Lean and lovin' it: Made yourself, ketchup can be good for you
Tomato ketchup, what's it good for?
For me, a cold meatloaf sandwich isn't nearly as good without a ketchup smear; same for a hamburger.
I never put ketchup on a hot dog. Never.
Ketchup can be good for seasoning some things you'd never, ever consider. Here's an example.
A few Thanksgivings ago my brother Tom, a retired executive chef, headed into the kitchen and quietly observed one of our cousins preparing gravy for the over 40 Thanksgiving guests eagerly awaiting dinner.
Near the end of that gravy's preparation, Tom gently suggested a trick he'd used for years with turkey gravy: add a couple tablespoons of tomato ketchup.
Our cousin looked incredulous, as if Tom had suggested that he add ketchup to vanilla ice cream. He told our cousin that he'd been doing it for years with gravy's and people loved the results, never knowing his gravy was prepared with a secret ingredient.
Tom added ketchup; tasting the gravy until the flavor profile was just right, similar to tuning a fine violin. Adding ketchup created a slight rosy glow to the gravy.
We kept Tom's addition to ourselves throughout dinner. My cousin received numerous rave reviews for his gravy, many telling him it was the best he'd ever made.
There's more ketchup uses you may not know. Classic Asian Sweet and Sour Sauce contains tomato ketchup, as does Pad Thai. You can't make Catalina salad dressing or scratch-made cocktail sauce without it and Sloppy Joe sandwiches wouldn't be quite right without ketchup in the sauce.
What recently surprised me about ketchup was how much sugar ketchup contains. I've been using organic tomato ketchup for several years and hadn't really paid attention to the nutritional analysis.
My ketchup's Food Fact label surprised me, stating that a single tablespoon serves up 20 calories, 16 of those come from sugars. Not surprising that my store-bought organic ketchup lists organic cane sugar as its second ingredient.
For someone who watches their sugars as carefully as I do and is as generous with the use of ketchup as I am, this became a problem.
Still committed to organic ketchup I went searching for a no-sugars-added organic ketchup. After doing what I consider a thorough search I found none.
Sure, there's organic ketchup sweetened with organic agave syrup, but agave syrup is as much a sugar as cane sugar, only with a higher fructose level. Ketchup made with organic tomatoes and sweetened with organic stevia, a natural sugars substitute, could not be found.
If I wanted an organic no-sugars-added ketchup I would have to make it myself. I found an avalanche of homemade ketchup recipes; many starting with a half bushel of tomatoes and cooking them down for hours and hours. Not exactly what I had in mind.
Finally I found a recipe that started with tomato puree. Yesss. This recipe took less than 90 minutes from start to finish, all I had to do was substitute out that recipe's sugar with organic stevia and use organic tomato puree.
Most of the preparation time was spent just letting my ketchup simmer on the stove top. Once done and seasoned just right, I used it in a sloppy Joe-like stir fry and it tasted great. I can't wait to top a hamburger with it.
One thing I learned when I did the nutritional analysis of my scratch-made organic ketchup: not all of ketchup's sugar comes from added sugar. No. Tomatoes are actually classified as a fruit, and tomatoes contain their own sugar. That tomato “sugar” is carried over into ketchup. Because I add no sugar to my ketchup it has less than half the “sugar” of regular ketchup. Plus mine has one-third less sodium. Good deal.
Want to make your own organic no-sugar-added ketchup? Give mine a try, you will not be disappointed.
• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at don@theleanwizard.com.