Cranberry and Orange Sauce

A glass dish filled with chunky, bright red cranberry sauce which sits on a table with a festive grey cloth in the background and a ribbon tied around the dish’s stem. A spoon rests nearby.

This beautifully simple cranberry sauce has become an absolute staple in our house at Christmas, and it is honestly one of those recipes I look forward to making every year! The orange adds a lovely natural sweetness and depth that transforms the sharp tang of cranberries into something really special.

I started making my own cranberry sauce a few years ago when I realised just how much refined sugar lurks in the shop-bought versions and often fructose-glucose syrup, which many families are working hard to avoid. When you make it yourself, you know exactly what’s going in, and it takes literally 5 minutes to make. Yes, really!

Whilst we always have this on the table alongside our Christmas turkey, we’ve also started enjoying it year-round with venison or any roasted meat. It’s wonderfully versatile and makes everything taste that bit more special.

From a nutritional perspective, cranberries are absolute heroes. They’re rich in proanthocyanidins, which are brilliant for supporting a healthy urinary tract and kidneys. They also contain useful nutrients, including vitamins C and K1, as well as the minerals manganese and copper, so this sauce isn’t just tasty; it’s actually doing you good, too.

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Cranberry and Orange Sauce

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Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Course Sauces, Dressings & Dips

Ingredients
  

Instructions
 

  • Zest one of the oranges and squeeze the juice of both oranges.
  • Add the orange zest, juice, cranberries and honey to a saucepan and cook for 5 minutes on a medium heat until the cranberries are soft.
  • Use a wooden spoon to stir quite vigorously to break up the cranberries and turn the mixture into a thick sauce.
  • Once it has cooled, maybe stir in some Jarrah honey to give it some extra antimicrobial properties.

Notes

Add more honey if you like a sweeter cranberry sauce.
Switch from honey to maple syrup if you’re a wholly vegan family. 
This cranberry sauce stores in a glass jar in the fridge for up to two weeks and in a container in the freezer for up to 3 months. 
 

Per serving. Nutrition content in food is never consistent, so take these estimates with a pinch of salt! Also, our recipes tend to use low-GI carbs and sugars, so these values are not directly comparable with shop-bought UPFs.

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NB. This is an update of a recipe published 9 December 2015.

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