Helen’s Community Garden Ketchup

Our Lovely Helen- yup always super stylish in the Garden.!!

Before I share Helen’s ketchup recipe, I want to tell you a little bit about the woman behind it. Helen has been a big part of the Community Garden from the very start. She turned up on our first weekend of clearing and worked her socks off in the heat to help us get the whole thing going.

Then, at the beginning of the growing season, Helen told us she had too many tomato plants on her hands and asked if we’d like some. About 70 plants later… yes, 70!!!!! She definitely has a bit of propagation magic in those green fingers. How she managed to get soooo many to germinate and grow, I’ll never know!

We owe Helen a huge thank you, both for getting stuck in right from the start and for giving us so many of the plants that kept us in tomatoes this season. And now she’s shared what she did with some of the harvest. She made us all homemade ketchup with all the tomatoes from the garden. Helens top tip was to add a little splash of Worcestershire sauce to the ketchup and keep the tomato seeds in, which gives it that lovely rustic look. I blaming Helen for the reason that Im making myself some chips !!!!! I reckon shes given me the perfect excuse.!!!

Ingredients

600g ripe tomatoes

1 red pepper

1 small onion

2 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp water

50g brown or white sugar

60ml brown or white vinegar

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

A pinch of mixed spice

1 tbsp tomato purée

A small splash of Worcestershire sauce

Method

1. Roughly chop the tomatoes, red pepper, onion and garlic. Put them in a saucepan with the water and bring to a simmer. Pop the lid on and cook for about 20 minutes, or until everything is soft.

2. Take the pan off the heat and blitz with a stick blender. Keep those lovely little tomato seeds in, just as Helen does. Stir in the sugar, vinegar, salt, pepper, mixed spice, tomato purée and Worcestershire sauce.

3. Warm gently until the sugar dissolves, then simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly. It’s ready when it’s thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

4. Transfer to clean containers, cool promptly and refrigerate within two hours. Use within two days or freeze in small portions.

If you’re making this for vegetarians, choose a vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, as traditional versions usually contain anchovies.

Have a go its really delicious and no nasty additives or preservatives.... now can we all thank the lovely Helen. xx