This cranberry orange sauce is totally honey (or maple) sweetened, loaded with orange flavor and is quick and easy to prepare! Perfect for the holidays. Naturally paleo, grain-free, dairy-free and with a vegan option. Scroll to the bottom of the post for a how-to recipe video.
This is probably the easiest recipe I’ll ever post. You mix together cranberries, honey, orange juice and zest and cook it for 10-15 minutes. That’s it.
If you need convincing to make this, go check out the reviews in the comments! I first posted this recipe years ago and it’s been a big hit.
Mr. Texanerin and I visited my family in Texas a few years ago for Thanksgiving. I was so outrageously excited for my German to experience his first American holiday that I planned everything out months in advance.
I emailed people their “jobs” in June (I swear I wasn’t annoying about it! ;)) and I decided that the guy who had never done Thanksgiving before got to make the easiest recipe. Seriously. Have someone who’s totally unable to cook in your family? Let ’em make this!
Or this French apple cake, which is also incredibly simple (but delicious!). This gluten-free apple crisp would also be a great option. And by the way, there’s no weird flours in there! Just oats and ground up oats.
Before Mr. T made this cranberry sauce with orange juice, my family had never had homemade cranberry sauce. I don’t think we knew how to make cranberry sauce or just how easy it is.
It was like that stuff that you had to have, just because it was Thanksgiving, but nobody really wanted. That’s because the canned stuff is just gross. Gloppy and way too sweet.
This homemade cranberry sauce is far from gloppy and is just sweet enough! At Thanksgiving dinner, everyone pretty much freaked out at how good it was and they all swore to never buy canned cranberry sauce again. My aunt even went and bought more cranberries the day after Thanksgiving so we could make more.
This naturally sweetened cranberry sauce is honey sweetened but you could also use regular granulated sugar if you prefer. That makes the recipe vegan! You can’t taste the honey here – it’s all cranberry and oranges!
You can make this orange cranberry sauce several days in advance and then that’s one less thing you have to worry about for Thanksgiving. Awesome, right?!
I don’t have kids but if yours want to help contribute something to Thanksgiving dinner, I think this cranberry orange sauce would be a great recipe for kids to make (under supervision, of course!). It’s so ridiculously quick and easy and they can feel super proud of themselves.
Mr. T was kind of the star of the day with his homemade cranberry sauce. It’s that good.
If you’re looking for something a little different, try this whole berry cranberry sauce from Amanda’s Cookin’!
I think that’s about it for me and Thanksgiving side dishes. Next week, I’ll start in on the most important element of any holiday meal – dessert!
Until then, I can highly recommend these apple brownies or these pumpkin pecan pie bars. If you want something a little fancier, this caramel pecan cheesecake pie has always been a big hit!
Need something to drink? Try this Thanksgiving punch!
Cranberry Orange Sauce (naturally paleo with vegan option)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 2 cups
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240ml) orange juice
- 1/2 cup (160 grams) honey or for a vegan version, use 3/4 (150 grams) granulated sugar or 1/2 cup (120 milliliters) maple syrup1
- 2 tablespoons orange zest (from about 2 oranges)
- 1 12-ounce package (340 grams) fresh cranberries
Directions
- Over medium heat, dissolve the honey or granulated sugar in the orange juice. add orange zest. Add the cranberries and cook, uncovered, until most of the berries have popped and the sauce has thickened a bit (it'll continue to thicken as it cools, which takes about 15-20 minutes). It takes about 10 – 15 minutes of simmering. I don't bother stirring, but you can if you like.
- Pour the cooled sauce in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
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80 comments on “Cranberry Orange Sauce” — Add one!
very tasty! Best part: I prefer honey than sugar…and by luck I had “home-made” honey in stock!
Homemade honey?! Mmm! Sounds awesome! Do you keep bees? :) Thanks for the feedback! And sorry for the slow reply. I’ve had a bit of an issue with the comments!
Great recipe! When going to make my regular cranberry sauce, I realize I didn’t buy a small sack of sugar. Thank goodness I had honey. Googling for a recipe, I came across your cranberry sauce recipe. I modified a bit using a cup of tart cherry juice for the OJ and adding a small container of Simply Fruit Marmalade for the orange component. And…I always add a quarter cup of red wine to cut the sweet. I can out perfect!!! Thanks for your recipe! I never thought of honey instead of sugar! My new “traditional” recipe! Thanks!
