Homemade Tomato Ketchup Recipe Without Refined Sugar and without any preservatives is a boon in your pantry. This easy recipe gets ready in less than half an hour and can be stored easily for up to a month in the refrigerator and for months in the freezer.

You avoid icecream & are all up for tomato ketchup? Sharing some astonishing facts about this red beauty along with the recipe. A must-read for everyone, especially ketchup lovers.

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Crimson, silky, smooth, sweet n tangy tomato ketchup decked up in each and every kitchen is a necessity in today's date. No snack is complete without this red beauty. All age groups people especially children are crazy about it. Markets are flooded with a variety of ketchup and they are reasonably priced too. Then, is there any need to go for homemade?

All these years, I too have been buying it only. Then why all of a sudden this craze (or should I say need) for homemade?

 

Why Make Tomato Ketchup At Home?

Healthy Homemade Tomato Ketchup Recipe is a must for everyone for a host of reasons, which you will discover soon in the write up below. Tomato ketchup being the most versatile sauce, found in every household deserves to be homemade only.

The recipe is super easy but still, I don't know why I didn't try it earlier! I may have deferred it further had it not been my husband's, first love. He just loves tomato ketchup. Forget snacks, he can have it on a slice of bread or can just go on licking it.

I started this post with the intention of sharing the recipe of homemade ketchup but in the process, I got to know so many astonishing facts about it that I couldn't resist myself from sharing these with you. And because of this, I also changed the title of my post.

So, of course, I will be sharing the recipe but it would be nice if you go through these facts too. However, if still interested in the recipe only then tap 'Jump To Recipe'' given on the top of the post.

 

Meaning Of The Word ''Ketchup''

Ketchup simply means a spicy sauce made with tomatoes, spices, and vinegar. In fact, ketchup means tomato ketchup only so no need to use the prefix tomato with ketchup.

Any idea who first made this?

You have been using tomato ketchup since long and must have tried different brands. But do you know that Heinz tomato ketchup is named behind its founder only? Yes, as per the legend, ketchup was invented by Henry John Heinz in 1876 in Pennsylvania. He made it by adapting a Chinese recipe for so-called Cat Sup, a thick sauce made from tomatoes, special seasoning and starch. And you will be pleased to know that ketchup is the most famous Heinz products. You may read more about it here.

 

Difference Between Tomato Sauce and Tomato Ketchup

We all have been using the words tomato sauce and tomato ketchup interchangeably. True that both of these are made from tomatoes only but are these 2 similar? Well, the simple one-word answer is No!

Tomato ketchup is a kind of Tomato Sauce...

But Tomato Sauce is not at all Tomato ketchup

How these two are different? Let's see...

• Ingredients: Ketchup is made with tomatoes, spices, sugar, vinegar whereas Sauce is made with tomatoes, spices, oil, and vegetable stock.
• Temperature: Ketchup is served cold or at room temperature whereas Sauce is served hot.
• Sugar Content: Ketchup has a good amount of sugar whereas Sauce is sugar-free.
• Acid Content: Ketchup has vinegar or acetic acid whereas Sauce doesn't have this. (Source)
• Shelf life: Ketchup has a long shelf life and can be stored at room temperature. Whereas, Sauce, once opened, remains good up to a week only and that too in the refrigerator.

 

Sugar Content In Tomato Ketchup

The info that you are going to read now will definitely leave you startled. We all know that ketchup has sugar. Right? But how much sugar? Ever thought about it?

Every 1 tablespoon of ketchup has whooping 4 gm (1 teaspoon) of sugar!

So, if you consume 4 to 5 tablespoon ketchup at a time then that means you are consuming 20 g of sugar. Ok with that?

Gosh! Had I known it earlier I would have never deferred it! And believe me, after knowing this even my dear husband doesn't want to have store-bought tomato ketchup any more!

Ketchup Vs Vanilla Ice Cream

Must be thinking what a weird comparison. These two food items are poles apart then why compare them? Ketchup is just a sauce used daily with so many foods. And ice cream is a dessert eaten once in a while.

But, if you avoided vanilla ice cream thinking it is sweet and has a lot of calories. Just check below:

100 g of Ketchup has 22 g sugar

Whereas, 100 g of Ice cream has 14 g sugar (Source)

Taken from a leading website,

If you ate half a cup of Haagen-Daaz ice cream, you'd be consuming fewer grams of sugar than you would eating this much ketchup.

Why Sugar Is Added To Tomato Ketchup?

• Sugar lends the ketchup its taste along with a good shelf life. Yes, taste!
• The ketchup has sugar in 2 forms. First is the refined sugar to balance the tanginess and acidity of tomatoes. And second is in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup which gives the sauce its shelf life and thus act as a preservative too.
• High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), made from corn syrup only, is a type of artificial sugar and is worse than sugar. Experts believe overconsumption of HFCS is the main cause of today's problems of obesity and diabetes. To know in detail why it is bad for our health read here.

