Homemade Ketchup (Raw & Fermented) 

Homemade Ketchup (Raw & Fermented) is way healthier and tastier than normal commercial ketchup. Try this recipe and you’ll know exactly what I mean!

Ketchup makes french fries taste better, and I’m sure everyone knows that. When I eat fries, I always make sure to have enough ketchup, if not too much.

This habit happens to my daughter too, and I’m not 100% comfortable seeing her eat a lot of commercial ketchup.

To replace this type of ketchup, I looked into making my own. To my surprise, making ketchup is really easy. I just use tomato paste, season it however I like, and voila, I have Homemade Ketchup in no time.

Since I learned how easy it is to make ketchup, I now like to go a step further by making it from scratch!

Again, it’s not much harder than making regular ketchup. In fact, it’s quite satisfying and fun. The color of the raw tomato paste is beautiful and it makes the process so enjoyable. I can choose the quality of the ingredients and adjust the flavor the way I want.

Having this Homemade Ketchup (Raw & Fermented) on hand, I don’t feel bad when we eat too much ketchup with our favorite fries any more. 

What about the taste you might wonder? Oh, the taste is incredible actually. The fermentation process gives a rich flavor that exceeds any store-bought ketchup. Beside fries, this Ketchup is great with a lot of other things too, even plain toasted bread.

It must be expensive as organic Ketchup is so expensive at the market then? It is not however. If you make it during tomato season, you can even use local organic tomatoes at a very reasonable cost.

You can make a big batch and freeze it for later too.

Ready to make Homemade Ketchup (Raw & Fermented) from scratch? Let me show you how!

Ingredients:

For making raw tomato paste. 

Note: feel free to adjust the amount of tomato paste according to your needs.

1. Plum tomatoes
2. A container (I use a big glass jar)
3. A stick and a rubber band
4. A cloth bag or cheesecloth

For making Homemade Ketchup (Raw & Fermented)

1. About 1 ½ cups (128 g) of raw tomato paste
2. 1 ½ TBSP (22 g) apple cider vinegar
3. 1 TBSP (15 g) worcestershire sauce
4. 2 TBSP (30 g) sugar (I use white unbleached organic sugar cane)
5. 2 TBSP (30 ml) water kefir, whey (optional)
6. 1 TSP (5 g) good salt 
7. ⅛ TSP (.6 g) of clove, cinnamon, and paprika
8. A glass jar and a lid 
9. An airlock (optional)

Instructions:

To make raw tomato paste.

1. Clean, chop the tomatoes and blend in a blender.
2. Strain the tomato puree in a fine mesh. I usually save the pulp for making soup or other dishes that require tomatoes.
3. Put a cloth bag or cheesecloth in a jar or container and pour the strained puree in.
4. Tie the bag with a rubber band and insert a stick through the rubber band.
5. Hang it over the rim of a jar and let the water drip for a few hours. The best time to do this is in the evening or early in the morning, so you can let it drip through the night or day. Note: It takes longer to drip if the cloth bag you use is too fine.

To make Homemade Ketchup (Raw & Fermented)

1. Mix all the ingredients above well. Taste it, and adjust the flavor to your liking. It tastes so good that you might want to use it now (and you can).
2. To ferment it, put the mixture in a sterilized jar. Cover the jar with a lid or a lid that can receive an airlock. Let it ferment for 3 days. Note: if you don’t have an airlock, make sure to loosen the lid every day to burp the jar.
3. When it’s done, replace the lid with a storage lid and keep it in the fridge. It will last over a week if you don’t finish it sooner. Enjoy!

Have you made Homemade Ketchup (Raw & Fermented) before? Please share it with me–I’d like to hear about it!