Homemade cranberry sauce is so much easier than you think. The secret is layering flavors with bold, simple ingredients.
Listen, if you’ve ever relied on the canned stuff because cranberry sauce seemed like a lot, I’m here to tell you that you can have the perfect homemade version in under 20 minutes to make.
The fresh cranberries do the heavy lifting while orange zest and juice layer in bright, bold flavor without much effort at all.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Big Flavor – Such simple and basic ingredients that when combined give you something truly magical. You’ll love how much flavor you get out of this.
- Versatile – We give multiple options to switch up ingredients in this dish to truly make it unique or carter to tastes or what’s on hand.
- Easy – You are just adding things to a pot and then waiting for the magic to happen. This is one of the easiest holiday dishes to make
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Homemade Cranberry Sauce Ingredients
Gather our Ingredients:
Cranberries
You want to use fresh cranberries for this recipe.
Oranges
We’re using both the zest of the orange and freshly squeezed orange juice for the recipe.
Substitute: You can use bottled orange juice but you will loose some of the fresh taste.
Aromatics
We’re using a cinnamon stick in the base recipe, but you can also use rosemary sprigs or balsamic. We’re also adding in vanilla extract.
Sweetener
We’re using maple syrup for our sweetener. It adds another layer of flavor to help build our profile.
Substitute: Cane sugar and brown sugar are other options.
Salt
Just a pinch of salt goes a long way in making this dish really pull out all the flavors.
Full recipe amounts in the recipe card printable below.
More Side Dishes To Try
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Cranberry sauce with orange juice
The homemade orange cranberry juice is bold in flavor, easy to make, and delightful to eat. You won’t be able to get enough.
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Notes
For smoother texture: Mash with a potato mashed while still hot.
For a jellied version: replace maple syrup with 1 cup (200g) of vegan cane sugar, omit water, and use 1 cup (240g) of orange juice instead. Simmer at 218-220˚F (102-104˚C) for 9-12 minutes. When finished strain through a sieve and then pour into a pan and chili until set.
Ginger Clementine Version: Swap the maple syrup for cane sugar. Do half orange juice, half clementine juice. Add 1 tablespoon grated ginger instead of cinnamon stick and 1 teaspoon lime or lemon juice.
Port Pepper Version: Swap the water with ¼ cup of a vegan ruby port wine, and in 2 tablespoon of dried cherries. At the end, add in ¼ teaspoon of black pepper.
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Nutrition
Serving0.25cupCalories114kcalCarbohydrates28gProtein0.4gFat0.1gSaturated Fat0.01gPolyunsaturated Fat0.03gMonounsaturated Fat0.02gSodium41mgPotassium151mgFiber2gSugar22gVitamin A74IUVitamin C18mgCalcium44mgIron0.2mg
Cranberry Sauce FAQs
You should use stainless steel or enamel pots for cranberry sauce due to the fact that cranberries react with metals.
Absolutely! You can easily double or even triple this recipe as written depending on how many people you are serving at your dinner table or holiday get together.
There are no Top 9 Allergens in this dish.
Yes! You can prep this up to 3 days in advance. Just reheat in the microwave or on the stove.