No cooking required and ready in just minutes, our 5 Minute Homemade Ketchup couldn't be easier to make and it's totally customizable to your own taste!
5 Minute Homemade Ketchup that's made from scratch! It's seriously one of the easiest condiments to make at home, and we love making ketchup like this because it doesn't require any cooking and we always have what we need on hand!
While we do use canned tomato paste for this recipe, tomato paste is one of the few things I will opt to buy over making. We've made it before and honestly, it wasn't worth it - the time and cost of tomatoes just made us realize that it'll be one of the few things we buy.
Recipe Video
Ingredients Needed
What is in homemade ketchup? Well, ours is just tomato paste, vinegar, and a load of spices. That ketchup from the store? It has high fructose corn syrup - that's why we make our own.
Customizable
What I love most about this homemade ketchup recipe is that you can easily adjust it to your own taste! With a base of tomato paste and some vinegar, then you can add whatever spices you want for your own taste.
- Sugar - add more for sweetness!
- Cayenne - add a little more for heat!
- Celery salt - sometimes I like to add more of this a little less salt
- Mustard powder
- Oregano
- Onion and Garlic powder
- All spice - just a smidge!
- Salt and Pepper - to taste
How to Make
5 minutes means there's not a lot to it!
Step 1: Add vinegar to tomato paste.
Step 2: Add spices and mix.
That's it!
Honestly, I think I spent most of that time finding the spices I wanted than everything else. Paired with some simple homemade fries and, well, is there anything better than homemade ketchup and fries?
Use Homemade Ketchup In
Here are some of our favorite recipes that use homemade ketchup!
- The Best BBQ Sauce From Scratch
- Fry Sauce From Scratch
- Whiskey BBQ Sauce From Scratch
- Homemade Crispy Sesame Chicken
Or serve it with:
- Homemade Onion Rings
- Crispy Ranch Chicken Tenders
- Baked Panko Chicken Tenders
- Baked Parmesan Steak Fries
- Crispy Garlic Rosemary Potato Wedges
FAQs
Kept in an airtight container in a fridge and it will last a month.
Start small when you add the vinegar. You can always add a little more if you want a little more tang.
For the best texture and taste, we prefer dried.
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
5 Minute Homemade Ketchup
Ingredients
- 10-12 oz. of tomato paste
- 1/8 - 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar or white vinegar add 1/8 cup first - the full 1/3 makes a tangier ketchup (which we like). If you want more tang, add a little more at a time. White vinegar can also be used.
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
- pinch ground all spice
Instructions
- In a large bowl add tomato paste.
- Pour in vinegar and mix well.
- Add the rest of ingredients and mix well.
- Taste and add additional spices if desired.
- Use as a side or condiment and store the rest in an airtight container in the fridge for a month.
Is the nutritional info for the whole 2 cups?
Hi Christine, yes, it is.
Do you think this would work with some leftover frozen tomato paste?
Definitely!
Amazing recipe! It's SO much better than the regular ketchup I get at the grocery store!
So glad you enjoyed it, Nathan!
I hate to be argumentative, but this will not last in the fridge for a month. Every time I’ve made it, it’s gone in just a few days. Thanks for the great recipe!
You're so right! We have the same problem 😀
What a great recipe, it was quick and easy to make and delicious.
I skipped the sugar & salt completely and it was great to me. Oh! And I cut the cayenne pepper in half. Now, I don’t like ketchup because it’s too sweet for me in general. I also just finished a potato fast of eating potatoes only for 2 weeks with no salt or sugar so yeah very plain. The tomato paste was salty enough for me. At any rate, I liked it at 4 T of vinegar and 5, not so much the 6. I have tried 3 other recipes and this is my favorite!
Simply delicious. Quick and flexible. Make it up for that special dish. It's so savory, it's the key flavor ingredient to a simple meal and adds depth to a gourmet plate.
SO happy you enjoyed it, Frank!!
Thank you!!! As I was serving beer battered cod and fries to my family, I realized I was out of ketchup. This recipe popped up after a quick google search. It made super quick, and it was amazing! I couldn’t add onion powder, because I’m out of that too. (This pandemic is really messing with my shopping) but I can’t wait to try it again with the onion. This recipe is printed, and will be used again! My family absolutely loved it! Thank you so much for saving our dinner tonight!
Beth! Thank you so much for letting me know!! I'm so glad that you enjoyed it - and YUM, what a great dinner!!!
Amazin!
Just made it - I like it better than Heinz!
Brent!! That's amazing to hear - so glad!!
I needed ketchup for a recipe but was out. This recipe worked great! Thanks.
That's so great to hear, Amanda! Thanks so much for letting me know!
Great recipe! Quick and easy - no cooking. Hubby and I can’t have the sugar so I add stevia instead. Hubby loves his ketchup so this is perfect. Thanks!
