Healthy Homemade Ketchup Made Right In Your Own Kitchen || Quick And Easy To Make

Healthy homemade ketchup is the only ketchup I will be using in the kitchen from now on. This recipe whips up in just minutes and it makes the perfect amount for me.

It hasn’t been that long since I became interested in making my own condiments. Or perhaps I should say it hasn’t been that long since I’ve taken the leap into the world of making my own condiments. I’ve been interested for quite some time.

I’m so glad that I’ve finally gotten started on this venture. It makes a significant difference to the quality of the food I consume each day.

I like condiments, and I use a lot of them. I’m not the girl who dips the tip of her food in a condiment. I lay it down in there on it’s side, and roll it around until it’s completely covered. So, it’s important to me that the condiments I eat are made from high quality ingredients. I’m not interested in fillers and preservatives. Not one bit.

Little by little I’m starting to make all of my own condiments, marinades, and sauces. And yet, it seems I have been putting off the top three that are most often eaten in my home; mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard.

Ketchup felt like the easiest of the three recipes to tackle. So, in spite of the fact that I was never a ketchup lover, I went for that one first to sort of ‘get the ball rolling’.

This healthy homemade ketchup recipe has turned me into an avid fan of this condiment! It’s fantastic and I enjoy every bite. I know you will too!

Is Making Healthy Homemade Ketchup Worth It?

I suppose the answer to the question, “Is making healthy homemade ketchup worth it?” is highly subjective.

Some would say no. They feel they don’t have the time to mess around with making their own condiments when they are so readily available in the grocery store. I get it.

However, if you are a person who takes what you put in your body seriously you’ll want to take a look at the ingredients on that ketchup bottle before you eat it.

Your favorite brand likely contains high fructose corn syrup which is an incredibly undesirable ingredient made from gmo corn. It is cheaper and sweeter than sugar, and it’s more readily absorbed into your body.

The other ingredients do not seem to be that unhealthy at first glance. Until you consider the fact that the main ingredient, tomatoes, is commercially produced using a great deal of pesticides.

This comes through in the final product, and you are consuming all of those pesticides in every bite. I say no thanks, and stick by the fact that mixing up a batch of delicious, homemade ketchup takes just minutes to do. And is well worth the time and effort.

Can I Use Fresh Garden Tomatoes For This Recipe?

You can definitely use garden fresh tomatoes to make healthy, homemade ketchup. But this particular recipe was designed to be made with tomato paste, and using garden fresh tomatoes to make it will likely cause it to be runny. Runny is not a good look for tomatoes.

I you are going to cook them down into a paste first garden fresh is the best way to go. Garden fresh is always the best way to go. I will definitely be making my own tomato paste for this recipe and many others as soon as my mad gardening skills have been further developed, and my garden space is significantly bigger.

But, for now, I am using store bought organic tomato paste and unless you have some homemade organic tomato paste available to you I suggest you do too.

Tips For Making Flavored Ketchups

I haven’t messed around with creating flavored ketchups at this point. Let’s face it the healthy homemade ketchup recipe I’m offering here is ‘hot off the press’, as they say.

However, I’m a bit of a dreamer and so I’ve already considered what I might add in the future to switch up this recipe according to my mood of the moment while making it.

I’m thinking a bit of sriracha sauce might be a good idea to add a little spice. But then I’m a huge fan of sriracha. I’m sure any kind of hot pepper sauce would work well as a spicy addition to this recipe.

I’ve also considered fresh grated horseradish and garden fresh herbs as tasty enhancements to this recipe as well. I can just imagine how good this ketchup would be with some oregano, chives, or basil mixed into it. YUMMY!

And then there is my desire to get that homemade mayo recipe down, so that I can use it to mix with this recipe and make myself some ahhhhhmazing fry sauce.

I was introduced to fry sauce in Puerto Rico, and when I first came back from there I ate it at least once a week for at 3 or 4 months. I’m not sure if that’s where it originated or not, but in my mind it is a Puerto Rican condiment forever.

If you haven’t heard of it before, it is nothing more than ketchup and mayonnaise mixed together. Try it. It’s really good!

And finally, I see myself blending this recipe with a little worchestershire sauce in the future. I already occasionally do that with commercially produced ketchup before I use it to top my cast iron skillet meatloaf.

How Other Countries Use Ketchup

It seems that ketchup has the reputation of being an American product. From what I discovered via google there is a bottle of ketchup in 97% of American household refrigerators. That’s a pretty impressive statistic.

But it led me to ask the question … “What do people in other countries do with this ‘American’ condiment?”.

And here’s a few of the answers I found …

• People in Lebanon, Poland, and Trinidad squirt it on pizza.
• Australians use it much like Americans but they turn their nose up at it if you call it ketchup. It must be donned tomato sauce for them to consume it. Although, it is the same condiment.
• Japan has created a ketchup based dish known as spaghetti Napolitan. It seems a lot of folks worldwide are using ketchup as a sauce for pasta.
• In Thailand they like to dip their potato chips in ketchup.
• You can get a curry-spiked version served over sausages from street vendors all over Germany.
• And Canadians make a sweet, layered ketchup cake.

All interesting concepts. Some more appealing than others. Apparently, not to Italians though. It seems they have a bit of a disdain for this common condiment.

I can’t stand by them. This healthy homemade ketchup recipe is delicious, and I see it as a permanent additon to my kitchen condiment repertoire.

Storing Your Homemade Ketchup

There is enough vinegar in this recipe to keep it safely in the refrigerator for some time. As I have just started making it, I can’t really offer you a timeline.

The recipe makes a small batch and unless you eat ketchup just about every day I don’t imagine you’ll have it on hand all of the time. I know I won’t.

I intend to whip it up when I’m grilling burgers or making handmade fries and then use the little bit that is left over rather quickly over the next week or two.

If you do a lot of from scratch cooking in your kitchen you know that this is generally how this style of cooking works, unless you’re preserving a lot of food which is a whole different concept.

You make it. You enjoy it. It’s gone until next time. This process makes everything taste better as it’s not always on hand and therefore it’s a special treat when you’ve got it.

Because this whole condiment/marinade/sauce making journey is new to me I’m excited to hear any thoughts you have about making your own ketchup.

Have you ever made it before? Do you plan to try this recipe? If you have tried this recipe, what did you think of it? Tell me all the things.

I’d love to meet in the comments and chat all about it!

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