Ditch the bottled ketchup: Here is your guide to homemade, clean, vegan tomato ketchup recipe without artificial preservatives and colours.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
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Making your own perfectly sweet, and utterly delicious tomato ketchup at home is a rewarding experience that puts you back in charge of what goes into your food.
And the best part? You have complete control over every single ingredient, ensuring no hidden nasties, no unwanted sugars, and absolutely no preservatives.
This hot and spicy Indian Style Tomato Ketchup Recipe is:
- vegan
- gluten and nut free
- pressure cooker friendly
- contains zero oil or corn syrup
Why Go Homemade? The Benefits
- No Preservatives: This is the big one. Commercial ketchups rely on preservatives to give them their long shelf life. By making your own, you skip these chemicals entirely, opting for a fresher, cleaner taste.
- Control Over Sugar: Most store-bought ketchups are sugar bombs. With homemade, you can control the sweetness to your preference, using natural alternatives like maple syrup or agave, or even reducing it significantly.
- Real Ingredients: You know exactly what’s going into your ketchup – ripe tomatoes, aromatic spices, and natural sweeteners. No weird “natural flavours” or unidentifiable ingredients.
- Dietary Needs: For vegans, it ensures no animal-derived ingredients (like some obscure processing aids). For those with allergies, it guarantees a safe condiment.
- Cost-Effective: Especially when tomatoes are in season, making a large batch can be surprisingly economical.
Does it taste better than your favourite bottled tomato ketchups? The answer is NO. But its definitely healthier, wholesome, and an excellent homemade condiment especially for those who love to slather ketchup on anything and everything.
Ingredients You’ll Need
This tomato ketchup recipe focuses on simple, wholesome ingredients that are easily available:
- Ripe Tomatoes: The star of the show! Use good quality, ripe tomatoes – San Marzano, Roma Tomatoes are excellent, but any flavourful ripe plum, juicy, slightly sweet tomatoes will do. You can use fresh or good quality canned crushed tomatoes.
- Vegetables: A small size beetroot gives the bright red colour to the ketchup. Red Bell Pepper and celery helps in subtly sweet and spicy taste.
- Aromatics: Onion and garlic form the foundational savory notes.
- Apple Cider Vinegar or white vinegar provides that essential tangy kick.
- Sweetener: Brown Sugar, raw sugar, or agave nectar offers natural sweetness.
- Spices: A carefully selected blend of spices like ginger, bay leaf, dried red chilli, black peppercorn creates the classic ketchup profile.
- Salt is crucial for seasoning.
- Water to pressure cook.
How To Make Ketchup
Prep Vegetables:
- Peel beetroot, onion, and ginger. Wash all the vegetables.
- Dice all the vegetables into bite size chunks.
Pressure Cook
- Add diced tomato, beet, bell pepper, onion, celery, ginger, garlic, whole spices, and water in a pressure cooker. Close the lid and put on the whistle.
- Pressure cook over low heat for 4 whistles. Allow the steam to release naturally. Vegetables should be soften.
Blend To Puree
- Discard bay leaf. Allow the pressure cooked vegetables to cool down.
- Transfer them to a blender. Without using water, blend them to a smooth puree. Caution: When blending hot liquids, fill the blender only halfway, hold the lid down firmly with a towel, and start on low speed, gradually increasing.
Strain and Simmer
- For the absolute silkiest tomato ketchup, pass the blended mixture through a fine-mesh sieve using the back of a spoon to push the solids through. This removes any lingering seeds or skin bits. This step is optional but highly recommended for that classic ketchup texture.
- Stir in the apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt. Stir well to combine.
- Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. The goal is to allow the sauce to thicken and for the flavours to meld beautifully. It should reduce by about one-third and have a rich, concentrated tomato flavour.
- Taste the ketchup. This is crucial! Add more salt, pepper, sweetener, or vinegar as needed to achieve your perfect balance of sweet, tangy, and savoury. Remember, flavours intensify as it cools.
Let the tomato ketchup cool completely at room temperature before transferring it to clean, airtight jars or bottles.
Storage
Because this tomato ketchup contains no artificial preservatives, its shelf life is shorter than commercial varieties.
Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 month. For longer storage, you can freeze it in small portions (e.g., in ice cube trays, then transfer to a freezer bag) for up to 3 months.
My Tried and True Tips
- Taste, Taste, Taste: The most important step! Adjust sweetness, tang, and saltiness to your liking.
- Patience is Key: Don’t rush the simmering process. Slow reduction concentrates the flavours and thickens the ketchup naturally.
- Fresh vs. Canned Tomatoes: While fresh ripe tomatoes offer incredible flavour, good quality canned crushed tomatoes are a fantastic, convenient alternative that yields excellent results.
- Cleanliness: Ensure your jars and utensils are clean and sterilized to maximize shelf life (even without preservatives).
More Dipping Sauce Recipes
- Chilli Oil
- Hummus
- Spicy Mango Dip
- Spicy Peanut Sauce
- Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
- Greek Cucumber Sauce
- Roasted Red Pepper Dip
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Tomato Ketchup Recipe
Here is your guide to homemade, clean, vegan tomato ketchup recipe without artificial preservatives and colours.
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Servings: 500 gram
Calories: 1kcal
- Blender
- Seive/Filter
Ingredients
- 500 gram tomato
- 1 medium size onion
- 1 small size beetroot
- 1 small size red bell pepper
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 inch celery stalk
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
- 4 dried red chilli
- 1 bay leaf (tej patta)
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ¼ Cup water
- ¼ Cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Peel beetroot, onion, and ginger. Wash all the vegetables. Dice all the vegetables into bite size chunks.
- Add diced tomato, beet, bell pepper, onion, celery, ginger, garlic, whole spices, and water in a pressure cooker. Close the lid and put on the whistle.
- Pressure cook over low heat for 4 whistles. Allow the steam to release naturally. Vegetables should be soften. You can do the same in an instant pot pressure cook mode for 8 minutes.
- Discard bay leaf. Allow the pressure cooked vegetables to cool down. Transfer them to a blender. Without using additional water, blend them to a smooth puree. Caution: When blending hot liquids, fill the blender only halfway, hold the lid down firmly with a towel, and start on low speed, gradually increasing.
- Pass the blended mixture through a fine-mesh sieve using the back of a spoon to push the solids through. This removes any lingering seeds or skin bits.
- Stir in the apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt. Stir well to combine. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. The goal is to allow the sauce to thicken and reduce by about one-third and have a rich, concentrated tomato flavour.
- Taste the ketchup. Add more salt, pepper, sweetener, or vinegar as needed to achieve your perfect balance of sweet, tangy, and savoury. Remember, flavours intensify as it cools.
- Let the tomato ketchup cool completely at room temperature before transferring it to clean, airtight jars or bottles.
Recipe Notes:
- Substitute dried red chillies with smoked paprika.
- This is a hot and spicy Indian style tomato ketchup recipe. If you are not too keen on spicy flavour, skip adding ginger and red chillies.
- The colour of the ketchup is defined by the quality of the tomatoes. Hence, pick the ripe, red, juicy tomatoes without yellow or green blemishes.
- Beetroot is only added for the colour. Hence, do not add too much of it.
Nutrition
Calories: 1kcal | Carbohydrates: 0.2g | Protein: 0.02g | Fat: 0.004g | Saturated Fat: 0.001g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.002g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.001g | Sodium: 0.3mg | Potassium: 4mg | Fiber: 0.03g | Sugar: 0.2g | Vitamin A: 16IU | Vitamin C: 0.5mg | Calcium: 0.5mg | Iron: 0.01mg
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