Homemade tomato ketchup with apples and onion

Name: Homemade tomato ketchup with apples and onion
Yield: 6 jars
Cuisine: Slovak
Ingredients: 3 kg Tomatoes; 500 g Apples; 250 g Onion; 1.5 cups Granulated sugar; 1 tbsp Salt; to taste Black pepper; to taste Sweet paprika

Homemade tomato ketchup with apples, onion, sweet paprika, and black pepper, simmered until thick. Makes 6 jars; freeze for winter.

Slovak cuisine · Translated from Slovak · October 24, 2026

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Recipe at a glance

Prep time: 55 min
Cook time: 1 hr – 1 hr 10 min
Servings: 6 jars
Difficulty: Medium

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Homemade tomato ketchup with apples and onion is a way to use ripe tomatoes from the garden. Cook the chopped vegetables and apples until soft, blend until smooth, then simmer for 40 to 50 minutes until thick. Season with salt, sugar, black pepper, and sweet paprika; add apple cider vinegar if you prefer a tangier ketchup. Store the finished ketchup in the refrigerator or freeze it for later. Its flavor may vary from year to year depending on the tomato and apple varieties.

Instructions

Tip: tap a step to mark it as done.

Dice the tomatoes, apples, and onion and cook until everything, including the onion, is completely soft. Transfer the cooked mixture to a blender and blend until smooth.
Pour the blended mixture back into the pot and simmer for approximately 40–50 minutes, until sufficiently thick. During cooking, season with salt, sugar, black pepper, and sweet paprika. For a tangier ketchup, add apple cider vinegar if desired.
Pour the thick ketchup into clean jars, let cool, and refrigerate within two hours at the latest. Eat within 2 days, as the British Food Standards Agency (FSA) recommends for cooked foods, or freeze it for winter. Do not store ketchup prepared this way in the pantry: a tested recipe from the U.S. National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) always includes vinegar, and the filled jars are also processed in boiling water.
Tip: Expect the final flavor to vary depending on the apple and tomato varieties, which may be more tart one year and sweeter another.
Taste the ketchup regularly as it cooks and adjust the seasoning until it tastes right to you.

Tip: Test the thickness by placing a drop on a small plate—if no watery ring forms around it, the ketchup is ready. The thickening mixture splatters, so stir it with a long-handled wooden spoon.

Nutrition facts

Approximate values per 100 g, calculated from the ingredients

Energy: 52 kcal
Protein: 0.7 g
Carbohydrates: 13 g
of which sugars: 11 g
Fat: 0.2 g
of which saturates: 0.0 g
Fiber: 1.3 g
Salt: 0.4 g

Calculated from the raw ingredients, without frying oil. Where an amount is “to taste”, typical amounts are used. Food composition: USDA FoodData Central and product labels.

This recipe was translated from the Slovak original: Domáci kečup z paradajok, jabĺk a cibule