*If you’re my dad you have to stop reading now, because below is part of my Christmas gift for you this year. Look away!*

My dad is a notorious foodie. His adventurous approach to the kitchen is both a huge inspiration to me and a huge hindrance; it gets increasingly hard to get him gifts as he’s tried so much! So instead of getting him a gift, this year I’ve made him some staple sauces from scratch. Hopefully this combo of handmade and classic will give him some kitchen fun for a good while. So below are my saucy recipes for this Christmas DIY gift, which also happen to be vegan, with ingredients you can find in your local supermarket. This is also a great way to use up old sauce bottles that you may have worked your way through in the year, keeping it zero waste.

Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce

Ingredients

– 2 medium red chillis
– 4 cloves garlic
– 1 inch piece ginger
– 1 cup sugar
– 10 tbsp rice vinegar
– 1 cup water

Instructions

– Chop the chilli, ginger and garlic until as fine as possible

– Add all ingredients to a large saucepan and bring to the boil on medium heat

– Wait for all the water to evaporate. You will know when the sauce is ready when the bubbles stop looking like boiling liquid and start to look like a yellowish foam. For me, it took around 25 minutes to reach this point.

– Turn off the heat and decant into bottle of your choice. As the sauce cools it will thicken, so don’t be worried if it seems too thin.

Teriyaki Sauce

Ingredients

– 5 tbsp dark soy sauce
– 1 cup water
– 3 clove garlic
– 1/2 inch piece of ginger
– 6 tsp caster sugar
– 5 tsp cornflour
– 5 tsp water (to dilute the cornflour)

Instructions

– Place the soy sauce, water, garlic, ginger and sugar into a large saucepan on medium heat and begin to stir

– Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low

– Mix the cornflour and water to make a liquid, add to the pan and stir immediately to thicken the sauce

– Decant into a bottle of your choice

And you’re done! These recipes are so so easy, but I promise they taste just like the real deal, with absolutely no added nasties or weird chemicals. Just yum! Hopefully my dad will enjoy these, and hopefully he didn’t read this post!

Until next time, stay magic y’all.