 

 Homemade Tomato Ketchup in A Healthy Way

I have tried to make this ketchup as healthy as possible.

• Sugar has been replaced with jaggery. Not only replaced but its quantity has been drastically reduced.
• And for the bright red colour, I have used beetroot. Beet is added in very little quantity so as to impart just its colour but not the taste. I got this idea from my Pizza sauce recipe only.

Homemade Vs Storebought Ketchup

• Yes, agreed that homemade ketchup is quite different from the store-bought one. To make it taste and look like store-bought one you just need to add a lot of sugar and corn syrup to it. If you do that, it will be exactly like store-bought ketchup.
• But homemade ketchup is more flavorful and taste like tomatoes. And once you get addicted to homemade ketchup then store-bought one will be a strict No-No.

My Story Of Homemade Tomato Ketchup

Now, here I am going to share with you what exactly happened at my place when I made this ketchup. My son, Siddharth, outrightly rejected it. Without arguing with him or trying to convince him (the way I did to his dad :)- ), I took about a tablespoon of my homemade ketchup, added about this much sugar in it, cooked for 30 seconds or so. I myself was impressed with the shine and flowing texture, which was the result of excessive sugar. And this ketchup was approved by Siddharth.

This shows how much we are addicted to sugar-laden tomato ketchup!

My Advice: If need be, add more jaggery or sugar initially and then reduce it slowly to make it appealing. It will still be better than the store-bought one as it will be without HFCS.

Pros Of Homemade Tomato Ketchup

• Control over sugar
• More flavourful
• Choice of spices as per your taste
• Free of corn syrup which is nothing but sugar and other preservatives
• No added colours.
• No cornflour
• You can have fresh tomato ketchup every now n then.

Cons Of Homemade Tomato Ketchup

• May or may not be of bright red colour.
• Is not as sweet as the store-bought, hence the difference in taste and texture.

Preservative Added In Tomato Ketchup

Normally, Sodium Benzoate is added to tomato ketchup which is a preservative and lends long shelf life to it. But we are avoiding it here. Instead, we are using vinegar which too is a preservative only. Why use too much of chemicals when you can avoid them? 

However, still, if you want then for the recipe given below, take 1/2 tsp (1 g) of sodium benzoate, dissolve it in little tomato ketchup and add this to the rest of the ketchup. This is added in the last once the ketchup is ready.

How To Check If The Ketchup Is Cooked or Not?

• For this, simply do the plate test. Take a plate, put a drop of ketchup on it. Wait for 3 seconds, so that it cools down. Now tilt the plate. If the ketchup comes down collectively without separating any liquid then this is done.
• The pics will make it clear to you.
• In this pic, you can see separate liquid which means it needs more cooking.

• Here, you see that the ketchup is flowing without any separated liquid, thus it is done.

Jain Tomato Ketchup Recipe

The same recipe can be converted into a Jain recipe. For this, simply omit, onion, garlic and beetroot. Rest of the recipe remains the same.

How To Store Tomato Ketchup

Always use sterilized bottles for storing ketchup. For sterilizing, wash glass bottles thoroughly. Dip them in boiling water for a minute or so. Take out, let them cool down. Wipe them. Now keep these in sunlight for a day or two. Or you can keep this in the microwave for 1 minute. Avoid plastic bottles. Steel is also not advised as the ketchup is acidic and may react with it.

By now, I am sure you are getting impatient to read the recipe. So, lets see the recipe now.

 

Detailed Homemade Tomato Ketchup Recipe With Step By Step Pics

• Choose bright red juicy tomatoes. Wash them, wipe with a cloth and chop roughly.

(Tip: Add 1 carrot and 1/2 red bell pepper to enhance the taste)

• Similarly, peel and roughly chop onion, beet, ginger, and cloves also.
• Make a spice bag. For this take any clean cloth/napkin/handkerchief, put all the spices mentioned under spices. Tie a knot so that none of the spices come out of it. By doing so, the aroma of the spices will be imparted to the ketchup.
• In a pressure cooker, put tomatoes, onion, beet, garlic cloves, ginger and this spice bag. Add 1/4 cup of water.

• Pressure cook it for 1 whistle. I tried doing this in a wok also but no apparent difference was observed so you can do it either way.
• Once the pressure is released, mash the tomato mix with a hand blender. If want to use a mixer jar, then let it cool it first.

• Pass this puree through a strainer.

• Cook it for 2 to 3 minutes till it gets slightly thick.
• Add salt, red chilli powder, jaggery powder, and vinegar.

• Cook for few more minutes till the right consistency is reached. To know how to check this, read above.
• Switch off the flame. Let the ketchup cool completely.
• Fill it in a sterilized bottle.

Let's Connect!

Hope you have liked the above article as well the homemade tomato ketchup recipe and will share it further. Also, share your views on this topic.

Whenever you try this recipe then do not forget to share your feedback in the comments below. Your feedback fuels my enthusiasm to post more good content.

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Recipe Card of Homemade Tomato ketchup Recipe

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Samira