Healthy Homemade Ketchup Recipe

In our home, ketchup is practically its own food group. Mike likes to eat ketchup with nearly everything, and my kids have followed suit. (They usually only ask for ketchup on their food when they see Dad doing it first.)
We recently cut out processed sugar  from our diet for health reasons, but ketchup was a problem, as the store bought variety is pretty much sugar and chemicals with a bit of tomato thrown in...
Finally, I discovered a way to make homemade healthier ketchup that doesn't use so many expensive healthy sweeteners, and that has taken the place of our standard bottle of store bought ketchup in our home.
Pricewise, where I live, homemade healthy ketchup is cheaper to make than nearly all other ketchups (there is one brand that is about 25 cents less, but most people can't stand the taste of it), and is decidedly better for you.
Fortunately, it's quite easy to mix up this healthier alternative to store bought ketchup for very little money. .

Homemade Healthy Ketchup Recipe


Ingredients:
18 oz tomato paste
7 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice (I use apple cider vinegar, but regular vinegar also works, it's just less healthy)
2 tablespoons honey (or the equivalent amount of sugar or sucanat- I also often use unsweetened apple juice concentrate)
1/2-3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of allspice
Pinch cloves
Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

Instructions: 
1. Mix all the ingredients together.
2. If desired, add more salt, garlic powder, vinegar, or sweetener to taste.
3. Pour your homemade ketchup into an old ketchup bottle, or into a jar. This should entirely fill a standard sized ketchup bottle.
4. Use as you would any other ketchup, either as is or in other recipes.
Note: Refrigerate after making. This should last a while in the refrigerator because of the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes. 

Things to do with your homemade ketchup: 
Use as a condiment.
Mix with mayonnaise to make Russian dressing.
Use as a base to make homemade French dressing.
Use in sloppy Joes. (Here's my recipe for vegetarian sloppy Joes calling for ground seitan, but you can also make that with cooked lentils or ground meat or chicken.)
Mix into your bean burgers, lentil loaf or homemade hamburgers.
Use together with soy sauce and/or wine as a flavoring for chicken or pot roast.
Use in homemade baked beans.
And a million other things!!!

How do you use ketchup for in your home? Do you make ketchup from scratch or do you buy it? What do you put in your ketchup? Are you brand loyal when it comes to ketchup? Or do you, by any chance, dislike ketchup entirely?
Any chance you'd be trying out this recipe?

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Penniless Parenting

Mommy, wife, writer, baker, chef, crafter, sewer, teacher, babysitter, cleaning lady, penny pincher, frugal gal

4 Comments

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  1. We like ketchup on our eggs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just made your ketchup used agave nectar instead of honey! Added little more pink salt n sweetner as u said! Delicious! Put it in empty ketchup bottle , the test will be if my son notices ha ha!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I made your recipe, and I think it's very nice, but my husband says it isn't ketchup!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I made your ketchup recipe and I think it's very tasty. The problem is that my husband says it is not ketchup...

    ReplyDelete
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