Taste this homemade ketchup - you'll love it!

Making ketchup yourself is not an art. We'll show you a quick recipe for a sugar-free tomato ketchup that you can make in no time.

I confess: I love fries! The small crispy potato pieces are really delicious. What may not be missing, of course, is tomato ketchup.

When the garden is overflowing with tomatoes in the summer, you need quick and easy recipes. Tomato ketchup meets both criteria and is a great way to preserve tomatoes.

But there are more reasons why you should make ketchup yourself. First and foremost is the large amount of sugar that goes into store-bought sauces.

From too much sweetened food I have first of all the nose full. Therefore, I rely on a delicious and quick recipe for the tomato sauce. Make your own ketchup without sugar has never been so easy!

You think that's an awful lot of work? Don't worry! Fortunately, that's not true.

Make your own sugar-free tomato ketchup is easy. If you have the right recipe at hand :)

Why you should make ketchup yourself

Did you know that store-bought tomato ketchup contains an insane amount of sugar? Even if you don't taste it right away, the sugar crystals stubbornly hide in the tomato sauce.

There are up to 60 sugar cubes in one bottle! Depending on the variety, that's 17 to 24 grams of sugar per 100 grams of tomato ketchup.

This means that ketchup beats even a liter of cola. This info sends a shiver down the spine. The "healthy" light variants are just as bad.

With about 10 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters of ketchup and a large amount of unhealthy sugar substitutes, they are not a good alternative.

Besides lots of sugar, you'll also find emulsifiers, flavorings and other dubious additives that make the ketchup you buy last a long time and color it beautifully. We prefer to give them a wide berth.

But that's still no reason to despair and keep your hands off fries permanently :)

An alternative is needed: make your own ketchup without sugar! This is the solution to this dilemma.

Because let's be honest: French fries without tomato ketchup taste only half as good. The sweet and sour sauce is also a must for barbecues.

Healthier and cheaper your ketchup has never been!

So you can preserve tomatoes for a long time!

What ingredients you need for homemade ketchup

Before we get right into it, I want to get a few words out about the ingredients. After all, you should know what you're eating. Let's see what goes into healthy ketchup without sugar.

Tomatoes in ketchup

The most important ingredient is, of course, tomatoes. These I take directly from the garden. If you don't have a garden, then of course you can buy the tomatoes. I recommend you to look around at the farmer's market or weekly market. The tomatoes taste much more aromatic than those from the supermarket.

The most suitable are beef tomatoes. They contain more pulp and are therefore less liquid after cooking than the classic supermarket tomato. But of course it also works with normal tomatoes, you just have to cook your ketchup longer so that the liquid evaporates.

But in principle, you can use any tomato. Even yellow, green-striped, purple - everything is possible. The only important thing is that they are properly ripe and thus bring their natural sweetness.

Garlic and onion

Garlic and onion provide flavor. You can cut them up very finely and puree them later. However, I quite like it when there is a bit of bite in the ketchup. It's best to use red onions or shallots, they are not so spicy and taste slightly sweet.

I'll write down a quantity for you later in the recipe. But you can also just increase it. There are people who can not get enough of garlic.

Spices you need to make ketchup yourself

What would ketchup be without spices? A pretty boring tomato sauce!

So we need salt, bell pepper, chili powder, paprika powder, ginger powder and curry powder.

The crowning touch is a little rosemary, bay leaf, mustard seeds and nutmeg.

Ketchup without sugar

It does not work completely without sweetness. Instead of classic and unhealthy household sugar, however, I simply take a little Birch sugar*. You can also Erythritol* use.

Both have the advantage of containing much fewer calories. Birch sugar* has half as many calories and Erythritol* is even calorie-free. But they don't change the taste.

Cornstarch

Without starch, ketchup becomes quite liquid. So we need something to bind the tomato sauce. Since I want to boil down my ketchup, I use potato starch. When you boil down, you make your ketchup last for a year. But you have to use the right starch.

Wheat starch is not suitable for boiling down, Cornstarch*rice starch and other types of starch from cereals.

If you don't have anything on hand, you can simply simmer your ketchup for a very long time. The excess evaporates, leaving behind a thick sauce. But be careful: Stir well so that nothing burns!

This homemade ketchup is

• vegan and therefore free from all animal foods,
• gluten-free, because we use potato starch,
• sugar free,
• perfectly suitable for beginners in cooking,
• very low in calories and
• ideal for fries, baked potato, meat, fish and co.

For tomato fans: stuffed tomatoes with couscous!

The best recipe to make a ketchup itself

Are you ready? Then let's get started. If you've never made ketchup yourself, here's a detailed tutorial with exact step-by-step instructions.

If you've made your own ketchup and other sauces before, you'll find a short version of the recipe at the end of the post.

This recipe makes 250 ml of ketchup.

Ingredients

• 250 g tomatoes (I take beef tomatoes)
• 1 large onion
• 1/2 clove garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 sprig rosemary
• 150 g apple (peeled)
• 1 TBSP. Birch sugar*
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp wine vinegar
• 1 bay leaf
• 20 g mustard seeds
• 1 tsp paprika powder (hot)
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 pinch ginger powder and chili powder
• 1 tsp pepper
• 10 g salt
• 1 tsp potato starch

Also: cooking pot, cooking spoon, bowl, knife, board, Blender*

1. prepare the tomatoes

Wash the tomatoes thoroughly. Remove the stalk, for this cut them once in the middle and cut out the hard part of the tomato.

