FOOD NEWS
The Ketchup Remix That's Sure To Amp Up Your Condiment Game
By Dainius Vaitiekunas
The taste of regular ketchup always adds that extra bit of zing to the food, and you can give it additional flavor using so many different things, including soy sauce, mayonnaise, and sugar. If you’re someone who doesn’t feel very adventurous when it comes to mixing up your ketchup, we’ve got an ingredient that may just change your mind.
Tahini, or ground up sesame seeds, is a condiment that is used in most traditional Middle Eastern recipes. While tahini and ketchup may seem like two incompatible condiments, combining them creates something very unique and satisfying: ketchup is sweeter and more acidic than plain tomatoes, but the earthy bitterness of the tahini balances it out beautifully.
A similar deviation of this combination is a Middle Eastern spicy ketchup, which was originally crafted by Michael Solmonov, a James Beard Award-winning Israeli chef. Beyond ketchup and tahini, Solmonov adds a few more “secret” ingredients: Amba sauce (a Middle Eastern mango sauce) and harissa are what give the sauce extra fruitiness and spicy aromatics.