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.
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? Next time, try our Homemade Yellow Mustard!
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!
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
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.
Tish Lambert
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!
Catherine Rivera
Have you ever canned it?
Tracy
Hi Catherine! I haven't canned it, but as long as you don't reduce the vinegar too much, you should be able to!
Frank
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.
Tracy
SO happy you enjoyed it, Frank!!
Beth Heindell
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!
Tracy
Beth! Thank you so much for letting me know!! I'm so glad that you enjoyed it - and YUM, what a great dinner!!!
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Amazin!
Brent
Just made it - I like it better than Heinz!
Tracy
Brent!! That's amazing to hear - so glad!!
Amanda
I needed ketchup for a recipe but was out. This recipe worked great! Thanks.
Tracy
That's so great to hear, Amanda! Thanks so much for letting me know!
Susan
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!
Tracy
So great to hear, Susan!
Angela Reyes
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.
Tracy
So great to hear, Angela! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Steve
I just made this and I like it a LOT!
.
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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!).
.
Thank you very much for sharing!
Tracy
Steve that's SO great to hear!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it - thank YOU for letting me know! 🙂
Sheila
Great stuff!!!
Kristi
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.
Tracy
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.
Alicia
Delicious!!! I added tomatoes sauce with paste because I didn't have enough paste and alittle more sugar. Awesome taste!
Tracy
Great idea, Alicia!! So glad you enjoyed it!