Easily Make Your Own Ketchup At Home With Lacto Fermented Tomatoes

Making your own ketchup at home is incredibly easy, plus it taste awesome. Made from lacto fermented tomatoes, it's a little different approach. But, follow the easy steps and you'll be off to making the best ketchup of your life! It does take about a week for the tomatoes to ferment, I’ll have a link to a post here on how to do that. There’s 2 ways to make the sauce. One way the keeps the live active bacteria. the other way does not. More details below.

Ingredients:

20 oz fermented tomatoes (1 batch, See link above)

1-1/2 c brine from the tomatoes, may not use it all

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 shallot

2 cloves garlic

1/4 c apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp oil

Pinch kosher salt

Tools needed:

Small stock pot

Immersion blender or high powered blender

Sieve for straining

Sharp knife

Cutting board

Measuring cup/spoons

How to make it:

Option 1: Kills the live active bacteria

Finely chop shallot and garlic. Heat up stock pot over medium low heat. Add oil, shallot and garlic. Salt shallot and garlic, cook until shallot is translucent. This takes about 2 minutes. Add in the apple cider vinegar, reduce to 2 tbsp. Add tomatoes with 1 c of the brine. Bring to a simmer, continue to simmer for about 5 minutes. This will help soften the tomatoes and stop the fermentation process. It is important to stop the fermentation so that the ketchup won't build up pressure in the container possibly exploding ketchup all over the place. I also make this as a sauce to sell in the future, therefor it needs to be cooked to kill ALL bacteria. Puree with immersion blender until smooth, add more brine if needed.

Option 2:   (This keeps the live active bacteria)

Skip the part where the tomatoes get added to the stock pot.   Instead, let the contents in the stock pot to cool. Add tomatoes to a high powered blender with half the brine. Add half the brine to the blender, blend for 30 seconds adding more brine as needed to get a smooth sauce. The amount of brine you add determines how thin or thick you want your sauce.  You can leave less brine to begin with and add as needed to blend into a smooth sauce.   Strain if desired.

Strain ketchup through a sieve, removing seeds and skins of the tomatoes. If the ketchup is thinner than you’d like, you can put it back in the stock pot and simmer it until it is a thickness you want. It will thicken up as it cools also. Add in the sugar, whisk to dissolve. Place your finished ketchup in a glass jar, keep refrigerated. Keeps for at least a month, if you don't use it all by then!

Enjoy

Logan