This creamy, smoky copycat Taco Bell Chipotle Sauce recipe is healthy, mayo-free, and vegan. You'll love this 5-minute homemade version. It has a delicious smoky taste and is an easy way to liven up your favorite dishes.
Turn a humble bowl of veggies into the most delicious side or main with this 5-minute creamy Chipotle Sauce, also known as Baja Sauce. This budget-friendly condiment lasts up to 5 days in the fridge and will elevate your tacos, fajitas, tofu steaks, veggie bowls, and beyond.
The Mexican adobo flavor with its fiery, and tangy essence, effortlessly enhances your favorite dishes with irresistible flavor.
This recipe was inspired by my 3 Healthy Salad Dressings, as well as this popular 5-minute Easy Miso Tahini Dressing.
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👩🏼🌾 Ingredients
- Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce are jalapeño chiles that have been dried, smoked, and then packed in a flavorful sauce made of tangy tomatoes and spices.
- Tahini is a paste made from ground sesame seeds. It has a rich, nutty flavor and a creamy texture, similar to other nut butter like peanut butter or almond butter. It can be thinned with water or lemon juice to create a pourable sauce. Tahini is a good source of healthy fats, protein, and various vitamins and minerals.
- Coconut aminos is a popular condiment and alternative to soy sauce, typically used in paleo, gluten-free, and soy-free diets. They are made from the sap of coconut blossoms, fermented, and aged to develop a rich, savory flavor profile reminiscent of soy sauce. It's naturally sweet, slightly tangy, and less salty than traditional soy sauce. Or use tamari or soy sauce instead.
See the recipe card for quantities.
🌶️ Substitutions
- Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce - Canned Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce are widely available, inexpensive, and take this dish to the next level. However, you can use an equal amount of tomato passata, or puréed or canned tomatoes for the chipotle sauce and marinade, and add smoked paprika to taste.
- Red wine vinegar - use white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar instead
- Coconut aminos - substitute with tamari or soy sauce
For more healthy sauces and dressings, visit my Healthy Dressing Recipes page.
📖 How to Make Chipotle Sauce
Step 1. Blend the vinegar, coconut aminos, chipotle peppers, garlic, oregano, cumin, and maple syrup until mostly smooth with some small chunks remaining.
Step 2. Add the water, and then lime juice to taste.
Step 3. Mix in the tahini until smooth.
Step 4. Adjust the lime juice, maple syrup, and salt to taste.
✔️ Expert Tips
- If you're sensitive to spicy foods, add the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce one at a time and taste the blended sauce, adjusting the amount in the recipe according to your heat tolerance.
- To use this Baja Sauce as a marinade and dressing, blend the vinegar, coconut aminos, chipotle peppers, garlic, oregano, cumin, and maple syrup until mostly smooth. Remove one-half to use as a marinade. Add 2 tablespoons lime juice and ¼ cup tahini to the remaining blended sauce to use as the creamy dressing.
- Storage: Refrigerate leftover Baja Sauce in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Or conveniently freeze in single-serve Souper Cubes 2 tablespoon Silicone Freezer Tray With a Lid for up to 3 months. Just pop out a cube for serving!
🙋🏽♀️ Recipe FAQs
Chipotle in adobo is a type of Mexican chili pepper that has been dried and smoked. It's typically found canned in a spicy, tangy tomato sauce called adobo sauce, which adds depth of flavor to dishes. Chipotle in adobo is commonly used in Mexican cuisine to add heat and smokiness to sauces, marinades, and salsas.
Chipotle sauce can vary in spiciness depending on the recipe and individual preferences. Generally, chipotle peppers themselves are medium-hot on the Scoville scale, which measures the heat of chili peppers. However, the other ingredients like tahini, lime juice, and spices adjust the overall heat level.
It's always a good idea to taste a small amount first if you're sensitive to spicy foods. Then adjust the amount used in a recipe according to your heat tolerance.
Other hot sauces or smoked paprika-based sauces may offer similar flavor profiles to chipotle sauce. Sriracha mixed into cashew yogurt or vegan mayonnaise with a dash of smoked paprika, and fresh lime juice would be a good substitute.
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📖 Recipe
Chipotle Sauce
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Ingredients
- ¼ cup red vinegar or apple cider vinegar, or white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons coconut aminos or tamari, or soy sauce
- 4 to 6 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (canned)
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon maple syrup or to taste
- 2 tablespoons water
- ¼ cup fresh lime juice (about 2 small limes)
- ½ cup tahini
Instructions
- Blend the vinegar, coconut aminos, chipotle peppers, garlic, oregano, cumin, and maple syrup until mostly smooth with some small chunks remaining. Add the water, and then lime juice to taste. Mix in the tahini until smooth.
Notes
-
- If you're sensitive to spicy foods, add the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce one at a time and taste the blended chipotle sauce, adjusting the amount in the recipe according to your heat tolerance.
- To use Chipotle Sauce as a marinade and dressing, blend the vinegar, coconut aminos, chipotle peppers, garlic, oregano, cumin, and maple syrup until mostly smooth. Remove one-half to use as a marinade. Add 2 tablespoons lime juice and ¼ cup tahini to the remaining blended sauce to use as the creamy dressing.
- Storage: Refrigerate leftover Chipotle Sauce in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Or conveniently freeze in a single-serve ice-cube-style freezer tray with a lid for up to 3 months. Just pop out a cube for serving!
Nutrition
This information is provided as a courtesy and is an ESTIMATE only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased can change the nutritional information in any given recipe.
Lareesa
Delish! since starting this new lifestyle of eating I am constantly looking for sauces and salad dressing recipes that I like. So many I find are so sweet or use tahini and mustard which I don't care for. I decided to give this one a try and I can not even taste the tahini ! Thank you.
Nisha Melvani, RDN
Thank you for giving it a try! It's a fave. My new sauces will not have any tahini taste either. Coming soon.
Susie
This sauce came together quite easily (other than my struggle with an old jar of separated tahini!) and was delicious--very flavorful with a lovely spice level. Mexican/Latin American cuisine is our go-to and this will now be front and center on the table!
Thank you, Nisha. As I am new to plant-based eating, I'm sticking close to your postings! Can't wait to try some of your other sauces, etc., and recipes.
Nisha Melvani, RDN
So glad it worked out! Welcome. I hope you enjoy the recipes.
Sidney
Absolutely divine sauce!!!! I wow'ed my partner with this sauce which I paired with your Best Vegan Patty Recipe. He said it was one of his favorite meals of all time! Yeah! We've been pretty much exclusively using your recipes for dinner lately and we have never eaten more delicious healthy meals! Thank you so much!!!
Nisha Melvani, RDN
Made my evening to read this. Thank you for taking the time to let me know. It means a lot!
Eileen
I want to make this asap!! I see a picture that includes oregano and cumin but I don’t find them in the recipe. How much oregano and cumin do you put?!
Nisha Melvani, RDN
Sorry! Just added them!