Skip the jarred mayonnaise and go for a fully plant-based burger sauce with this Homemade Vegan Big Mac Sauce instead! This easy recipe is made with tofu and spices, blended together for a creamy, tasty, delicious, made from scratch sauce that’s ready in under 5 minutes. Copycat Big Mac Special Sauce with pickles will stay good in your fridge for 2 weeks…perfect for slathering onto your favorite veggie burgers.
If you’re already singing the “two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles….” ditty in your head, you’re not alone! This copycat big mac sauce does that for me too…and I’m happy to report you don’t need it. None of it. This made from scratch, plant-based burger sauce is just what you want to put onto all the veggie burgers.
Take your pick, and slather onto your favorite vegan burger, or use it as a salad dressing, a spread for your wraps and veggie sandwiches or as a delicious dip for crudites, chips or crispy sweet potato fries.
Ingredients
- Tofu: Use firm or extra firm for best results. If all you have on hand is silken tofu, that’s ok, just omit the water…it will work out.
- Pickles: I love a classic dill pickle or kosher dills for recipes like this. You’re going to finely chop them, so it doesn’t much matter if you have spears, pickle chips, slices, halves, wholes or wedges. If you prefer a sweeter burger sauce, use bread and butter pickles, or if spicy sauce is your jam, you know what to do…buy some hot pickles! We are going to use some pickle juice too….so no additional vinegar is necessary, but our secret sauce will have plenty of tang.
- Maple syrup: Original big mac sauce is SWEET…I like just a bit of natural sweetener from maple syrup to take the edge off the tangy vinegar in the pickles, but you can go for more syrup, or even use date syrup in yours.
- Spices: Keep it simple…and notice it’s garlic powder and onion powder, not the salt version of those!
- Mustard: be sure to read ingredient labels to know what’s in your mustard (and what is not!).
How to make the secret sauce
Measure pickle juice, water, maple syrup, spices and mustard into a tall container. Add the tofu.
Use an immersion blender to puree into uniform, creamy texture. Add additional water 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency.
Debra’s Pro Tips
- Use half olive oil and half water for an even creamier sauce.
- If you don’t have an immersion blender, use a high speed blender or food processor.
- Adjust the water content, depending on the type of tofu you have. The recipe is written for extra firm. If all you have is soft tofu, or silken tofu, omit the water to begin with and then add 1 tablespoon at a time, if needed for a pourable consistency.
Storage
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
- Freeze: I do not recommend freezing this vegan burger sauce. The texture will not be the same because of the tofu in the sauce.
Did you know commenting and rating recipes is one of the best ways to support your favorite food bloggers? If you made this recipe, please consider a five star rating below and leave a comment. Also, please share your photos on instagram by tagging me @dkhealthcoach and using the hashtag #debraklein
📖 Recipe
Vegan Big Mac Sauce (no mayo)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 oz. extra firm tofu
- ¼ cup pickle juice
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- ¼ cup finely chopped dill pickles
Instructions
- Place pickle juice, water, maple syrup, mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika salt, pepper and tofu into tall container and blend with immersion blender.
- Alternately, place into blender or food processor to blend until creamy and uniform in texture.
- Cut pickles into long strips and then across the other direction to small dice.
- Stir pickles into sauce by hand until well incorporated.
- Store in airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.
- Use as a burger sauce, salad dressing, spread for wraps or buddha bowls.
Notes
Nutrition
Note
The nutrition calculations were done using online tools. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients you used. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information is accurate, complete and useful.
Ella
This is an excellent base recipe for vegan Big Mac sauce. It’s easy and has common ingredients, which are huge pluses for me.
I will say my sauce needed a couple tbsp of ketchup to round out the taste. Also, while I love this recipe uses regular firm tofu (cheaper and easier to find than silken and I always prefer regular tofu whenever possible), I would highly recommend using silken for this recipe instead. The regular gave the sauce a slightly grainy texture no matter how much I blended it.
All in all, I will very likely be making this sauce again with those two adjustments.
Debra Klein
Thanks for sharing! I don’t get that “grainy” texture that you describe and I make this ALL THE TIME! Silken tofu is a great swap, especially if you aren’t using a good quality blender.