So great to hear, Susan!
This came together really quickly-I did not even start it until after the french fries were in the oven. It was really adjustable too-I just used regular vinegar and water. I would probably use less cayenne next time because my kids are not adventurous. Thanks for a great recipe; I look forward to making it again.
So great to hear, Angela! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
I just made this and I like it a LOT!
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Due to Kristi's comment that it was way too tangy I was expecting a LOT more tang, but it was just fine. I started with the 1/8th cup and ended up at the 1/3 cup. It is tangier at 1/3 cup, but it's not leaps and bounds and it's just fine - I think it's actually less tangy and more tomatoey than store bought.
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I was fine with the amount of tangy flavor at 1/8 cup, but it was a very stiff mixture, so I actually started adding more vinegar simply to get more liquid in it to thin it down. That worked and it didn't bring the tang level up that much. I'm thinking I'd still like it a little thinner, so I may try a little more vinegar, or water, or tomato juice.
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The surprise for me was the cayenne! It sort of sneaks up at the finish and then hangs on a bit! I like spicy food, so that isn't an issue for me, but I just wasn't expecting that level in "ketchup"! I just made it, so the flavors will surely blend a little, so we'll see if this persists, if it does then next time I think I will leave the cayenne out and taste it, and if I'm missing it then I'll add in a little at a time.
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All in all, it's an excellent starting point! It's not a clone of store bought, but that's fine, it's very tasty and more "hearty" or "old fashioned" to me (it makes me think that's what Great-grandma's homemade would've tasted like!).
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Thank you very much for sharing!
Steve that's SO great to hear!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it - thank YOU for letting me know! 🙂
Great stuff!!!
Unfortunately this was just not good. I ran out of ketchup and needed some for our meal so I grabbed this recipe to make a quick substitution and we did not like it at all. It was way too tangy and the flavors just seemed off (it may have been the cayenne). I think with quite a few modifications I could make it work for our family, but even after I tried adding other ingredients to "fix" the flavor, we ended up dumping the entire batch. I wasn't looking for something that tasted like store-bought cheap ketchup, but we did not like this at all.
I'm so sorry you didn't like this, Kristi! In the notes I point out, "I used apple cider vinegar because we like a tangier ketchup. You can use white vinegar also or even cut the vinegar with some water." So this recipe definitely leans towards tangy and then it's hard to compensate for that once it's too tangy. But I'll make that note much more clear in the recipe instructions - thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it.
Delicious!!! I added tomatoes sauce with paste because I didn't have enough paste and alittle more sugar. Awesome taste!
Great idea, Alicia!! So glad you enjoyed it!
This looks so yummy and I've always wanted to try making ketchup at home but thought it's going to be complicated. Your recipe is so easy and quick, that I'll be trying this soon.
Homemade ketchup is the best, and once you start making your own there is no going back to the store-bought stuff. This version is so good!
Is there anything better than homemade ketchup? I made my first batch last year and fell *in love*. So much better than the sugar-packed store-bought stuff. HOWEVER. My ketchup isn't a five minute ketchup. This is so easy and approachable. I can't wait to give it a go!
And I hear you about effort + lots of tomatoes = not a lot of product. My ketchup recipe uses two pints of grape tomatoes but once it's all simmered and pureed, you have one cup. That doesn't last long, lol.
Why oh why have I not been making homemade ketchup my entire adult life? I mean, I have every single ingredient on hand at all times…and they're everyday ingredients that cross-utilize with so many other things. What I really love about this recipe is how much salt I get to avoid when I eat gobs of ketchup on my fries. Great recipe...it's a keeper!
Wow! I had no idea it was so easy to make ketchup! I agree with you on buying store bought tomato paste over making your own. That sounds like way too much work for little gain. Unless you have your own tomato field or something. Gotta try this out next time rather than grab that ketchup bottle! 🙂
I'm totally with you on this "mostly" from scratch item. I don't consider buying canned tomato paste cheating. Especially when you can get it organic with BPA free cans (or even better, when you find it in glass or a tube) and without added ingredients. I buy with just organic tomato as the ingredient. Great recipe. So simple and puts me in control of the ingredients.
I have never made ketchup, but it has always intrigued me. Now I have the recipe I need to give this a try. I cannot wait to see how much better this tastes than the store-bought stuff in the bottle. I know my grandkids would LOVE this for sure.
Can i add applesauce to thin and sweeten without shortening the shelf life?
Hmmm I'm pretty sure it will shorten it's shelf life since applesauce is only good for about a week, two max in the fridge. But, if you need a lot of ketchup for a recipe so it'll all get used quickly, then that's a great idea!
Can this be canned.?
It sure can! A good ol’ fashioned water bath with the hot pack method will work fine!
I think I'll try this for the weekend BBQ celebration! Thanks!