If you’ve never made homemade cranberry sauce, this is the year to give it a try. This recipe is so easy, taking only about 15 minutes to make. Skip the canned variety. It has 6 teaspoons of sugar in just 1/4 cup. That’s an entire days worth of added sugar for most of us, not to mention it’s mostly high fructose corn syrup. This recipe does need as much added sugar because the fruity addition of pineapple, oranges and golden raisins add natural sweetness. If you have any sauce leftover, tuck some into your day after Thanksgiving turkey sandwich or swirl it into plain yogurt or cottage cheese for a sweet zing. It would even be great on top of your oatmeal!
Fruity Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 (12) ounce bags fresh cranberries, rinsed (discard any squishy berries)
- 1 (20) ounce can crushed pineapple, in its own juice, undrained
- 2 (15) ounce canned mandarin oranges, drained
- 3/4 cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup golden raisins
- 1/3-1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions
In a large saucepan, add cranberries, pineapple (with juice), drained mandarin oranges, dried cranberries, raisins, and cinnamon stick. Cook on medium heat until cranberries “pop” and mixture becomes thickened, about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add sugar and remove from heat. Stir in walnuts. If the sauce is too tart, add more sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time until desired sweetness. Cool to room temperature, remove cinnamon stick and store in airtight container in the refrigerator.
Note: You could substitute fresh pineapple and fresh oranges in this recipe but with everything else going on around the holidays, there is no shame in taking advantage of canned fruit (just be sure to get the fruit packed in its own juice). I like my cranberry sauce very tart so you may have to adjust the sugar to your preferred level of sweetness.
judymatusky.com
Judy Matusky, RDN, LDN 
Just made it! Can’t wait to serve on Thanksgiving. I did add the full amt of sugar – I’m not a fan of real tart:-) Very easy to make will jar and freeze the extra. I did mash my cranberries up a little more too. Thanks!
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Hi Maureen,
So glad you made it! Thank you for sharing your comment! I cooked a 2nd batch today and for this one, I also added the full amount (1/2 cup) of sugar too. My family tends to like it sweeter than I do so I make one tart and one sweeter. I hope your family enjoys it and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
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Looks fabulous!
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Thank you!
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