Healthy Cranberry Sauce for your holiday table replaces the traditional sugar laden condiment! This four ingredient sauce cooks in less than 15 minutes!
Table of Contents
Healthy Cranberry Sauce Recipe
Who is cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year? Do you have a huge feast that takes days to prepare or do you prefer to order pre-cooked meals?
The temptation to buy ready made meals from the grocery store is tantalizing, but there are some family favorite dishes that we make year after that can’t be replicated by any store!
Every year individual sweet potato casseroles are on the menu, and once I learned how simple it is to make cranberry sauce it has also become a staple on our Thanksgiving table.
Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Although making our favorite dishes have become a tradition, this year I tweaked an easy condiment turning it into a healthy cranberry sauce that is sugar-free and low carb!
A while back I bought a collection of lemon, lime, and orange citrus oils at a baking supply store.
You can use them to enhance flavors in sauces, dressings, soups, and sweet treats like frostings.
The technique used to make the oil is pretty intense. The rind of these fruits are processed in a way that squeezes the natural oils out creating super strong natural flavors.
It takes about 44 oranges to make one ounce of oil!
Luckily, when you use such a powerful oil, only a small amount is needed when adding it to foods.
Using essential oils (a great low carb hack) will give you all the flavor without the extra sugar that you get from fruit juices, which is ideal for a low carb side dish.
In this case, instead of adding orange juice to my cranberry sauce I substituted it with 1/4 teaspoon of orange oil and a cup of water.
That small amount of oil with cinnamon is so darn fantastic with the cranberries!
Cranberries on their own can be quite bitter, so to sweeten the sauce up I used Swerve sugar replacement which adds sweetness without the calories like granulated sugar.
Win-win on this re-creation of a favorite traditional Thanksgiving cranberry sauce!
Don’t limit this to sauce to just turkey. Top it on yogurt, on pork or try this baked brie with cranberry sauce!
Cool in the pan at room temperature, then place in the refrigerator until ready to eat.
Healthy Cranberry Sauce
Healthy Cranberry Sauce for your holiday table replaces the traditional sugar laden condiment! This three ingredient sauce cooks in less than 15 minutes!
4.77 from 13 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Condiment
Cuisine: American
Keyword: condiment, holiday, side dish
Prep Time: 5 minutesminutes
Cook Time: 15 minutesminutes
Total Time: 20 minutesminutes
Servings: 8servings
Calories: 20kcal
Author: Sandra Shaffer
Ingredients
12ouncecranberries
1cupwater
1/4cupSwerve
1/4teaspoonorange extract
1/2teaspooncinnamon
Instructions
Wash Cranberries and set aside.In a medium saucepan heat the water and Swerve over medium heat until the sweetener dissolves.Add the cranberries and cook until the berries start to burst and begin to soften (about 10 minutes).Remove from heat and add orange essential oil and cinnamon until well combined.Cool in the pan at room temperature, then refrigerate.
Notes
Adjust the sweetener to your preference.You may want to add up to a half cup or more if your berries are sour.
Food grade citrus oils are much stronger than extracts.Adjust according to the manufacturer’s recommendation.
Please note that the nutritional information provided are guidelines and may vary based on the brand of products used. For your specific nutritional goals use My Fitness Pal or Verywell Fit recipe calculators. All content within this site is not intended as medical diagnosis or treatment and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical expertise.
Cranberry sauce is supposed to be a balance of sweet and tart. The sauce acts as a cleansing port in a tumultuous storm of fat and salt, but the effect is lost if the sauce is too sweet. Luckily, there is a very easy way to fix an over-sugared homemade sauce: You just need a little citric acid.
How many carbs are in sugar free cranberry sauce? This keto cranberry sauce recipe has 2.8g of carbs and 1.0g of fiber per serving. That comes to 1.8g net carbs in 2 tablespoons. Can you make keto cranberry sauce ahead of time?
"Instead, start by stirring in one tablespoon maple syrup and one teaspoon of a sweet drink like apple juice, orange juice, or fruity white or red wine. Add more to taste. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt (in small amounts, it intensifies sweetness)."
We can see there is a significant difference in the nutrition facts between the two sauces. The homemade cranberry sauce has nearly half the calories, carbohydrates, and sugars compared to the store brand. It also has more fiber as well as potassium!
If the reason you're wanting to “sweeten” the sauce is because the tomato is too tart [highly acidic] then a pinch of baking soda should do the trick. Or if you really like your sauce sweet for the sake of sweetness, then add a carrot or bit of sweet potato while it's cooking.
Add some lemon juice: The tartness of lemon can help cut through the sweetness. Squeeze in a little lemon juice and taste as you go until you achieve the desired balance. Vinegar: Balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar can also work wonders in reducing sweetness.
The Bottom Line. If you have diabetes, you can still enjoy cranberry sauce, but with a few considerations. First, most traditional cranberry sauces have lots of added sugar, so offer to make it yourself for the holiday gathering so you can control how much is added.
Unsweetened, pure cranberry juice is a good source of both vitamin C and vitamin E. It's also a decent source of several other vitamins and minerals, including: vitamin C: 26% of the daily value (DV)
What to do if the cranberry sauce is too thin or loose. If you inadvertently added too much water, simply bring the cranberry sauce back to the stove top and bring it to a low boil, cooking it down just a bit to help thicken it up.
While citrus is a natural pairing for cranberry sauce, bright, savory vinegars like sherry vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and apple cider vinegar play well with the bitter-tart berries. Start with a little, then add more gradually.
One possibility is that you may not have used enough sugar: Sugar helps the sauce firm up, so be sure to use the full amount called for in a recipe. Another possibility is that the cranberries need to boil for longer, releasing their pectin and ensuring a jelly consistency.
Homemade cranberry sauce has bigger, bolder flavor. Canned cranberry sauce often has a fuzzy, muted taste from too much sugar. It doesn't capture the pure tartness of fresh cranberries. When you make it from scratch, you can control how much sugar you put in, or use other sweeteners like maple syrup or honey.
Cranberries are generally safe, but they can sometimes lead to upset stomach and diarrhea when eaten in large quantities, especially by young children. Mayo Clinic cautions against drinking cranberry juice if you're on a blood-thinning medication, such as warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven).
There are lots of ways to add this fruit to your diet. Some varieties, such as dried cranberries, cranberry juice, and canned cranberry sauce, are available year-round. The healthiest way to enjoy cranberries is to eat them fresh. Raw cranberries take about 16 months to fully mature and are gathered in early fall.
To use citric acid to save over-sweetened cranberry sauce, simply use it like you would MSG in a savory dish, and stir in little pinches until your sauce is as tart as you desire. But don't stop there. You can use citric acid in a cloying apple pie filling, a one-note turkey brine, or heavy, stodgy stuffing.
Cranberries are bitter, tart and vibrant by nature, so cranberry sauce is sweetened to help balance their tartness. A basic cranberry sauce has only three ingredients: cranberries, water and sugar.
One of the simplest ways to lower the sugar content of fruit juice is to dilute it with water. You can adjust the ratio of juice to water according to your taste and preference. For example, you can mix one part juice with one part water, or two parts juice with one part water.
Introduction: My name is Nicola Considine CPA, I am a determined, witty, powerful, brainy, open, smiling, proud person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
