When I first learned that store-bought ketchup contains sugar, I about fell over! (There’s added sugar in some of the craziest things!) When I started making Trim Healthy Mama recipes, I was happy to see a recipe for homemade ketchup, but I’m not a fan of stevia, and the THM version contained stevia in some form or another. I do use stevia on occasion, but as I explained in my post on doing Trim Healthy Mama Without Stevia, it doesn’t agree with me much, and whenever I can avoid it, I do.
Read all of my No Stevia posts >>
That led me to try their recipe without the stevia, and I was pleasantly surprised that there was no need for the sweetness. The tomato paste was plenty sweet for my taste, especially when paired with other foods or added to my favorite Big Mac Salad.
This ketchup doesn’t take a lot of ingredients, and nothing weird or “out there” to make it taste good!
My 5 year can even mix it up for me! {Thanks, kiddo!}
I am still winning several of my kids over to it, but I actually just added some to the ketchup bottle when it got down toward the bottom, and explained that we were going to work at reducing the sugar in the house, so it was either this or I start rationing the ketchup.
Here is where you can insert my older kids misquoting the movie The Martian – “It’s been 7 days since mom quit buying ketchup…” *sigh*
Please note, you have to start teaching your tastebuds to not *need* so much sweet. You can retrain yourself, but it takes time. Keep trying! If need be, make this recipe with just a little bit of sweet, and start weaning yourself off of the sweet, and start enjoying the tang and spice instead!
I do have to make this recipe in bulk because it’s not just me eating the ketchup, and I have a rather large family, so you may want to cut this recipe down for your unique needs. (The photos show a quartered portion, so you can see what that looks like.) It does keep in the refrigerator for a while, but this is REAL food, so it will go bad eventually!
- 4 6oz cans of tomato paste
- 8 tbsp white vinegar (you could use another kind of vinegar if you wish)
- 4 tsp. salt
- 1 1/3 tsp. onion powder
- water
- Whisk all ingredients together, adding water until desired consistency is achieved, and store in refrigerator.
Diana says
I am totally trying this! Thank you so much for the recipe!!
Amy says
You are welcome!
Sara @ The Holy Mess says
This looks good! I’ve been trying to eat more low carb in the last months and I’ve tried making my own ketchup and BBQ sauce with mixed results. I will try your recipe. Also your young helper is adorable. 🙂
Amy says
I’ve really enjoyed this as an option. You should check out the Big Mac Salad too!
Teresa says
3 cups was waaaaaay too much water, the recipe should really state to slowly add more water until the desired consistency is reached. 🙁
Amy says
Sure – I can make that adjustment! 🙂
Veronica Fanta Kumba Ngaujah says
FOR HOW LONG CAN I KEEP THIS IN THE REFRIDGERATOR?
Amy says
3 months 🙂
Veronica Fanta Kumba Ngaujah says
Great, thank you.
Sue says
What would one add to make a sweet & savory bbq sauce
Amy says
You could do some molasses and mustard to make it more like BBQ.
Brandy says
I cannot thank you enough for your ketchup recipe. My husband eats ketchup with everything and he just recently found out he’s diabetic. We think this recipe is delicious.
Amy says
Wonderful!
Gin Shipp says
Excuse me, Amy. But did you examine the ingredients on the tomato paste can? It will tell you that there is a lot of sugar in the tomato paste. Also, you make no mention of cooking this mixture down. In my experience with having to cook my own condinements, like ketchup, just mixing the ingredients will not give you a satisfactory melded taste of flavors. Cooking this mixture until slightly thickened will allow the tomato paste to fully dissolve and take up all the other flavors in a newly melded flavor of your ketchup. Also, there may be a problem with bactierial growth in the mixture that has not been heated before storage. One other thing, the addition of a sweetener in some form is always indicated when cooking with tomatoes and vinegar. That would be to off-set the considerable acidic taste component. And, that is a lot of vinegar you call for in your recipe. In every cooking class and recipe I have ever used, a small amount of sugar is used to off set the acid in tomatoes when cooking or mixing tomatoes with other foods. I have never seen a recipe that did not dissolve tomato paste, with water, stock, or wine, then cook it in the recipe for the flavors that the concentrated tomato paste imparts when heated. Without heat, you are missing the complex flavor that would have developed. If you don’t want to use sugar, then try a natural food sweetener. I use date syrup. It is wholly only dates, blended down to a thick liquid. I use this because dates have a much less glycemic load than sugar. As a result, foods sweetened with dates, or date syrup, in reasonable amounts, do not raise my blood sugar. When I make my own ketchup, I start with plain tomato juice and go from there. There is NO sugar or salt in my recipe, and I really did have to get used to the taste of no salt or sugar, until I found the date syrup. I still am refining the amount of date syrup down to lesser amounts over time. It takes nearly all day to cook down one batch of ketchup. It would probably not be the kind of ketchup kids might like because there is no salt in it at all. That is a requirement of my cardiologist. As you may have guessed by now, I am no spring chicken. Lol. I’ve had years of experience in trying this kind of diet, that method of lifestyle eating. The best I have learned is, know the food you are cooking! Know how to get the best taste with the least amount of manipulation. Use herbs and spices in everything. Keep the dishes you and your family like and don’t cook foods you don’t like and the kids just hate to eat. The right spices and herbs can turn the most objectionable vegetable into a kid favorite! I actually got my husband to eat Brussels Sprouts! What a jaw dropping night that was! Lol.
I am sorry this ran on so long. I just wanted to let you and you followers know about different ways I’d cooking with tomatoes and vinegar. And, another style of making ketchup that has no sugar or salt.
Happy Cooking and food exploring, it’s a jungle out there. The good news is, a great deal of that jungle is edible!