Tomato-free, Nightshade-free, Sugar-free Ketchup

About a year ago I started getting horrible leg aches every now and then which always started when I laid down to go to sleep.  My head would hit the pillow and the horrible, deep leg aches would start.  I took tylenol just to dull the pain enough so I could get to sleep.  I had no clue what was causing it, just that I hated it.

Because I follow the Trim Healthy Mama way of eating most of the time, and have been for almost two years, I started noticing a pattern for my leg pain.  I'd eat out at a fast food restaurant and order fries--and that night I would be in pain.  Surely not!  I went a few weeks without eating white potatoes, then ate fries--leg pain.  Oh dear, please tell me it isn't so!

Of course that meant I needed to do some online research to see if eating potatoes could really cause leg pain or if it was just in my head.  Sure enough, it is a common symptom of a nightshade sensitivity.  I looked up what the different nightshade foods were and found the answer to another trend.  Whenever I ate pizza, I always felt terrible at bed time and woke up in the middle of the night with heartburn.  So I decided to order my pizza without sauce the next time we got it--and I didn't have any adverse side effects.  When I trialed avoiding peppers and then reintroduced them, I had adverse effects as well.

I was crushed.  Very, very crushed.  My cooking had involved heavy use of tomatoes and peppers.  I ate pico de gallo probably 4 days a week!  To suddenly have to cut out pasta sauce, pizza sauce, peppers, tomatoes, and chili powder eliminated nearly half my regular dinner menu!

But I have been avoiding nightshades for a few months now and was starting to grow melancholic about cooking in general.  What could I make for dinner that didn't involve my favorite foods??  Tacos?  Not unless I left out the chili powder.  Chili?  I tried talking Hubby into letting me make a tomato/chili free chili and he just laughed.  My go to meal of chicken or sausage sauteed with peppers and onions?  Out.  A quick spaghetti?  Out.  Meatloaf?  Just not the same without that crusty ketchup glaze.

Yesterday I was poking around on the internet looking for a tomato-free BBQ sauce.  Because I love BBQ sauce.  I found a few options that I am going to try, but something else I found by accident was a ketchup recipe that is nightshade-free.  Yes, apparently you can make a ketchup substitute that doesn't use tomatoes.  I had to try this because I love ketchup.  A lot.

I had to alter the recipe I found a bit to make it to my liking and to also make it sugar free to comply with my Trim Healthy Mama eating plan.  I admit I was skeptical, but it actually tastes pretty good.  So here is my night-shade free, sugar-free ketchup recipe adapted from this recipe.

Tomato-Free, Nightshade-Free, Sugar-Free Ketchup
1 C fresh cranberries
1 C apples, peeled, cored and chopped.  (Can use pears)
2 carrots, peeled and chopped (about 1 cup)
1 C water
1 tsp ascorbic acid (I have no clue on this, but I threw a teaspoon of vitamin C powder in there anyway)
1 tsp THM Sweet Blend (or other sweetener)
2 tsp himalayan pink salt (or other salt--may need more as my salt is extra potent)
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp allspice
Add all ingredients to a medium saucepan and cook on stove over medium heat, covered, for about 15 minutes, or until the carrots are soft.  Use an immersion blender, or pour into a regular blender, and mix until smooth.  Store in the fridge, or divide into smaller portions and freeze what you won't use within about a week.