Homemade Cranberry Sauce with Orange Juice

Homemade cranberry sauce with orange juice and brown sugar, the best sauce to serve with your Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey. Ready in just 10 minutes if you use fresh cranberries, or 20 mintues if you use frozen ones.

Oranges and cranberries are at their best in the cold season. And if you combine them into a zesty sauce, you know that you have the ultimate cranberry sauce with orange juice.

The brown sugar adds the subtle sweet kick, making it the easiest and best sauce you can possibly have over the festive season.

The cranberry sauce might be new to me, since we don’t really serve it at Christmas in Romania, but I love it now, and really enjoy it with meat.

The sauce is very popular in the UK and not only.  Any shop would sell fresh or frozen cranberries or cranberry sauce around this time of the year, but making it yourself takes only 10-20 minutes and it has a lovely sharp citrussy taste.

Why buy a store-bought sauce that is way too sweet and you can hardly taste the fruit in it? Homemade is the best way, plus you can make as much as you need, no need to buy a whole jar if you are going to use less.

If you buy more cranberries and oranges, you can also make a nice batch of Cranberry & orange shortbread cookies, for another festive treat. Plus, no one will ever complain about them, they really are yummy.

How do you make the best cranberry sauce with orange juice?

I tried it with fresh cranberries and with frozen ones, and I  could not find any difference in taste. The only difference is in the cooking time.

The fresh cranberries will just take a little longer to cook, around 20 minutes, where the frozen ones 10 minutes.

The secret to making a fabulous sauce is adding brown sugar to the orange juice before throwing in the cranberries.

Regular granulated sugar could work too, but the brown sugar has that caramel-like taste that takes this cranberry sauce to the very next level.

You could try cranberry sauce without sugar, but I personally find it bitter. Or you might want to use more sugar, if you’d rather have it sweeter. 

You might want to use a hand blender to make the whole cranberry sauce smoother once it is cooked, I actually quite like it this way. No need to make it super smooth though.

 If you’ve liked my HOMEMADE CRANBERRY SAUCE WITH ORANGE JUICE or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I’m getting up to.

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Homemade Cranberry Sauce with Orange Juice

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

20 mins

 

Homemade cranberry sauce with orange juice, the best sauce to serve with the Thanksgiving or Christmas Turkey.

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: English

Keyword: THANKSGIVING SIDES

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 95 kcal

Author: Daniela Anderson

Ingredients

• 400 g frozen cranberries
• 2 oranges
• 6 tsp of dark muscovado sugar

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

1. Grate the oranges and then cut it in half and use a citrus squeezer to squeeze the juice out.

2. Add the juice and sugar to a pan and simmer for a few minutes until the sugar has disolved.

3. Tip the cranberries in and simmer for a further 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

4. Use a hand blender to blend it to a smoother consistency.

5. Transfer to a bowl and serve cold.

Recipe Notes

• Click on the US Customary link to see the measurements displayed in cups and ounces.
• The servings can be adjusted by clicking the number next to Servings.

Nutrition Facts

Homemade Cranberry Sauce with Orange Juice

Amount Per Serving

Calories 95

% Daily Value*

Sodium 3mg 0%

Potassium 203mg 6%

Total Carbohydrates 24g 8%

Dietary Fiber 6g 24%

Sugars 14g

Protein 1g 2%

Vitamin A 4.1%

Vitamin C 58.4%

Calcium 3.8%

Iron 1.8%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.