Homemade Adult Tomato Ketchup

Since we don’t have any children in the house ketchup is a not a staple item in my pantry. Sometimes I will see a recipe that I want to make that calls for ketchup and I ignore it since I don’t want to buy a bottle for a few tablespoons. I decided to make my own today. This is combination of a few recipes tweaked to suit what my family likes. I knew the ketchup had to be sweetened with agave since I am trying to avoid sugar.

If you just read the part about sugar and wondered if this is related to cancer, in fact it is. Not long ago I read that a Nobel Prize for Medicine had been given to a German biologist Otto Heinrich Warburg in 1931 for his discovery that the metabolism of malignant tumors was largely dependent on glucose consumption. Glucose is the form digested sugar takes in the body. All high glycemic foods become glucose in the body. I try to remind myself of this when I am offered white bread or rice, and anything loaded with sugar. I don’t like these foods enough to increase my risk of cancer.

This is a more adult version of ketchup, not so cloyingly sweet and with more spice than store bought brands.

Homemade Ketchup
makes about 1 1/3 cups

Ingredients:

15 ounce can of organic tomato sauce
¼ cup of apple cider vinegar
¼ cup of agave
1 teaspoon black pepper corns, ground
1 pinch, allspice berries, ground
1 pinch cloves, ground
2 tablespoons of granulated garlic
2 tablespoons of granulated onion
1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a heavy bottomed pan and simmer until it is reduced by a third. Refrigerate or freeze until you are ready to use it.

Comments:

I love the interesting spicy flavor of this ketchup. The allspice and cloves are particularly vibrant in this ketchup. I wouldn’t recommend that try this out on your children; I don’t think it tastes a bit like Heinz. Next time I may add a canned chipotle to this and make chipotle ketchup.