River Wave Sauces Make Cooking Easier
Even as a mostly from-scratch cook, I’ll readily admit that I’ve often doctored up jarred sauces for the sheer convenience and time savings.
But they better be darned good jarred products to begin with. Or else no amount of fiddling will help in the end.
You don’t have to worry about that with Washington state’s River Wave Foods, a line of jarred cooking sauces and dressings that are made from fresh ingredients and are gluten-free.
Recently, I had a chance to try samples of the globally-influenced products.
“My Thai Gourmet Sauce” ($7.50 for a 6.5-ounce jar) is a heady blend of lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, garlic and enough Thai chilies to give it a real kick. I enjoyed it spooned over grilled mahi mahi for dinner.
The more zesty “My Thai Vinaigrette” ($10 for a 12.7-ounce bottle) is a similar blend, but with seasoned rice vinegar and cilantro added. It makes for a perfect dumpling dipping sauce or dressing for a crisp green salad.
“Argentinean Chimichurri Sauce” ($7.50 for a 6.5-ounce jar) is a classic blend of garlic, parsley, oregano, cumin, chili peppers, lemon juice and olive oil. You can’t go wrong using it over a big, juicy steak.
“Berriyaki Sauce” ($7.50 for a 6.5-ounce jar) is made with blueberries for a fun riff on the traditional teriyaki.
“Tapanui Tapenade” ($10 for a 6.5-ounce jar) is a thick, spreadable paste of figs, olives, pomegranate molasses, honey, capers, rosemary and toasted walnuts. Salty and sweet, it’s great smeared on artisan bread with some cheese.
The products are available in stores in Oregon and Washington. For those who live elsewhere, they’re also available online at River Wave Foods.
The tapenade sounds interesting, and gluten-free is always a safe choice.
Oh Carolyn! You must have had a blast trying all of those. Love the names and they all sound super-delish!! 🙂
Mmm, that tapenade sounds delicious! I’d love to try that! 🙂
They sound like they could brighten up any dish very nicely! 😀
ooh that Berriyaki sauce sounds very interesting! I’ll be on the look out if they make it out of the US!
Dear Carolyn,
That spicy Thai sauce would be awesome with grilled octopus, fish and prawns from the BBQ.
Dipping sauces for dumplings is something I’m happy to buy pre-made when I find a good one. Good to hear the Thai sauces have a good kick too!
Interesting blends, did you find they were very processed or just a short list of ingredients? I’m mostly concerned about sodium and thickening agents when I buy sauces so I tend to stick to scratch as well.
I love my jarred sauces too! Just convenient and just different! Have never tried this brand but worth a shot 😀
Love the sound of these products. They aren’t available in Florida, so I’ll check their website.
I love that these actually sound like interesting flavorful sauces instead of “the usual” that you find in stores! Between the thai one and the tapenade, I don’t know which I want more!
Ayngelina: I hear ya on that. I, too, am not fond of prepared condiments that have a boat-load of extra ingredients you’d never find if you made it from scratch. Thankfully, River Wave’s are not like that. Their labels have but a handful of ingredients — and all things you’d use yourself if you made the sauces/vinaigrettes from scratch.
Good to learn about these! It’s always nice to cook from scratch, and I do that most of the time. But sometimes there’s no time! And it’s nice to have some reliable pantry staples. Good info – thanks.