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This is a guest post by Melanie Zook, MA, RD, LDN. She is the blogger behind Fresh Start Nutrition where she offers wellness classes, workshops, pantry makeovers, and nutrition consultations. She lives here in the Charlotte, NC area, and I thought you all would enjoy her homemade ketchup recipe from her new DIY Kitchen Cookbook!
Hi there, I’m Melanie, and I think the kitchen is the perfect place to do it yourself (DIY).
Why DIY in the kitchen?
- YOU are in control.
You know exactly what’s going into your food – no preservatives or artificial flavors, colors, or sweeteners, just whole, clean, healthy foods instead of processed foods that are full of unnecessary additives.
– - You’ll save time and money, as well as space in your pantry and refrigerator.
Once you stock up on the ingredients you’ll need for a DIY kitchen, you won’t have to buy as many premade staples and you can save yourself the extra errands. Spend some time putting together the make-ahead mixes and you’re done.
– - It’s green.
You can skip the excess packaging of premade, processed foods.
– - It’s worth it to make some of your meal and snack staples.
They take a matter of minutes using ingredients you probably already have on hand. (But some DIY recipes out there just aren’t worth the time and hassle if you can already find affordable clean versions in the store.)
These reasons are exactly what inspired me to put together my new DIY Kitchen Cookbook*. It covers how to Make Your Own Clean & Healthy Make-Ahead Mixes, Seasoning Blends, Snacks, Breakfasts, Condiments, Dressings & Drinks with copycat recipes that are cleaner, healthier, and more budget-friendly versions of what you’d normally buy in a grocery store. The recipes are designed so you can tweak them to fit your family’s preferences or swap out ingredients to make them allergy friendly.
Homemade Ketchup in the Slow Cooker
Let’s start with ketchup. It’s a kid-friendly kitchen, restaurant, and picnic staple, but the bottled, store-bought version is one of the condiments highest in sodium and sugar (often in the form of high fructose corn syrup). And some of the new reduced sugar varieties are made with artificial sweeteners. By making your own, however, you can control how much salt is added and skip the processed sugar altogether by using honey as the sweetener.
Homemade ketchup makes a perfect summertime hostess gift. Double the recipe, pour into mason jars, and tie on a bow.
It also freezes well (leave headroom if freezing in jars to allow for expansion). Or freeze in an ice cube tray so you can thaw out individual portions when you need them for serving food or when making other recipes, such as barbecue sauce.
Many people are pretty loyal to their ketchup brand, so I knew this recipe would be a tough one to develop. But my Heinz-loving husband from Pittsburgh approves. I hope you do too!
Homemade Ketchup in the Slow Cooker
From The DIY Kitchen Cookbook by Melanie Zook, MA, RD of Fresh Start Nutrition
Ingredients
- 1 28-oz can tomato puree
- ¾ cup white vinegar Look for white vinegar derived from corn or rye or try apple cider vinegar.
- ½ cup honey
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt kosher
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon celery salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground mustard mustard powder
- 1/8 teaspoon cloves about 3 cloves
- pepper and/or cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
Instructions
-
Add all ingredients to a slow cooker.
-
Cook on low for 8 hours or until thick.
-
Store in a glass jar or a squeeze bottle in the refrigerator or freeze.
Recipe Notes
• We recommend organic ingredients when feasible.
• Use the same measuring cup for the honey that you did for the vinegar. Honey slides out of a wet measuring cup much better than out of a dry one.
• Grind whole cloves using a mortar and pestle or with the flat side of a chef’s knife.
(*FYI – You do not need a Kindle device to download and read this ebook. FREE apps for just about any desktop, smartphone, or tablet are available on Amazon or in your gadget’s app store.)
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What a good idea! I would think so, but to be extra safe, you could freeze the jars then they’d thaw out by that time, all while keeping it chilled. Hope they love their gift!
would you be able to can this via water bath or would you need to pressure can it???
Hi Hannah–I’m in no way a canning expert, but I don’t see why not? But I have only ever frozen it, not canned it. There have been a lot of other canning comments on this post, so I wonder if anyone else has tried it!
I would be concerned with canning because of the honey in it. I am not an expert but have canned and pressure canned many times, and I believe honey is one ingredient that is not supposed to go in a canning recipe. You could check the USDA website on canning to be sure!
How long will it last in the refrigerator please?
I’ve kept it in my fridge at times for at least a month with no problems. To avoid waste, though, I usually double a batch, then freeze it in pint or quart sized jars (leave headroom), then thaw out a jar to refill a squeeze bottle as needed.
I have to watch my salt. What could I substitute for tomato paste as it is high in sodium. I would have to leave out the salt also in the recipe and use celery seed not celery salt. I can’t wait to try it. I have only found on version of no salt ketcup and only one store sells it. Can’t wait to have my own. Thanks!
It uses tomato puree, not paste, so hopefully you’ll be able to keep it low sodium that way. Hope you like how it turns out!
Store-bought ketchup tastes like chemicals and sugar to me, so I’ve been on a mission to make my own. I’ve tried several recipes! This is my current favorite. Thank you! I cook it on high for 8 hrs with no top on the CP to get it to the consistency I like. YUMMY! My family loves it.
So glad to hear that, H Stou! And thanks for sharing the lid-off tip.
I just made this, and had it in my crockpot on low for 10 hours but it was still pretty thin. It was also darker, had a saucy consistency, and had a very strong tomato sauce + vinegar taste. :(
Sorry it didn’t turn out. :(
Do you think would be safe to water bath can?
Hi KATYW, I’m not a canning expert, but I think based on a lot of the comments, some readers have given it a try. I would think it would work well. Good luck and I hope you like it!