It is not easy to buy natural products these days - almost every package contains a lot of preservatives, flavors and not very healthy additives. This also applies to sauces, mayonnaises, ketchups offered by manufacturers in a huge range. In this regard, the question arises - is it possible to make the same ketchup from natural vegetables and spices at home? It's easy to do. The main thing is to harvest tomatoes, apples, onions, add a little salt and vinegar for taste.
Natural homemade ketchup, prepared at home, will turn out to be surprisingly aromatic, thick, piquant and very tasty. It is easy to make, especially if you have kitchen helpers such as a blender or an electric meat grinder at hand. Everything about everything will take only an hour and a half, including peeling vegetables and fruits, preparing for chopping, cooking.
Ingredients
Reading the label on the purchased ketchup, one cannot help but be surprised at the chemical composition of the product. What is not there - thickeners, dyes, preservatives, all kinds of E-shki and other rubbish. And after all, this is eaten not only by adults, but also by children, especially adolescents. That is why homemade natural ketchup will be accepted by the household "with a bang" - it is not only tasty, but also very healthy.
For cooking you will need:
- 1 kg of ripe tomatoes of any kind;
- 150 g sour apples;
- 2 heads of onions;
- 40 ml of table vinegar;
- 90 g granulated sugar;
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon of salt (the main thing is to take stone, not iodized);
- to taste - chili and cinnamon powder.
Step by step recipe
You can use any tomatoes for making homemade ketchup - even cherry, even cream, or huge fleshy specimens such as "Oxheart". The main thing is that they are ripe, juicy, without signs of spoilage and rot.
All tomatoes must be washed, cut into halves, quarters or slices, depending on size. The resulting mass must be transferred to a saucepan, put it on low heat.
Boil chopped tomatoes until soft. Then, using a metal sieve, meat grinder or blender, grind the tomato mass into a homogeneous puree. Neither skins nor seeds should get into the future ketchup, so you still have to filter the gruel through a sieve. After all the procedures, tomato puree must be poured back into the pan.
Apples should be peeled from stalks, peels, seeds with a knife or a special device, chopped with a meat grinder, food processor, blender or through a fine grater. The resulting applesauce must be added to the tomato mass. Pour chopped onions here. Put the puree on the fire again, boil until smooth.
It takes about 40 minutes to cook the tomato-apple mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon and spatula. Then it remains to add dry herbs, salt, spices to taste, pour in vinegar. It is recommended to try future natural ketchup to understand that something is missing. If the apples are sweet, or there is no chili on hand, you can acidify the taste with vinegar, make the taste sharper with ground black pepper.
Now it remains to keep the pot with ketchup on the fire for another 30-40 minutes, until it thickens. The resulting homogeneous mass will remain poured into sterilized jars or bottles, twist tightly, roll up.
Banks must be covered with a blanket until they cool completely, then put into the cellar, underground, refrigerator. You can store delicious homemade ketchup sealed for about 6 months, but leave it open for no more than 5-6 days.
