Tomato-free AIP ketchup: beets, carrots, and applesauce doing tomato's job

Nightshade-free elimination does not just take tomato away as a topping; it also takes away a cooking ingredient in meatloaf, glazes, and half the sauces a kitchen leans on. Rebuilding that exact function from carrots and beets is a real project, not a small substitution, and this is what that project looks like once it is solved.

Do not pour out the water you steamed the vegetables in. That water is holding onto the beet color that fades the moment it hits heat, and blending it back in at the end is the one step standing between a ketchup that looks the part and one that comes out a dull, muddy orange. It is easy to forget and worth remembering.

Carrots and beets are also a source of beta-carotene, the pigment your liver processes into usable vitamin A, which does far more in the body than tint this sauce orange-red. It is a small amount in a condiment eaten a tablespoon at a time, and that is fine. Not every ingredient has to do the meal's nutritional heavy lifting to be worth using.

Ingredients

• 2 cups carrots, chopped (roughly a 2:1 ratio of carrot to beet)
• 1 cup beets, chopped
• 1 tablespoon cooking fat
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons applesauce
• 1 to 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• Sea salt, to taste
• Water, as needed to thin

Method

• Steam the carrots and beets together until fully tender, about 15 to 20 minutes (or 10 minutes in an Instant Pot). Reserve the steaming water and set the vegetables aside to cool slightly.
• While the vegetables steam, saute the onion in the cooking fat over medium heat until soft and golden, about 5 minutes.
• Combine the steamed vegetables, sauteed onion, applesauce, honey or maple syrup, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, and salt in a blender. Add a splash of the reserved steaming water.
• Blend until completely smooth, adding more of the reserved water a tablespoon at a time until it reaches ketchup consistency.
• Taste and adjust sweetness or acid. Refrigerate up to 4 days, or freeze in small portions (an ice cube tray works well for 2-tablespoon portions).

*Adapted from unboundwellness.com by Michelle Hoover*