Now dice the tomatoes and put them in a bowl.

2. onion and garlic

Peel the shallot and garlic. Chop them with a sharp knife. If you like, you can also press the garlic through a garlic press.

Add the olive oil to the pan and sweat both. While the oil is getting warm, you can prepare the rosemary. Pluck the needles from the branch. Cut them into small pieces with a knife.

You should now have about a tsp full of rosemary pieces in front of you. Add the rosemary to the pan as well. Sauté briefly until the onion becomes translucent.

3. cook the tomato sauce

Now add the tomatoes. Stir well so that nothing burns. After a short time, the tomatoes give off so much water that you need to stir less.

Dice the apple and stir it in.

Now give the Birch sugar* in addition.

Now add curry powder, wine vinegar, bay leaf, mustard seeds, paprika, nutmeg, ginger powder and chili powder if you like.

Turn the temperature of the stove to the lowest setting. The base for your homemade ketchup must now simmer gently for 20 minutes. But do not forget to stir every now and then.

4. ketchup to taste

Take the pot off the stove. Stir well again.

Let the mix cool until it's not so extremely hot. I just set the ketchup aside for 10 minutes.

Add salt and pepper. Now you should taste for the first time.

Even with careful selection of tomatoes, they may have little flavor. That's why I like to use tomatoes from my own garden. If you got tasteless tomatoes, you can help with tomato paste. Just add it to taste and tune with it.

5. puree and thicken ketchup

If you like, you can now puree your tomato ketchup. This step is not mandatory. If you have chopped the onion and garlic very small, then you can omit it.

Dissolve the potato starch with two tablespoons of cold water in a glass. Stir until no lumps are visible.

Add the potato starch to the ketchup and mix everything well again.

How to preserve the tomato sauce

As the sauce is in front of you now, you can keep it in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. If you want to prepare larger quantities and preserve the ketchup, you need to boil it down.

Do you have a lot of space in the freezer? Then you can freeze it in small portions. I like to use ice cube molds for this.

If you're like me and barely have room in for freezing, you can boil down ketchup. This is not as complicated as it sounds.

Very important: If you Cornstarch*, you cannot boil down ketchup. It only works with potato starch or guar gum.

I use a normal saucepan for this.

If you love to preserve and preserve vegetables, fruits, then I recommend you the book the preserving bible at Amazon* to view. You'll find 325 recipes and tricks for preserving, pickling and fermenting.

I have myself the preserving bible at Amazon* and have been using them since last year. I've already made lots of recipes with it, such as pickled gherkins, tomato sauce and baked apple spread.

Boil down ketchup

• Pour the hot ketchup into sterilized jars. How you Prepare jars for bottling and canning, you can read about it in a separate blog post.
• Close the glasses immediately.
• Place a saucepan on the stove and place a tea towel in the saucepan. Place the jars in the pot and fill with warm water.
• The jars should now be 3/4 covered with water.
• Put the lid on the pot and bring the water to a boil.
• When the water boils, the boiling time begins.
• Now leave the jars in the bubbling water for 100 minutes. It is important that the water keeps boiling.
• Pour in new warm water if too much evaporates.

After the boiling time, take the jars out of the pot and let them cool at room temperature. Now your ketchup will keep for a year.

Once you open a jar, you should use it up within a week and store it in the refrigerator.

And for those of you who have made ketchup or other sauces before, here, as promised, is a quick version of the recipe.

What you can refine ketchup with

The recipe doesn't knock your socks off yet? Then of course you can refine it. Try these ingredients to spice up ketchup:

• Dates instead of Birch sugar*. Attention: Must be soaked for at least 3 hours.
• Chili oil
• Lemon juice
• Cinnamon*
• Ginger
• Cloves
• PIment grains
• Honey
• Red wine vinegar
• Mustard seeds
• Oregano
• Paprika powder
• Mustard
• Thyme
• Lovage
• Apple cider vinegar

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Test what you like. Before you taste the Cornstarch*, you can add all these ingredients.

What to know about ketchup

Hardly anyone doesn't eat tomato ketchup. The sauce originates from the USA and is in the refrigerator of 97 percent of all Americans. In Germany, the sweet and spicy ketchup has been around since the 1950s. The trend has also made quite an impact here. Tomato sauce can be found in two out of three households.

And what is also very worth knowing: With an annual consumption of 80,000 tons, Germany is the unbeaten leader in ketchup consumption.

The fact is that commercial ketchup is really unhealthy. The sauce from the plastic bottle has little to do with sun-ripened tomatoes, vitamins, nutrients and more. The culprits are the many artificial preservatives and colorants.

Our conclusion

Making ketchup yourself is much easier than you might imagine. The ingredients are quickly stirred together - so nothing can stand in the way of enjoyment. It is important that you store the tomato ketchup in a cool and dark place. It's best to use it up as soon as possible, unless you boil down the tomato sauce - then it will keep almost indefinitely.

Have fun making them!

To browse further:

• Juicy kidney bean burger: the delicious 10 minute veggie burger
• Cooking pumpkin in the oven - Delicious pumpkin wedges from the oven
• The most delicious plum compote in the world + preserving instructions

* Advertising & affiliate links: Our website is financed by advertising and affiliate links. As a partner of linked stores (e.g. Amazon) we earn from qualified sales.
Read more