What’s Inside: Nothing says “Happy Holidays!” like a delicious, healthy homemade cranberry sauce to accompany the star of the show — your Thanksgiving turkey. Ditch the canned stuff! You can make your own at home with just a few simple ingredients and NO refined sugar.
Most Americans grew up plopping a jiggly, gelatinous, tin can-shaped cylinder of store-bought cranberry sauce onto their Thanksgiving plate. It added color, but rarely ends up in the diner’s stomach and — most often — goes straight from the can, to the plate, to the trash.
This is a shame, because there is a LOT of potential with cranberry sauce. The trick is to ditch the can and make it yourself.
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And the best part is when you make your own, you get to control what’s in it. This means you can completely omit refined sugar and still attain a sweet, sour, tart, gorgeous cranberry sauce. You read that right. You can make delicious, healthy homemade cranberry sauce that is refined sugar-free. It takes almost no time, and your Thanksgiving guests will appreciate the effort.
Besides the roast turkey, drippings gravy (*swoon*), I love to spoon a dollop of cranberry sauce on my plate for the bird. And lest we forget the key role cranberry sauce plays in arguably the best part of every Thanksgiving meal — the leftovers for a lunch sandwich the next day, like what I did here.
However, store-bought cranberry sauce — like many traditional recipes — tend to be overloaded with refined sugar. But we can do better.
Cranberries are naturally and pleasantly sweet. but also have a tart bite, so they do need a little help to be sweet. A couple tablespoons of unrefined sugar, like honey or maple syrup, does the trick, especially when combined with fresh-squeezed orange juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sea salt. Mmmm … Heaven!
This is a simple recipe for healthy homemade cranberry sauce you can easily make ahead of your holiday meal and store in the fridge. It gets better when it sits. Enjoy!
And make sure to check out my roundup of healthy Thanksgiving basics to ensure you stay on track this holiday season and impress your guests with a delicious, clean, homemade meal.
If you like this healthy homemade cranberry sauce, make sure to save these healthy Thanksgiving recipes when planning to host your own holiday feast:
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17 comments
You can’t beat homemade cranberry sauce and this sugar free version looks amazing.
You can’t beat homemade cranberry sauce. I’m going to try making mine with maple syrup this year instead of refined sugar.
I’m going to make this sauce for Thanksgiving!
Cranberry and orange is a match made in heaven. My family just loves this!
Wow, what an easy to make and delicious cranberry sauce this is. Love that it is refined sugar free. Can’t wait to make it for the family.
This looks and sounds amazing! Adding this to my menu for Christmas dinner.
Love this refined sugar free cranberry sauce and that touch of nutmeg really made it even more flavorful!
We made this! Thank you so much for this recipe…it came out perfect!
Homemade cranberry sauce is the way to go! So much better than the canned stuff!
This makes a delicious classic cranberry sauce. So glad I can make it from scratch and know exactly what goes in it!
Homemade cranberry sauce is always the way to go! Way better than the canned stuff!
homemade cranberry sauce is so much better than that canned stuff. love the maple syrup in this – it’s perfect for the holidays!
couldn’t agree more!!
That looks lush and will be good with the pastry pie I am planning to make for Christmas Dinner.
ooh love the way you think!
That sounds awesome!! I can’t wait to try the refined free Cranberry Sauce.
yay!! enjoy it!