I’ve had a bit of a comment problem – sorry for the slow reply! I’m so happy that you like the cranberry sauce. :) And it’s your new traditional recipe?! Awesome! Thanks so much for the feedback. :)
Do you think this could be frozen in an ice cube tray for individual servings?
Yes, that should be fine. :)
Making now =) Used fresh orange juice since I had to zest so many oranges :D Hope it’s a hit!
Haha. Well I hope it’s worth all the zesting trouble! Hope you all like it. :)
I’m making it right now with clementines and raw orange blossom honey!! Should be good :-)
Clementine juice that is !
Ooh, that sounds amazing! I hope you’ll enjoy it. Happy Thanksgiving! :)
We have an abundance of satsumas this time of year in Louisiana so I think I will juice some and give this recipe a try. Thanks!
Mmm! That sounds great. :) I hope you’ll enjoy the sauce! Let me know how it goes. :)
Oranges and cranberries always make a perfect pair, love that this is sweetened with honey!
I think so, too! Plain cranberry sauce just isn’t the same any more. :)
Hello Erin,
I would like to make cranberry sauce and can it as gifts for the holidays. Can I can this recipe?
Thanks,
Elise
Hi Elise! I don’t have any experience canning so I’m afraid that I can’t say. :( Sorry I don’t have a more definite answer for you!
Erin, what a wonderful recipe! As you may know, Cranberry Sauce is not something you typically eat in Germany and I have not really eaten lots of it in the States either – I never quite liked it, to be honest. This, however, I will try for sure!!
I hope you’ll like it! I really think you’ll like it. It tastes “real” if you know what I mean! :)
Can you freeze this?
Yes, I have some in the freezer right now! :)
Ok I’ll confess, I like the stuff from the can… But, I’m also a fan of homemade, and this version looks awesome! Cranberry is one of the best holiday flavor combos :)
What?! From the can?! Nooooo. That can’t be! ;) But I’m happy you’ve tried the homemade kind!
I love cranberry, but I hardly find the fresh cranberry here in Stuttgart. Your recipe of cranberry sauce looks so good, can I use dried cranberry instate of fresh one? Thanks for your replay -:)
Really? Kaiser’s, Kaufland, Edeka, and all the non-discounters have cranberries here! They usually have them in a strange place, though. Maybe you could ask at the supermarket? I don’t know about using them in this recipe but I found this one. Scroll about halfway down. You could use 1/4 cup (80 grams) honey instead of sugar, if you like. I hope that helps! :)
I love love cranberries!! The addition of orange sounds fabulous!
Thanks, Anna! :)
MMMM girl this sauce looks so good! I would serve this at my Thanksgiving table over traditional cranberry sauce!!
Yeah! :D That’s the spirit. Poo on regular canned cranberry sauce. ;)
My mom is the only one in my family that eats cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving. But I’m sure she would be so into this. The color is absolutely gorgeous. :)
But have the rest of you tried homemade cranberry sauce?! You’ve gotta try!
I found your blog through RachelCooks and I love it, I’m inspired. I live in the Dallas area and just recently started a food blog, after reading others and becoming inspired to go for it. Love your food philosophy.
Hi, Celeste! I checked out your blog (it’s great! Pretty tomato sauce.) and your G+ profile. I’m from the same city! :) Thanks so much for stopping by to say hi. So happy you found the site!
Beautiful cranberry sauce, I love that you used honey!
Thank you, Laura! :)
Your photos of this sauce are beautiful and I love to make my own cranberry sauce I change it up a little each year too. I just may have to try honey this year.
Ooh, I like your style of changing it up every year! I’ll have to try that, too. :)
Yum! This cranberry sauce looks so good!
Thanks a bunch, Danielle! :)
Great recipe, Erin….and the planner in me seriously loves that you were doling our jobs in June! I was reading along thinking about much I love the simplicity of your recipe, then I got to the part about the spiced cranberry sauce and thought ‘oh wow, we both have spiced cranberry recipes’….except that it was totally a link to my blog :) Thanks so much!!
Haha. Funny! I love it when that happens. It’s only been once or twice but talk about exciting. :D And um. I’m usually the worst planner ever. It’s Saturday and I haven’t posted since Monday. Yup. That’s more typically me. ;)