Condiments that have been mass produced and bottled for who know how long can’t compete with something fresh you can whip up in your kitchen. They don’t even come close. Here are 7 homemade condiments you can make in your kitchen and never buy at the store again!

But, store-bought condiments are so easy!

You’re right. The ease of grabbing a bottle or jar of your favorite dressing, spread, or sauce off a grocery store shelf you can pop in your pantry for later use is, well, one less thing you have to think about. But what if I told you can slash your grocery bill improve, the quality of your condiments—and your budget, by making your own condiments at home? Oh, you’re short on time? No problem–these condiments are made in minutes.

Now what’s your excuse?

There are so many benefits to making your own condiments!

Almost every recipe has to be tweaked to some degree because we all have different ideas of what makes a condiment “good.” But that’s your argument for making it yourself: you can actually tweak the recipe and get it just right. With market made brands you can’t do that. You get what you get.

That’s not the case with homemade condiments (which are so fun to experiment with). Tossing in chipotle seasoning, roasted red pepper, garlic, sun-dried tomato, fresh herbs, or whatever else you fancy, will give you unlimited flavor combinations.

Homemade condiments give you exactly what you want.

Homemade condiments are the best low waste cooking hack.

The trashiest room in my house is my kitchen. Wait–that doesn’t sound good, let me rephrase that. Packaging waste, which if you examine your trash too, mostly comes from food parcels that you eventually toss out. These contains, bags, boxes, and plastics contribute to a lot of clutter in kitchen bins, and eventually, in landfills.

Making your own homemade condiments is a great way to use less plastic and reduce kitchen waste because you’ll eliminate single use plastic and trash from the landfill thats sole purpose was to transport a product from the store to your home.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that more than 23% — or nearly a quarter — of all trash sent to landfills is packaging and containers, a significant amount of which is food-related, single-use plastics and other materials that aren’t often recycled.

How unhealthy are store-bought condiments?

The majority of store-bought condiments have (needlessly) high amounts of salt, sugar and “natural” flavors that aren’t natural at all!As recently as 2018, the FDA banned seven artificial flavors that scientists discovered were unsafe for consumption. Previously, these flavorings were common condiment ingredients.

Yikes.

Fortunately, this doesn’t mean you have to stay clear of the condiment aisle. In their unprocessed state, condiments should actually be adding healthy qualities to a meal like probiotics, protein, and healthy fats. Homemade condiments don’t use the high levels of sugar and salt their market-made condiments do to improve the flavor because fresh ingredients are inherently better tastier.

When you make your own condiments at home you control the ingredients that stay out (and are put in) and minimize the salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats in store brands. But, you can only get this have this much control in a made-from-scratch kitchen.

Want to make condiments? Get these simple kitchen tools!

You likely already have everything you need, but there are a few tools I’ve come to find that make preparing and storing your condiments a breeze. These items are also pretty easy to pick up at your local thrift shop or online resaler, so just there too!

• Swing top bottle jars: These bottles are the perfect flask for liquid storage. They are made from heavy duty and transparent glass, have attached airtight lids, a leakproof seal, and are perfect for ferments, sauces, and dressings.
• WECK Jars: These are my favorite jars because they stack, are freezer, microwave and oven safe and come in a variety of shapes and sizes that fit larger ingredient items/quantties (like pickled onions or mayo). WECK jars are seal proof, easy to clean and look stunning on your table.
• Immersion Blender: An Immersion blender is an affordable kitchen tool that will make your life so easy with minimal effort. Better yet it barely take up space to store, and easily takes on large and small quanitities. It gives you consistent emulysifing results for spreads like mayos, dressings, and creams.
• Food Processor: These gadgets are like having an extra pair of hands in the kitchen and speed up prep tasks like dicing, chopping, shredding, or blended. You’ll get the texture you want just right, every time, in minutes if you have one of these.
• Mason Jars: Mason jars are durable, easy to clean, don’t smell or retain smells and are sized to hold the perfect amount of anything.

Here are 7 Condiments to STOP buying and START making at home!

1. Homemade Fermented Ketchup

Ketchup, a household staple and picnic essential, is even better made from scratch. And, even though everybody knows the primary ingredient in ketchup is tomatoes, if you’re buying store-bought ketchup is likely that it contains artificial colors, added flavors and tons of preservatives along with too much salt, sugar and fats.

Making your own ketchup uses a few cans of tomato paste, raw honey, and ferment juice. If your don’t tell your family its fermented, they won’t even know the difference! I’m not kidding, fermented ketchup is so unassuming. It doesn’t look, smell or taste like a traditional ferment, but you’ll still get all that gut-healthy goodness. Get your free condiment recipe e-book here.

2. Homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette

When you go the grocery store, there’s an entire aisle dedicated to salad dressing in any flavor and variety you can buy. So, why bother making your own balsamic vinagrette? Simply put, store bought dressings are often high in calories, fats and low on taste and freshness.

Stop compromising! The best tasting salad dressings are fresh, use real ingredients, are additive, preservative and thickening free, are cheaper and are insanely easy. A basic vinaigrette is just an oil-vinegar mix that gets a little help from the addition of spices and possibility a bit of sweetness from honey or agave. Get the recipe here.

3. Homemade Ranch Dressing

When it comes to dressing, ranch rules supreme in my home. If you’re also a ranch lover, then you know that not all store bought dressing are created equally. Before I started making my own, I was willing to pay premium. Don’t judge me for this; you know that I know that, YOU know , life is too short to choke down bad ranch!

Am I right, or am I right?

But, even when I purchasing it at the store, the quality still fell short from the ranch dressing I’d taste at a local restaurant…there was just something about a restaurant recipe I couldn’t put my finger on….

Then it hit me, “Oh, this is an in-house/from scratch recipe”…using fresh ingredients. Talk about a difference you can taste.Since eating out are rare and planned occassions, I decided to stop the madness and start making my own.

Best. decision. ever. Get your free ‘condiment basics’ recipe e-book here.

4. Homemade Butter

Is it just me that thinks butter is beautiful? The way it crackles on cast iron, butters a biscuit or creams on corn? The first time I made butter I couldn’t believe how easy (and gratifying) the process was! Replace your wooden churn with a food processor of Kitchen Aid mixer and you’ll just need a few minutes (not muscle or hours) to get this golden goodness. In about 30 minutes you’ll have the homemade butter that’ll last 6 weeks in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer! It’s part of the kitchen condiments recipe e-book. Get it here.

5. Homemade Butter Milk

When you make your own butter, you also make buttermilk at the same time. That’s because, buttermilk is the liquid that’s left behind after whisking butter from cultured cream. As a heads up, this won’t be the thick and tangy mixture you get at the store (which is actually a fermented dairy product). Nope, this buttermilk is much thinner and subtly sweet tasting. It’s perfect poured over ice or into hot cereal. Get your free condiment e-book here.

6. Homemade Mayo Recipe

The rich flavor and creamy texture of mayonniase is just one reason for its widespread use. Even better, its surprisingly easy to real, homemade mayo (which isn’t what you’re get off the shelf at the store). Y’all I don’t know how brands get away with using words like ‘real’ in the title of ingredients. Did you know that companies like Heinz, Duke, Miracle Whip and Kraft ‘Real Mayo’ brands contain one or more of following:

• the preservative Calcium Disodium EDTA
• the preservative potassium sorbate
• High-Fructose Corn Syrup
• averages of 10 or more grams of fat per serving

Are these preservatives approved additives? Yes. Technically.

But that’s why it pays to read the fine print. Then you’ll find out that the FDA has limits on the amount of how much of this preservative can be in foods because their associated with adverse reactions in some people. Too often, additives are the culprit behind allergic reactions and digestive or nervous disorders like colic, hyperactivity and insomnia.

No thanks.

The good news? Homemade mayo is preservative and additive free. So, replace the market-made brands with your own easy recipe that can be a rich source of vitamins, mineral salts and quality fats. When making homemade mayo, select only fresh eggs since the yolk is eaten raw. Mayonniase is created through the emulsion of oil and yolk that’s zested with an acid (lemon, lime, or vinegar) with a bit of mustard and herbs. This recipe uses an immersion blender to make the process quick, easy, and foolproof. Get your free condiment recipe e-book, here.

7. Homemade Sauerkraut

I know, I know…sauerkraut is actually a vegetable, not a condiment, but here in the U, S of A we use it like a condiment. It garnishes our meats, sandwiches, and . Homemade sauerkraut is surprisingly easy to make and tastes the best its homemade. I’m speaking from experience when I say that because I avoided sauerkraut for yeeeeeeears. I just couldn’t take the taste from store canned or bagged varieties. I just didn’t understand how other folks ate the stanky stuff and called it good? Fast forward 10 years to the present version of me that has a mild addiction to preserving all the things in jars, so I, reluctantly decided to ferment it. Whoa—that was a game changer. Homemade sauerkraut is nothing like the punchy tart-tang I’d had before. Nope, I allowed my ferment to mellow out to the point of retaining a crunchy texture that (alongside some herbs I’d stuff in the jar) tasted….savory, fresh, and had a very low key acidity I could actually appreciate. Get your free condiment recipe e-book here.