Easy Homemade Ketchup - no sugar added, low-carb, keto

If you'd like to make your own homemade ketchup but it sounds like too much work, you are going to love this recipe. This Easy Homemade Ketchup Recipe tastes great, takes only five minutes to whip up, and not heating up the kitchen at all!

With this no-cook ketchup recipe, you can ditch the HCFS, loads of sugar, and suspicious "natural flavors" of the store-bought ketchup brands without spending a load of time!

Yes, today I'm sharing a Homemade Ketchup Recipe with you, and it's so simple, you aren't going to believe your eyes.

Making Favorite Foods Healthier

Since we've been on a candida diet, I've worked hard and remade some of our favorite foods into sugar-free alternatives.

We've ended up with some great recipes like my Homemade Chocolate Chips, Dairy-Free Ice Cream, Homemade Jello, Gummy Candy, and Homemade Marshmallows, plus Homemade Unrefined Powdered Sugar and more.

This Homemade Ketchup Recipe, however, has been one of the better additions to our repertoire of processed food re-dos.

Partially because we love ketchup so much, but also because it is just so simple.

My family LOVES ketchup.

Ketchup, typically being loaded with high fructose corn syrup, is one of those foods that needed a redo.

Well, truth is, my boys and I love ketchup, while my hubby is more of a mustard and hot sauce fan. Over the years I've tried to make homemade ketchup a number of times, but I've always fallen short.

Either the recipe was "off" or it just took way too much time to replicate and keep on hand.

One of the recipes I tried was so loaded with oil that it has a thick solid layer on it after I stored it in the fridge. That one sure didn't go over too well with any of us.

Ick.

Why You Need this Recipe

Anyhow, If you've ever perused homemade ketchup recipes on the internet, then you know what I mean by them taking "too much time."

The majority of ketchup recipes have you blending tomatoes or tomato paste with a bunch of spices and then simmering for a looooong time, and sometimes you have to put the spices in a little spice bag and simmer that way. If I can avoid things like "little spice bags" tied up with string and still get a good product, then I am all for it.

That's just the life of a busy whole foodie mama, you know?  I love good food but a "loads-of-time-on-my-hands-gourmand" I am not.

Since I don't often have a looooong time to wait when I am throwing dinner together, or worse yet, I remember at the last minute that we're going to a potluck and my kids are going to be eating hotdogs (our own natural ones, of course), I need simple recipes like this.

I mean, my kids are really fine eating the hotdogs plain because they are already a treat, but if they can have ketchup and mustard on them they are thrilled!

Why Make Homemade Ketchup

The main reason to make your own Homemade Ketchup is to have control over the ingredients. And the cost of the organic, healthier, or low-carb varieties can be pretty astronomical.

I am not thrilled with the ingredients in store-bought ketchup. Even the organic varieties like this one, have loads of sugar in them and since we are all on a low-to-no-sugar diet, that doesn't work for us.

Plus, store-bought ketchup often has "natural flavors" added.  That can be a catch-all for very benign food items like parsley extract, but it can also be code for "MSG-type" substances.  It's kind of a pain to always be calling companies to ask what their flavors are so I prefer to make my own :).

With this super simple ketchup recipe, you can literally toss all the ingredients together within a minute or two and have homemade sugar-free ketchup ready--almost as quick as you can say "ketchup" or "catsup" or--whatever.

Did you know that both words are derived from the Chinese word "ke-tsiap" which is a "fish sauce?  Look at that--a recipe and a linguistic lesson in one post :).

On with the easy homemade ketchup recipe...

The inspiration for this recipe came from this one at Deep Roots at Home.

I was on my perpetual hunt for a good easy homemade ketchup recipe when I finally found one that worked pretty well.

I changed it up a bit and now we can have ketchup any time we want!

Voila!

There you have it -- Easy Homemade Ketchup in a flash, but you don't need to wait forever for it.

My kids are sooo happy that we have ketchup around much more frequently now, and my youngest seriously dips EVERYTHING in it.  For awhile he was taking to dipping his carrot sticks in it and today he was dipping crackers in it too!

Who am I kidding?  I was dipping right along with him :).

We have a cookout later this week so you can bet we'll be toting this ketchup with us.

My son thinks these Easy Baked Chicken Nuggets should be on the menu this week so we can dip the nuggets in ketchup :).

Other Processed Food Alternatives:

Following are some other fabulous processed food alternatives that I think you will find helpful for healthifying your home.

Powdered Sugar Substitute
Homemade Chocolate Chips - possibly the best chocolate chips you will ever have
Homemade Marshmallows
Our Favorite Salad Dressing - Five Ways
Sugar-free Maple Baked Beans - ready in under an hour!

Recipe Notes

• Sweetener: Any sweetener (healthier or low-carb or otherwise) can be substituted for the low-carb sweetener and/or stevia. Read How to Substitute Sweeteners for tips/ratios. Vegetable glycerine is another great option. If you'd prefer to use only one sweetener for both, that's fine too.
  Yacon syrup or a dash of stevia extract can work too--or even monk extract.
  Use 1/2 - 3/4 the amount of honey or maple syrup.
• Measuring Tips: The measurements for some of the ingredients are small (like 1/64 teaspoon / 1 drop, 3/16 teaspoon). You can either eyeball it (the recipe will likely be just fine as long as you don't really overdo it) or you can buy these handy measuring spoons. I use them for measuring stevia all the time.
  
  

Special Diet Options

• Paleo: Use 1/2 - 3/4 the amount of honey or maple syrup for paleo.
• THM: This recipe is a "fuel pull" for those on the Trim Healthy Mama plan.
• This recipe as is, is keto / low-carb.

How to Store

You should store this delicious, and oh-so-easy-to-make ketchup in your fridge in an air-tight container.

It should last a week, but perhaps up to 3 weeks, but I personally wouldn't push it that far and I doubt it will be around that long anyhow. It sure doesn't last that long in our house!

If you really want to make a lot more of it, or store it for longer, you can store it in the freezer for 6 months--making sure there's very little air in the container will help it to store there without freezer burn. If you can make the container truly air tight you can likely freeze it for longer than that.

Freezing this in ice cube trays is a great idea so you can take them out once frozen and store in an airtight freezer bag. Just take out whatever you want, whenever you want!

Recipe

Drop a comment below and let me know what you think about this ketchup!