Tomato and Apple Ketchup

Step 1

Cut the tomatoes crosswise. Pour boiling water over them. Let them sit for 5 minutes. Peel off the skins. Dice the flesh.

Step 2

Peel the apples. Grate them on a coarse grater. Coarsely chop the onion. Chop the garlic.

Step 3

Heat vegetable oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Sauté the onion, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another 1 minute.

Step 4

Add apples and salt. Simmer for a couple of minutes.

Step 5

Add tomatoes, tomato paste, and vinegar. Stir and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.

Step 6

Blend with an immersion blender. Strain through a sieve.

Homemade apple ketchup is a variation on the classic, with its own undeniable advantages. Firstly, the consistency of this product is thicker than sauce made solely from tomatoes. This is because apples are rich in pectin, a natural thickener. Secondly, we note the distinctive, richer flavor of this ketchup, enriched with pleasant fruity notes. And of course, the sauce's exquisite aroma is also noteworthy, thanks, once again, to the apples. The ketchup-making process is not overly complicated, so even a home cook with little experience in home canning can try our recipe.

Homemade tomato ketchup with apples and curry is delicious, spicy, and truly thick, even without starch or any other thickeners. It contains only natural and healthy ingredients: very ripe tomatoes, pectin-rich apples, and a whole host of aromatic spices. You can adjust the recipe as desired, for example, by adding more or less curry, garlic, or ginger. Homemade tomato ketchup is also a great way to quickly and easily process a large tomato harvest.

Recipes for delicious homemade ketchup can be completely varied. You can experiment with spices and herbs, use different vinegars and sugars, choose seasonal tomatoes of different varieties, pickled tomatoes, or tomato paste as a base, and even use nectarines or apples for a richer flavor. We present tried-and-true recipes and 7 unexpected ways to use delicious homemade ketchup, from making a glaze for frying to boiling pork.

Homemade ketchup offers the rich flavor of tomatoes without unnecessary additives and the ability to customize the sauce to your liking: sweetness, thickness, and spiciness. Unlike store-bought options, you know the ingredients precisely and can experiment with spices. This article features three tried-and-true ketchup recipes (classic, quick, and spicy), along with tips on choosing tomatoes, achieving the perfect consistency, and storing the finished sauce properly.

Bulgarian ketchup was incredibly popular in the USSR. It wasn't readily available, to put it mildly, so housewives tried to recreate something similar at home. Ingredients were calculated intuitively, but tomatoes and bell peppers were always included in the sauce. The results varied, and the most persistent ones sought to achieve the closest possible similarity. If you're suddenly nostalgic for Soviet food, make this very same Bulgarian ketchup using the recipe below. We think it's quite faithful to the "truth"! And in general, this ketchup is very tasty, perfect for meat, poultry, potatoes, or pasta.