5 Minute Homemade Ketchup
There’s no cooking required and it’s ready in just minutes! our 5 Minute Homemade Ketchup couldn’t be easier to make and it’s totally customizable to your own taste!
Next time, try our Homemade Yellow Mustard!
Condiments from scratch! Our 5 Minute Homemade Ketchup is 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!
Why You’ll Make This Again and Again
Making condiments from scratch is the easiest way to add some from scratch flair to your cooking! Most are ready fast and, like this 5 Minute Homemade Ketchup, they don’t require cooking. You’ll love this ketchup for that reason and:
- It’s customizable! Unlike store-bought ketchups, you get to choose exactly what goes into this, and that includes spices! If you like it tangier, add a little more vinegar. Garlickier? You do you, boo!
- FIVE Minutes. Truly, that’s all you need. And most of that time will be spent gathering ingredients!
- No cooking required! We use canned tomato paste for this recipe to eliminate any cooking, and 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 -completely unnecessary in my opinion!
- Sugar – The ketchups you’ll find in the store have WAY more than this recipe and way more than needed, in my opinion!
- Cayenne – Just a pinch to add the right amount of kick!
- Celery salt – One of the most underused spices in my opinion!
- Mustard powder – Earthy and pungent, just a little complements everything else in this ketchup.
- Oregano – Just a touch to keep it savory!
- Onion and Garlic powder – Duh.
- All spice – Just a smidge!
- Salt and Pepper – To taste!
How to Make
Step 1: Add tomato paste to a mixing bowl and then add vinegar and whisk to loosen the paste.
Step 2: Add spices and mix.
That’s it! 5 Minute Homemade Ketchup!
Honestly, I think I spent most of that time finding the spices I wanted than doing anything else. Paired with some simple homemade fries and, well, there’s an iconic duo, ready to be served from scratch!
Our Favorite Uses
- The Best BBQ Sauce From Scratch
- Fry Sauce From Scratch
- Whiskey BBQ Sauce From Scratch
- Homemade Crispy Sesame Chicken
- Honey BBQ Sauce
- Kimchi Sloppy Joes
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, dried works best for this recipe.
This recipe makes for a thicker ketchup, which is what we prefer, but you can make it looser by either adding more vinegar (this will make it tangier) or by adding some water. Add a tablespoon at a time and then mix before adding more.
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!
If you want to see more, be sure to sign up for my 5 Easy Ways to Start Cooking From Scratch!
5 Minute Homemade Ketchup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 10-12 oz. tomato paste
- 1/8 – 1/3 cup apple cider 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 granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fine ground salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
- pinch ground all spice
Instructions
- Loosen Paste: In a large bowl add tomato paste and then add vinegar and whisk to loosen paste.
- Season: Add the rest of ingredients and mix well.
- Taste: Taste and add additional spices if desired.
- Enjoy: Use as a side or condiment and store the rest in an airtight container in the fridge for a month.
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!
Have you ever canned it?
Hi Catherine! I haven’t canned it, but as long as you don’t reduce the vinegar too much, you should be able to!
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!