You can make your own Healthy Tomato Ketchup Recipe in just 15 minutes and with a few store cupboard ingredients. Still all the flavour you know and love from ketchup, but lower in salt and sugar (refined sugar free), and much cheaper too! Even better is that you can make your own flavoured ketchup - spicy ketchup anyone?
I think we can all agree that we love sauce. Open up anyone's fridge (I am not the only one that likes looking in other people's fridge am I?) and even if there is no actual food in there, you can bet that the inside door is filled with sauces. Ketchup, mayo, mustard, chutneys - you name it.
Jump to:
Why should you try it?
- Low calorie, low carb, low fat
- Ready in just 15 minutes
- Cheaper and healthier than shop bought ketchup
- Easy to adapt
Step by step
One: Put all of the ingredients in to a pan and mix well. Gently simmer for 15 minutes.
Two: Serve with homemade fries.
Is it easy?
Ketchup is usually the first sauce that people reach for to cover their burger or hotdog, or to dip their chips in to. It's bursting with all that tomato goodness, nice and sweet and kids would happily bathe in the stuff. I know it's convenient to just pick up a bottle off the shelf, but did you know that it is SO easy to make your own at home?! Also, making it yourself reduces the amount of plastic you are buying.
I bet that you probably already have most, if not all, of the ingredients to make this homemade ketchup and you can whip it up in just 15 minutes. Either serve it up in a nice jar, or put it in to an old bottle of ketchup so the kids will never know.
Is it healthy?
I don't need to tell you that store bought sauces are full of weird ingredients. We used just a pinch of sea salt in this recipe (but you could leave it out completely, and it's refined sugar free as we used honey - but you could swap that for maple syrup to keep this vegan.
By making your own homemade ketchup, you can control exactly what goes in to it and don't need to stress over your kids wanting it with every meal.
This tomato ketchup recipe has enough honey to give it a tough of sweetness, but it is not overly sweet. We have made this recipe at least 30 times now (our 2 year old LOVES it) and we think this recipe is pretty perfect (as do a lot of you from the feedback we have received), but feel free to adjust the sweetness if you want it more or less sweet.
Flavoured ketchup
I have never really understood why flavoured ketchup isn't a think. I mean, standard ketchup is pretty awesome, but it could be a base for something even more awesome.
We usually add a different flavour to our homemade ketchup each time and love coming up with different flavoured ketchups.
We have done a garlic heavy version (with both garlic granules and fresh garlic), a chilli version with either a splash of chilli sauce or some chipotle paste, one with some Mexican seasoning mixed in and even a curried version with a sprinkle of curry powder.
Can you use fresh tomatoes?
Yes, you could use chopped up fresh tomatoes, but this would make it a fresh sauce and it wouldn't have as long a shelf life. You would only be able to keep it in the fridge for about 3 days.
Using fresh tomatoes also gives it a bit more of a salsa taste, rather than a ketchup.
We made ours with passata, as that is what we had on hand, but you could use a couple of cans of plum tomatoes and mash them down whilst cooking. You would then need to blend it, and maybe even sieve it, to get the desired ketchup consistency.
Tomato ketchup without sugar
Whilst we used honey instead of refined sugar, honey is still sugar. If you want to make this sauce without any sugar, then you can of course leave it out, but it will taste like something is missing. We have only used a little bit of honey and we find that a little goes a long way.
What to serve ketchup with
I mean, it has to be burgers doesn't it? This homemade ketchup goes perfectly smothered on our Hidden Vegetable Beef Burgers or our Mexican Bean Burgers.
If hotdogs are more your thing, then why not put some on our Vegan Carrot Hot Dogs. If you are looking for something to dip in this sauce, then it has to be our Garlic Potato Wedges.
FAQs
How to store ketchup often causes arguments in households. Some insist it is kept in the fridge and others keep it in the cupboard. With this homemade ketchup we recommend keeping it in the fridge in a sterilised bottle and it will keep there for about 2 weeks for maximum freshness, but we usually finish ours WAY before that.
Extra tips
- You can make this ketchup vegan by swapping the honey for maple syrup. You could also not sweeten it at all, but a little sweetness goes a long way in this recipe.
- This recipe will keep in a sterilised bottle in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
- Fancy a flavours ketchup? Try adding some curry powder, chilli powder or even some roasted garlic to the recipe.
More sauce recipes
| Do you want to be kept up to date on more delicious posts like this? Please subscribe to the blog mailing list (it takes 30 seconds). Click here to sign up. |
If you’ve tried this Tomato Ketchup recipe, or any other recipe on the blog, then let us know how you got on in the comments below, we love hearing from you!
Tag us in your creations on Instagram @hungryhealthyhappy - we love sharing photos when people make our recipes. You can use the hashtag #hungryhealthyhappy too.
DON’T FORGET TO RATE THE RECIPE ↓
Recipe card
Healthy Tomato Ketchup Recipe
Ingredients
- 125 ml Passata
- 6 tbsp Tomato puree
- 60 ml Water
- 60 ml Apple cider vinegar (you can use white wine vinegar)
- 2 tbsp Honey
- 1 tsp Onion powder
- 0.5 tsp Garlic powder
- 1 pinch Sea salt and black pepper
Instructions
- Put all the ingredients in a pan and mix well.
- Simmer a medium heat for 15 minutes.
Notes
- You can make this ketchup vegan by swapping the honey for maple syrup. You could also not sweeten it at all, but a little sweetness goes a long way in this recipe.
- This recipe will keep in a sterilised bottle in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
- Fancy a flavours ketchup? Try adding some curry powder, chilli powder or even some roasted garlic to the recipe.
Ian
Just tried this, really lovely ketchup. I added a bit of chilli and garam masala, and gently fried some onions and garlic in place of the powders. Only problem was when I realised the tomato puree I used was in a non-recyclable tube. Will do better next time!
Dannii
That sounds like a great addition. I am glad you enjoyed it :)