I’ve said before how Jed can’t have cooked tomatos because of his fructose malabsorption. We’ve avoided ketchup ever since.
This is sad for us, because ketchup is one of our favorite condiments.
One day last week I made spaghetti for dinner. I got busy and didn’t take it off the heat right away, like I’ve gotten used to doing. Oh, it didn’t simmer all day the way I used to make spaghetti, but it cooked a pretty good length of time. Since I didn’t have anything else to feed Jed that night, we gave it to him anyway.
And Jed was fine.
No signs of a fructose reaction at all!
In fact, he ate more over the next three days – leftovers, reheated – and was perfectly fine!
Hmm…
Maybe ketchup would be okay, too?
Except regular store bought ketchup is just full of crap that’s no good for anyone, let alone someone with fructose malabsorption.
So I found this recipe and used it as a base, tweaking it and making my own version of a safe ketchup for Jed.
Jed has eaten an entire recipes worth of this in less than a week! I will have to make more today!
Darrel loves it, too. He says it’s just as good as the store bought stuff.
Based on their glowing recommendations, I had to taste this. I put a little on my tongue just to activate the taste buds and immediately rinsed it out; not before my senses registered that OMG this is BETTER than store bought! The flavor is spot on, but it is fresher and more vibrant!
Oh, I can’t wait until Zac can have all these ingredients so I can have some ketchup again!
Just like with my mustard recipe, it’s insanely simple to make.
Dump all the ingredients in a sauce pan.
Heat to boiling, then reduce the flame and simmer for twenty minutes.
Take the pan off the burner and let cool on the counter. When it’s cool, store it in an airtight container in the fridge.
Doesn’t that look gorgeous?
Wait, wait…take a look at it ON a hot dog!
Y’all, I’m drooling here.
Even better, I did the math on this and it turns out this is the SAME PRICE as regular store bought ketchup!
A 16 oz. bottle of Heinz ketchup cost $1.89 in the store. That’s about $.11/ounce.
This recipe makes 12 oz. and involves the following costs:
- tomato paste: $.89
- vinegar: $.20
- dextrose: $.25
- spices: pennies
- TOTAL: $1.34 or $.11/ounce (estimated)
There is a little time involved, but not a whole lot of effort. With the result being so darned good, I think it’s worth it!
A few notes about this:
I used dried celery that I turned to powder with a mortar and pestle. You could easily use a coffee grinder to do the same. (I just didn’t want the noise of that, as it was after the boys bedtime and I didn’t want to wake them up!)
If you only have celery salt in your kitchen, though, I’d suggest eliminating the regular salt and using 1 tsp. celery salt instead.
If you aren’t fructose malabsorbative, you could use a regular sweetener like sugar instead of dextrose. Eliminate the 2 T. of extra sweetener, in that case.
Seriously, make this ketchup and enjoy a healthy condiment on your french fries! (Or on your potato chips, like Jed. Weird, right?)
- one 6 ounce can of tomato paste
- ½ c. white vinegar
- ½ c + 2 T. dextrose
- 1 tsp. salt
- ⅛ tsp. ground celery
- pinch of ground cloves
- Put all ingredients into a saucepan and whisk together until smooth.
- Heat on medium heat until just boiling; immediately reduce heat and simmer for 20 more minutes, stirring frequently.
- Remove from heat and let cool on the counter.
- Store in a covered container in the fridge.
- Enjoy your healthier, delicious ketchup!
THANKS!!! I’m going to try this! We eat a TON of Ketchup, and I want something home made! If only I could figure out how to successfully make tomato paste!
You’re welcome! I hope you like it. Hmm…I’ve never made it, but I assumed tomato paste was just greatly reduced tomato sauce. Am I missing something?
Nope, that’s all tomato paste is. I make large batches of ketchup from our fresh tomatoes in the crock pot and can it myself. (Since my husband decided he could “taste” the can liner of the organic tomato paste that we’d been using and making ketchup with for years…!!!)
Do you water bath can your tomato paste?
And LOL at your husband tasting the can liner!
I made a batch like this once. In case you are wondering, it freezes. We made a bunch then froze in small jars to use as needed.
Awesome! I love that suggestion. As fast as Jed is going through it, making large batches is probably the way we need to go. Thanks for sharing that tip! 🙂
Where were you able to get corn free dextrose? The only thing carried around me seems to be corn bases 🙁
Well, the dextrose we are currently using IS corn-derived; that’s not a problem for Jed, so I didn’t worry overmuch about it. However, if we ever get to the point where we need to trial dextrose for Zac, I found NaturesFlavors has an organic dextrose that is tapioca based!
I couldn’t find anything in the stores, either. But at least it is available online! Happy baking!
Is the Tomato paste safe for fructose intolerance? I thought tomatoes were on the “do not eat list”. Also my
Hi Alison! Thanks for asking this; it’s a very good question! Tomatos are a tricky one. Some lists I’ve read say absolutely no, others say fresh tomatos are okay. Still others don’t mention tomatos at all. It’s very confusing!
For us, we decided to try out ketchup on Jed simply because he liked it so much when he was younger (before we knew about FructMal) and we didn’t have a lot to offer by way of sprucing up his food. In small doses, which is typically how ketchup is served, he does fine with it…as long as it didn’t have added sugars or such.
With Fructose Malabsorption, it all seems to go back to the individual. Some cannot tolerate wheat at all (like my son), while others can eat wheat all day long with no problems. Each person has to try things out and see what they can and cannot tolerate. Tomatos might be considered a tricky food for FructMal, but it’s worth trying out to see if you can tolerate small amounts at least. Then you can have a little ketchup with your fries! Good luck!
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