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 from scratch if you use fresh cranberries, or 20 minutes if you use frozen ones. So easy, and so flavourful, with only 3 ingredients.
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, especially turkey.
It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving or Christmas without this amazing side for your juicy roast. Why settle for overly sweet store-bough cranberry sauce, when it’s so easy to make your own, and sweeten it to your own liking? If you don’t have fresh oranges, you can used store-bought orange juice too, either smooth or with bits.
WHAT TO DO WITH LEFTOVER CRANBERRY SAUCE
The cranberry sauce is very popular in the UK, USA 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.
You can add more sugar if you want, I always tend to use less sugar in everything I make, plus the brown sugar is not as sweet as the regular white granulated sugar, but it I prefer it, as it gives depth and flavour to anything you add it to.
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.
Another recipe I love is my Easy Brie and Cranberry Bites -they taste are amazing as they look. Plus, they go down a treat for any special occasion too. Or how about these simple Healthy Leftover Turkey Wraps with Cranberry Sauce.
How TO 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.
- Grate the oranges, and squeeze out the juice, and add everything to a pan, together with the sugar
- Let it simmer so the sugar can dissolve.
- Add the cranberries and let to cook until it thickens into a sauce.
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.
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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 from scratch if you use fresh cranberries, or 20 minutes if you use frozen ones. So easy, and so flavourful, with only 3 ingredients, and nothing else. It's packed with festive flavours, and goes down well with every roast too.
- 1 lb frozen cranberries 450 g - you can also use fresh ones
- 2 oranges
- 6 tsp dark muscovado sugar
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Grate the oranges and then cut it in half and use a citrus squeezer to squeeze the juice out.
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Add the juice and sugar to a pan and simmer for a few minutes until the sugar has disolved.
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Tip the cranberries in and simmer for a further 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
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Use a hand blender to blend it to a smoother consistency.
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Transfer to a bowl and serve cold.
- 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.
Very tasty sauce. Healthy too!
Thank you very much! Have a very Merry Christmas!
Wow! I love cranberry sauce. I have stopped buying canned cranberries over a decade ago! This is the easiest recipe and you can add whatever you like to enhance the taste. 1 cup sugar 1 cup water it never fails. Taste is unbelievable! I stock up and freeze the bags so I don’t run out.
Read about the best bottle brush cleaning sets reviews. Thanks.
Thank you! Indeed, the homemade sauce is way better than any bought stuff.
Can brown sugar be used as a substitute?
Yes, absolutely!