Rice wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
Arrowroot starch or cornstarch, combined with equal amount of cold water

Step by Step Instructions

Add the pineapple juice, chili sauce, tamari (or coconut aminos), honey, and rice vinegar to a saucepan over medium heat. Stir well to combine the ingredients.

Continue cooking over medium to medium high heat until the mixture comes to a boil.
Mix the water and arrowroot together in a small bowl, then add it to the saucepan. Whisk well until the starch is fully incorporated and the sauce has thickened.
Allow the sauce to cool before serving.

Serving Suggestions

Sweet and sour sauce is delicious in so many different Asian foods, including dinners and appetizers. I keep a jar on hand to mix with rice or veggie noodles, to serve as a dipping sauce, use as a coating for chicken, etc.

homemade Asian sweet and sour noodles in orange bowl

How to Store

Although it might be safe to store the sauce at room temperature, I recommend keeping it in the refrigerator. Depending on what type of pineapple juice you use, it may not be shelf stable. It’s not worth the risk of contamination (and food poisoning… UGH.)

More of Our Favorite

Healthy Sauce Recipes

After you make sweet and sour sauce at home, I think you’ll realize that it’s so easy, there’s no reason to keep buying it! Here are a few other healthy sauce recipes you will probably like: