Easy Cranberry Sauce

Add a pop of color to your table any time of year with this tart easy cranberry sauce. Make it seasonal with a pinch of ground cinnamon or cloves. You can switch it up and customize it to your meal and palate. It’s marvelous as a side dish or a topping!

Fresh cranberry season is super short, so I like to pick up a couple of bags of fresh cranberries to make cranberry sauce throughout the holidays and well into January since it is so versatile!

Cranberry sauce is not just for Thanksgiving, in fact, you can serve as a fruit compote on a cheese board with some salty cheeses and savory crackers, as a topping for a baked brie in puff pastry, and as a side for a roast or anytime you make a turkey or chicken dish. 

This Easy Cranberry Sauce recipe combines sweet raw honey and pure maple syrup to balance the tartness of the cranberries and it gets a wonderful citrus flavor from clementines. 

Ingredients in Cranberry Sauce

• fresh cranberries
• honey 
• maple syrup
• vanilla extract
• cinnamon stick

By combining the zest and the juice, you get a more pronounced mandarin orange flavor than if you were to just use the juice.

I like to eat cranberry sauce cold or at room temperature with a savory meal and with salty cheeses. 

Be sure to make a batch for your next gathering. 

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Easy Cranberry Sauce

Easy Cranberry Sauce

Course Side Dish

Ingredients

• 1 bag 12-ounce fresh cranberries
• 2 tangerines or clementines zest and juice
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 1/2 cup 100% pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• optional:
• 2 cinnamon sticks

Instructions

1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add cranberries and heat on medium-high. Add in the zest of the citrus and squeeze in citrus juice. Stir and cook for 5 minutes. Cranberries will start to pop. Mash them to the side of the pan with a fork as they soften.
2. Pour in honey and maple syrup. Turn heat to medium and stir occasionally. Cook another 10 minutes, popping the cranberries by mashing them as they cook.
3. Turn heat off and stir in vanilla. If desired, add in two cinnamon sticks. Sauce will thicken as it cools. Serve warm and store leftovers in the refrigerator!

Recipe Notes

Ground cinnamon and a pinch of cloves may be added for another holiday flavor. Any orange citrus will work in this recipe if tangerines, mandarins or clementines are not available. Serve sauce on a charcuterie board, use sauce as a sandwich spread or serve alongside any protein. Sauce may be served warmed or cooled - it is delicious either way!

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