Looking for a cranberry sauce recipe? Cranberry sauce or cranberry relish, which ever you call it, is the must serve side dish for roast turkey or ham. Concerned about the sugar in most recipes, here is my new version. Healthier cranberry sauce with pomegranate; great taste and less sugar. It takes just minutes to make. Great for the busy holiday cook.
When it comes to Thanksgiving tradition, my family has made a simple, no-cook cranberry sauce for decades. My mom's recipe starts with a can of good old Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce, but not this recipe. This is from scratch. This is a homemade cranberry sauce, and homemade cranberry sauce beats canned in my opinion.
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Traditional Cranberry Sauce
I loved my family recipe and never thought much about it until I read the label. I was shocked at the amount of sugar. One small 14 ounce can has 121 grams of sugar! That is 30 teaspoons of sugar (1 teaspoon per 4 grams). Think about 30 little sugar cubes piled up next to that can. What a visual!
Standard Cranberry Sauce Recipes
Most cranberry sauce recipes start out with a 12 ounces bag of cranberries and a whole cup of white sugar. It might taste wonderful but so much sugar is just not good. I hear people saying, "but it's just a treat, it's just a holiday". True, but why put your health goals aside for the holiday when there are healthier alternatives?
It's easy to get carried away with sugar at the holidays. It's also smart to reduce it where we can and be wise about how much we consume, especially when there are delicious and healthier cranberry sauce recipes
Why This is Healthier: How to Sweeten
Simply, less sugar, but not less flavor! In fact more flavor and texture. There are several ways you can reduce the sugar in cranberry sauce. I tested them all.
- Option #1 - Use half sugar and half monk fruit blend. If trying this option, skip the white refined sugar and choose a natural organic like this. At least it is not refined. Taste as you go for the right balance for your tastebuds.
- Option #2 - Use an erythritol/monkfruit blend like So Nourished. It comes in granular and powdered forms and it's terrific.
- Another idea - add drops of liquid stevia, either plain or orange flavored. Sweet Leaf Sweet Drops makes great flavored liquid stevia in orange. With all stevia, there might be a slight bitter aftertaste that the cranberries, pomegranate and orange do not hide.
- Option #3 - Sweeten with honey. Honey is also sweeter than sugar, so you can use less.
- Option #4 - I used 2 tablespoons of organic natural sugar and 1 tablespoon of granular monk stevia. That is far less than the traditional 1 cup of sugar. It was sweet enough for me and tasted great. Added a pinch of cinnamon and fresh orange zest at the end. This is the version I will use for Thanksgiving dinner.
- Option #5 - Use a no-sugar, keto, monk fruit based syrup like this. No sugar, no carbs, tastes great.
Make Ahead of Time
This easy cranberry sauce with pomegranate takes just minutes to make and can easily be done a day or two ahead of time. My recipe is not your overly sweet style. If it is too tart for you, adjust with more sweetener of choice. A little tartness is good against roast turkey and gravy.
If you cook it down too much and it's not fluid enough, add more orange juice or water until the texture is right for you.
More Cranberry Recipes
For my family traditional recipe, try this no-cook cranberry sauce. And here is 20 things to do with pomegranate seeds.
📖 Recipe
Cranberry Sauce with Pomegranate
Ingredients
- 1 large orange
- 2 - 4 tablespoons organic natural sugar
- 1 tablespoon granulated stevia or liquid drops
- 12 ounces fresh raw cranberries washed and picked over
- ½ cup pomegranate seeds
- Pinch salt
- Pinch cinnamon or more to taste
Instructions
- Zest the orange, then juice. You should get about 1 ½ – 2 teaspoons of zest and ½ a cup of juice.
- Place juice, sugar and stevia into a medium (3 quart) pan and melt the sugar until smooth over medium low heat, stirring. Add cranberries, bring to a boil and cover with a lid.
- Turn to medium low and cook for 5-7 minutes. Add pomegranate seeds, orange zest, salt and cinnamon. Cool and serve.
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
Never made my own cranberry sauce before, this looks incredibly delicious and is definitely a recipe I need to try!
La Torontoise says
Sally, thank you so much for sharing!
This bunch of ideas are just in time for me: -)
All the best!