Homemade Ketchup - Vegan and Gluten Free

If you start from tomato paste go directly to step 4

Lets do your own tomato paste!

• You can use any red tomatoes you like but, if you feel adventurous, you can also give a chance to your green tomatoes. Those lonely green tomatoes collected in your garden at the end of the season. You feel like even with time, they are never gonna get red and you don't know what to do with them until now! You can do a complete green tomato paste or mix both red and green tomatoes. You choose the palette you like! The green paste is less sweet and a little more acid than red tomatoes but is still a really good way to enhance your green tomatoes.

• You will need around 1kg of fresh tomatoes to do around 700ml of tomato sauce, depending on how much water they contain and how long you will reduce your tomato paste but that gives you an approximation.

What tools are you gonna need to change your fresh tomatoes into tomatoe sauce?

• a stewpot

• a sieve

• a tomatoe press (this wonderfull tool il really handy to isolate quickly the seeds and peels and get a perfect paste, not only usefull for tomatoes by the way)

if you don't have it, yet, you can use:

- a food mill

- or a blender + chinese

• 2bowls, one to collect the tomato paste, the other to recover the seeds and peels

• Blanch the tomatoes for 1minute in boiling water, then drain them.

• pierce them to evacuate the excess of juice. You can reserve that one for a base of soup or a sauce...

• Then reduce them into paste with the tool you have at home:

- With the press, It's really fast so, I usually do 2 or 3 passes to extract the most of pulp.

- The food mil will separate the seeds and peels as well. One pass should be enough.

- With the mixer you will need to pass your mixture through a chinese to extract the seeds and peels but you can decide to keep them if you want.

• I usually mix the result a little to get a more unctuous mixture.

At that stage, you could decide to make a tasty tomatoe paste by cooking your mixed tomatoes with garlic, oregano, basil, or other aromatic herbs. When you get the consistancy you want, stop the heat and add a bit of oil and celery salt. You can now go directly to the sterilisation on step 7 to have your tomato salse basis for the whole year!

But wait, you where here to do a homemade ketchup no? Lets do it!

Proportions for 1 bottle of ketchup (around 700mL):

• 1 bottle of tomato sauce (680mL)

• 6.5tbs of cidre vinegar

• 2 tsp of corn flour

• 2 garlic gloves

• 1/2 oignon

• 2tbs of sugar

• 2 tsp of salt

• 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika optional, depending on your taste you can choose sweet paprika for a slightly spicy taste or hot paprika if you want a spicier ketchup.

NB: Feel free to multiply or divide the proportions according to your needs, if you want to do a small try or bottles for the whole year.

What tools are you gonna need?

for the cooking:

• something where you can mix your ingredients and cook them (stewpot, saucepan)

• something you can use to blend your ingredients (spoon, spatula).

for the sterilization:

• clean rags

• kitchen tongs or colander

• a small soup ladle

• jars, cans (don't hesitate to reuse tomato sauce or juice bottles or other jam containers. Just make sure they are in good condition, cleaned and not chipped).

• a stewpot or casserole able to hold your jars

• a steriliser or the previous container + thermometer

• in a container, mix the tomato paste, crushed garlic, the oignon mixed or cut into small pieces, the vinager, the sugar, the salt, and the smoked paprika if wanted. To add the flour and avoid lumps, you can put a small amount of salse in a bowl and pre-mix the flour in it before to add it to your melt.

• simmer until the sauce is thickened to a desired consistency. The more you let it heating, the thicker it will be.

• and that's it, the ketchup is ready! You can keep it in a bottle in the fridge for a week or go for the sterilisation step to have your Ketchup's reserve for the whole year!

Pickeling:

• In a container, boil the amount of cans and bottles you need according to the amount of salse you have. I like varying the formats, it's practical to have quantities adapted to your needs.

• Extract the cans on a clean rag using a kitchen tongs or a colander or any other extension of your hand able to avoid you an annoying burn. I tried with chopsticks once but it's a little hazardous.

• Let then air-dry.

• Fill the cans using the little soup ladle. Be carefull not to spill anything on the border of the jars. If you do, wipe with a clean cloth. It can't be any impurities at the cover. Also, let 2cm free behind the cover.

• I boil my covers or rubber for traditional cans at the last minute before to close it. Dry them well and close your cans.

Sterilizing:

• If you don't have a sterilizer, the container used earlier to boil your cans can do the job.

• Put a rag in the bottom and stand your cans up in your container or sterilizer. Use another rag to wedge them so they won't move or clash during the sterilizing process.

• Fill your container with water. Your cans need to be fully covered.

• If you are using a sterilizer, put the temperature on 100°C and go for 45min of sterilization.

• If you are using a stewpot or other container, wait to be at 100°C then put a timer for 45min.

• In any case let your cans covered until complete cooling.