Zucchini spread with ketchup for the freezer

Name: Zucchini spread with ketchup for the freezer
Yield: 3 jars
Cuisine: Slovak
Ingredients: 1 kg Zucchini (yellow); 150 g Onion; 100 g Ketchup; 2 tbsp Vegetable oil; 1 tbsp Vinegar; 1 tsp Salt; 1 tsp Granulated sugar; to taste Garlic cloves

Zucchini, onion, garlic, and ketchup simmer for 2–3 hours into a thick spread. Makes 3 jars to freeze for winter and serve on toast.

Slovak cuisine · Translated from Slovak · October 24, 2026

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Recipe at a glance

Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 2 hr 30 min – 3 hr 30 min
Servings: 3 jars
Difficulty: Medium

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This thick zucchini spread with ketchup is made from cooked-down zucchini, onion, and garlic and can be frozen for winter. Diced young zucchini is first cooked until soft, then seasoned with salt, sugar, oil, vinegar, and ketchup and simmered over low heat for two to three hours until thick. Serve it on toast, as a sauce with meat, or as a dip for chips. This recipe is especially useful in summer when the garden produces an abundance of zucchini.

Instructions

Tip: tap a step to mark it as done.

Wash and dry the zucchini. Young zucchini without large seeds works best. Cut it into small dice and cook in a pot until it breaks down. If you are short on time, put it through a meat grinder instead of dicing it.
Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Add them to the cooked-down zucchini, season with salt, add the sugar, and season with pepper to taste.
Stir in the oil and ketchup and simmer over low heat for about 2–3 hours. Stir occasionally to prevent scorching. The simmering time depends on how much water the zucchini releases, so cook until the spread reaches your desired thickness.
Pour in the vinegar and simmer for another 10 minutes. Remove the finished spread from the heat and transfer to clean jars or containers.
Let the spread cool, close the containers, and refrigerate within two hours. Eat within 2 days, as the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) recommends for cooked foods. Freeze the spread to store it for winter. Turning hot jars upside down does not preserve the spread. The US National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) does not recommend canning without heat processing and has no tested canning procedure for this cooked-down zucchini, onion, and garlic spread.

Tip: Check the consistency with a wooden spoon: when you drag it across the bottom of the pot and the path stays dry for a moment, the spread is thick enough. Freeze in small portions so you can thaw only as much as you will use at once.

Nutrition facts

Approximate values per 100 g, calculated from the ingredients

Energy: 46 kcal
Protein: 1.2 g
Carbohydrates: 6.0 g
of which sugars: 4.3 g
Fat: 2.4 g
of which saturates: 0.3 g
Fiber: 1.0 g
Salt: 0.6 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: Cuketová pomazánka s kečupom do zásoby na zimu