Our first season with a giant garden is coming to a close, and boy, did we ever have a prolific year! I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so many tomatoes – ripe tomatoes fresh off the vine, tomato sandwiches, tomato sauce, salsa, tomato soup… you name it, we ate it! But now that the weather is cooling off, the tomatoes have stopped ripening, and we were left with so. many. green. tomatoes.
Photo Credit: Horizon Coaching 2018
So you can imagine my excitement when my mother in law brought over a mason jar of sweet green tomato ketchup to our Thanksgiving dinner last weekend. What a nice change from the traditional cranberry sauce (though I have to point out, we also had cranberry sauce, and it was delicious, too). But that green tomato ketchup – yum! I love anything with a sweet, vinegar-y tang, so I was hooked after the first bite!
Right away, I knew that making my own was in my very near future.
So I pitched the idea to my recipe coordinator Sylvie, who, as always, was on board right away. I am so grateful to have this woman in my life. Not only is she an amazing sitter to my boys a few days a week while I’m getting some work done, she also keeps my house looking great, and does everything in her power to make our lives easier. I count my lucky stars each and every day that our paths crossed, just a few short months ago. And by doing so, she is enabling me to live out my dream of doing what I love, my purpose – helping others make changes to their lifestyle so that they can live their best lives! Just recently, she and I decided to work together to test a variety of recipes once a week. Those that make the cut end up on my social media profiles. And let me tell you, this green tomato ketchup was one of them!
The day after our Thanksgiving supper, I asked my mother in law if she could kindly share her amazing ketchup recipe with me, thinking it was an old family favorite. Boy was I ever pleased when she told me that it was one of Ricardo’s recipes – in fact, it was his Great Grandmother’s green tomato ketchup recipe. Those of you who know me know how much I admire Ricardo, and how many of his recipes I have made in my own kitchen. I’ve been subscribed to his magazine for years, have spent both of my maternity leaves religiously tuning in to his cooking show each and every single day, I own his cookware, his cookbooks and many of his kitchen tools.
But… full disclosure, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that his ketchup recipe called for *gulp* 6 cups of sugar! 6 cups?! That’s alot of sugar! Especially for a health coach who is all about eating as healthy as possible, and whose signature group talk is all about cutting back on sugar in our diets.
There was no way I could blog about a recipe containing that much added sugar, and there was no way that I had found a perfectly good solution as to what to do with all of my green tomatoes without putting it out there for the world to see. So Sylvie and I decided to do the unthinkable! We replaced the 6 cups of sugar with just 1/2 cup of maple syrup, and guess what? The taste was amazing! Tangy, tart, but bursting with fresh, delicious flavor.
And while we had already monumentally changed the recipe by cutting back on the sugar, we decided to take it a step further. So instead of blanching the tomatoes and removing the skin, we just left them on! Such a time saver! With a busy family life, and trying to juggle kids, school, cooking, cleaning, running a business and trying to find time to relax (sometimes), I personally don’t have time to peel 50 tomatoes. And I bet you don’t either! So go ahead, make a bold move and leave that skin on, no one will notice, I promise!
So there you have it. If you love a sweet condiment, and don’t mind treating yourself to all that sugar, go ahead and try Ricardo’s original recipe – it is delicious! But if you’re like me, and like to keep things on the more savory side, give my version a try. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Tangy Green Tomato Ketchup
Preparation: 1 hour
Cooking: 2 hours
Yield: 12 cups
Ingredients:
- 30-50 small to medium green tomatoes, diced
- 1/4 cup coarse salt
- 1/4 cup Epicure Quickles seasoning blend*
- 7-10 small to medium onions, diced
- 3 apples, peeled, cored and diced
- 4 cups (1L) white vinegar
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
Instructions:
- Wash, core and dice the tomatoes
- Place in a large bowl and combine with the salt. Let sit overnight
- Drain, discard the liquid
- Place the quickles seasoning in a tea infuser, or wrap in cheese cloth (I used an empty tea bag – use whatever you have on hand)
- Combine the drained tomatoes, onions, apples and vinegar in a large saucepan
- Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, for about 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally.
- Add the maple syrup, stir to combine, and keep simmering another 20-30 minutes
- Pour into hot sterilized jars. You can process these in boiling water for a longer shelf-life, or store in the fridge, unprocessed for a month or so. You could also freeze this ketchup in the vessel of your choice.
* Don’t have Epicure quickles? No sweat. You can replace it with regular pickling spices. Otherwise, you can order it from me here, when it’s in season: annethibodeau.epicure.com
