Homemade ketchup

After the buzz of setting off on the sugar free journey, the reality of every day life and some of the produce restrictions started to kick in. I do most of the weekly cooking, so cooking everything from scratch, which is the only way to ensure you minimise the sugar content, didn’t seem like such a big deal. SOME meals however are by necessity more “convenient”.  We’re talking chips. Oven chips or chips from the chip shop – and nice as they are….they aren’t quite the same without ketchup.

Heinz tomato ketchup has 22.8g of sugar per 100g – ok so you aren’t very likely to eat a 100g of ketchup in one sitting, but that’s still a big number. There is a 50% less sugar Heinz tomato ketchup available – weighing in at a bit more reasonable 11.4g of sugar – but that’s still more sugar than a savoury product NEEDS!

So in a stroke of GENIUS – I made my own. Now I’m not one for measuring much….and I had opened stuff in the fridge….so it was a bit accidental. But I think it’s LUSH. The rest of the family are less keen – don’t get me wrong – they really quite liked it……just not as a replacement for Heinz.

Ali’s Tomato Ketchup (from the fridge contents)
3 tablespoons of passata with basil (I used Tesco’s own brand – having checked it was sugar free)
1 tablespoon of tomato purée (again sugar free)
Mix well together. The end. It really is that simple.

Stores in an airtight container in the fridge happily for a week – I made rather more than that first time round….and it freezes well, so you could pour into an ice cube tray and freeze and defrost as required. In commercial products they add salt and other preservatives…and then add sugar to hide the salt….all to make it last a bit longer in your cupboard.

I used the same basic recipe to make pizza topping….just changed the ratio and added a bit more purée…so I tend to make ketchup when we have pizza…to use up the leftovers. I’m my Mother’s daughter – what can I say.