Quick Bunny Ears for Cupcakes, Cake Pops, or All Your Treats

That ordinary bottle of tomato sauce in the fridge can do a lot more than sit beside a sausage. With a few simple additions, you can turn basic squeezy-bottle tomato sauce into smoky BBQ-style sauce, spicy dipping sauce, garlic tomato mayo, burger sauce and more.

There is nothing wrong with a good old bottle of tomato sauce.

It goes on sausages, meat pies, hot chips, burgers and probably quite a few dinners we’d rather not admit were assembled in five minutes.

But sometimes plain tomato sauce is just a little… plain.

The good news is that you don’t need to buy six different bottles of specialty sauce to make dinner more interesting.

That basic squeezy bottle of tomato sauce can become the base for all sorts of quick homemade sauces.

A spoonful of this, a splash of that, a little stir and suddenly you’ve got something that tastes considerably more interesting than what came out of the bottle.

And because you’re mixing it yourself, you know exactly what you’ve added.

Start With Plain Bottled Tomato Sauce

For each of these recipes, start with ordinary tomato sauce—the ketchup-style sauce you’d squeeze onto chips, sausages or burgers.

You can use:

• regular tomato sauce
• reduced-sugar tomato sauce
• organic tomato sauce
• homemade tomato sauce

The recipes below are very forgiving, so taste as you go.

Different brands vary quite a bit in sweetness and acidity, so you may need slightly more or less of the other ingredients.

1. Smoky BBQ-Style Tomato Sauce

This is probably the easiest way to turn ordinary tomato sauce into something that tastes much more like a proper BBQ sauce.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar or honey
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• Pinch of garlic powder

Instructions

Mix everything together until smooth.

Taste and adjust.

For more smokiness, add a little more smoked paprika.

For more tang, add another splash of vinegar.

Use It With

• sausages
• burgers
• grilled chicken
• pulled pork
• meatballs
• hot chips
• bacon sandwiches

This is a very handy one when you’ve run out of BBQ sauce halfway through dinner.

2. Spicy Chilli Tomato Sauce

If your tomato sauce needs a little more personality, chilli fixes that very quickly.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1–2 teaspoons Sriracha or hot sauce
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• Pinch of smoked paprika

Instructions

Stir everything together.

Start with one teaspoon of chilli sauce and taste before adding more.

You can always make it hotter.

You cannot easily make it un-hot once you’ve been enthusiastic with the bottle.

Use It With

• chips
• burgers
• chicken tenders
• tacos
• sausage rolls
• grilled corn
• fried chicken

3. Garlic Tomato Dipping Sauce

This is ridiculously simple and particularly good with chips or wedges.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 small garlic clove, very finely grated
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• Pinch of black pepper

Instructions

Mix everything together and leave it for 10–15 minutes before serving if possible.

That gives the garlic time to flavour the sauce.

If raw garlic is too strong for you, use a small pinch of garlic powder instead.

4. Creamy Tomato Mayo Sauce

This one is brilliant on burgers and sandwiches.

If you’ve made your own mayonnaise, this is also a lovely way to use it.

[LINK TO ORIGINAL HOMEMADE MAYONNAISE ARTICLE]

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon pickle juice, optional
• Pinch of black pepper

Instructions

Mix everything together until smooth.

For a tangier sauce, add the pickle juice.

For a stronger burger-style flavour, add a little more mustard.

Use It With

• burgers
• sandwiches
• wraps
• chips
• chicken
• fish burgers
• roast potatoes

This is one of those sauces that makes a very ordinary burger suddenly taste much more deliberate.

5. Honey Mustard Tomato Sauce

This sounds a little unusual until you try it.

The tomato sauce gives sweetness and tang, while mustard keeps it from becoming too sugary.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Instructions

Whisk everything together.

Taste and adjust with a little extra mustard if needed.

Use It With

• chicken tenders
• sausages
• ham sandwiches
• roast vegetables
• burgers
• chips

6. Tangy Pickle Tomato Sauce

If you like pickles on burgers, this one is for you.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped pickles
• 1 teaspoon pickle juice
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard
• Black pepper

Instructions

Mix everything together.

Leave it for 10 minutes before serving so the pickle flavour can work its way through the sauce.

This is especially good on burgers and hot dogs.

7. Curry Tomato Sauce

This is a very easy way to give tomato sauce a completely different flavour.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon mild curry powder
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• Pinch of salt, if needed

Instructions

Stir everything together.

Start with half a teaspoon of curry powder.

Taste and add more if you want a stronger flavour.

Use It With

• sausages
• chips
• grilled chicken
• meat pies
• roast potatoes
• sausage rolls

It has a slightly retro feel to it, and honestly, I’m quite happy about that.

Make a Tomato Sauce Tasting Board

This is such an easy idea for BBQs or casual entertaining.

Take one bottle of tomato sauce and turn it into four or five different dipping sauces.

Serve them in little bowls with:

• hot chips
• sausage pieces
• chicken tenders
• potato wedges
• mini meatballs
• vegetable sticks
• onion rings

Suddenly one basic bottle of tomato sauce looks like you’ve created an entire condiment bar.

Which is considerably more impressive than admitting you were simply trying to use what was already in the fridge.

Quick Cheat Sheet

If you don’t want a full recipe, use these combinations:

Smoky

Tomato sauce + smoked paprika + Worcestershire sauce

Spicy

Tomato sauce + Sriracha + lime

Creamy

Tomato sauce + mayonnaise + mustard

Tangy

Tomato sauce + pickle juice + mustard

Sweet & Savoury

Tomato sauce + honey + Worcestershire sauce

Curry

Tomato sauce + curry powder + lemon

Garlic

Tomato sauce + garlic + black pepper

Don’t Add Everything at Once

This is the easiest mistake to make.

You don’t need tomato sauce plus mustard plus honey plus garlic plus chilli plus Worcestershire sauce plus pickles all in the same bowl.

Choose a flavour direction.

Then add one or two things.

Taste.

And adjust from there.

The goal is to make the tomato sauce taste better, not make it unrecognisable.

Why This Is Worth Doing

This isn’t really about pretending a supermarket bottle is suddenly fine dining.

It’s about making more of what you already have.

Instead of buying separate bottles of burger sauce, spicy sauce, smoky sauce and dipping sauce, you can start with one basic tomato sauce and change it depending on what you’re serving.

It’s cheaper.

It reduces the collection of half-used condiment bottles taking over the fridge door.

And you can control exactly what gets added.

That last part is especially useful if you’re trying to pay more attention to what is actually in your food.

Sometimes the easiest homemade recipes aren’t about making everything from scratch.

They’re about taking something simple and making it better.