Summary:

Fresh cranberry sauce is easy to make at home — the ingredients are simply combined in a saucepan and simmered until thickened into a rich sauce. To make this low carb, a non-nutritive sweetener (e.g., erythritol) is used in place of regular sugar.

Cranberry Sauce

4.9 from 7 votes

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Prep: 5

Cook: 15

Yield: 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

▢ 12-ounce package whole cranberries (Note 1)
▢ 1 cup powdered erythritol sweetener (Note 2)
▢ 1 cup water
▢ 1 tablespoon fresh orange zest (Note 3)
▢ 1/4 teaspoon table salt (Note 4)

INSTRUCTIONS

Bring To Boil: Add sweetener, water, and salt to saucepan (Note 5). Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
Cook Cranberries: Add cranberries to saucepan, stirring them in. Return to boil, then reduce to medium heat. Stirring occasionally, cook uncovered until cranberries have split open and sauce reaches desired consistency, 10 to 15 minutes.
Finish & Serve: Add orange zest to saucepan, stirring with sauce for 1 minute. Serve (Note 6).

NUTRITION

Makes 6 Servings

Amount Per Serving (1/4 cup):

Calories 20 (0% from fat)
Total Fat 0g	0%
Saturated Fat 0g	0%
Cholesterol 0mg	0%
Sodium 0mg	0%
Net Carb 4g
Total Carb 6g (Note 8)	2%
Dietary Fiber 2g	8%
Sugars 2g
Protein 0g

Vitamin A 0% · Vitamin C 12% · Calcium 0% · Iron 0%

PHOTOS

NOTES & TIPS

(1) Cranberries. You can use either fresh or frozen whole cranberries. If using frozen ones, you don’t need to defrost them beforehand.

(2) Sweetener. I buy granulated erythritol and process it in a Nutribullet blender for a few seconds until it becomes powdered. I prefer using the powdered form because it dissolves quickly. Erythritol is about 70% as sweet as regular sugar. You can also use 3/4 cup of confectioners swerve, which measures the same as regular sugar.

(3) Orange Zest. I use 1 navel orange to get 1 tablespoon of fresh orange zest. When you’re grating the orange peel, make sure to only grate the orange colored part and not the white membrane. Use a fine grater or microplane so that the orange zest is very fine.

(4) Salt. Using a pinch of salt helps bring out the sweetness of the cranberries, improving the overall flavor of the sauce.

(5) Saucepan. For best results, avoid reactive pans like aluminum, cast iron, and copper — acidic foods like cranberries can sometimes pick up metallic flavors when cooked in reactive pans.

(6) Serving. Serve cranberry sauce while warm, over meaty dishes like slow cooked turkey breast, pork tenderloin, roast chicken, or meatballs. Cranberry sauce is also great as a jam over toast, bagels, muffins, yogurt, ice cream, or cakes.

(7) Make Ahead / Reheating Leftovers. This cranberry sauce can be made ahead of time, and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Once cold, the erythritol may crystallize and harden the cranberry sauce, but this effect will go away once the sauce is heated again. Prior to serving, reheat the cold cranberry sauce with 1/4 cup water in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture simmers into a thick sauce.

(8) Carbs. The nutrition calculation assumes you are using erythritol (a sugar alcohol) as the sweetener, whose carbs are non-impact and therefore not included in the nutrition estimate. Apps that count sugar alcohols will show a higher number of carbs.

More Sauces and Dips

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Robin

Fantastic flavor! Wowza! My husband and I loved this with our first Keto Thanksgiving. A winner!!

By the way…I used powdered Lakanto sweetener, my fav. Even after being refrigerated several hours, it still has a nice saucy consistency. Delish cold, too!

Susan

I added a tea holder half full of dehydrated orange rinds along with 2 tsp of orange extract. It worked quite well since pre-Keto I used orange juice instead of water whenever I made cranberry sauce. After it’s cooked, the tea holder with the orange rind was easily removed.

Nicole

Can I make the cranberry sauce and refrigerate it for the next day?

Julia

Yes. Reheat in a saucepan on the stovetop. You might want to add some water and let it simmer for a few minutes.

Sophia

Hi. I was wondering if you think i could use Swerve as the sweetner? I have a bag of the confectioners kind. I do have the granulated erythritol too. What do you think. Im stoked about Thanksgiving Turkey. This is mine and the hibbys first holiday doing keto. I am type 2 diabetic and this way of life is so working for me. Anyhoo. Was kinda bummed that i was going to miss out on my cranberry sauce and you have now helped in my thought process in replacing and tweaking one dish. Thank you. ~Sophia

Hi Sophia! Swerve would work great here too. Swerve measures the same as sugar, whereas erythritol is about 70% as sweet as sugar, so I suggest using about 3/4 cup confectioners Swerve for this recipe. Let me know if you have other questions, and good luck on your keto journey and surviving your first Thanksgiving 🙂

Erin

Hi!! Will the granulated Swerve work?

Yes! That would work well. You might need to adjust the amount a bit, since Swerve is sweeter than pure erythritol.

Cass

Amazing I just made this for Thanksgiving it’s a bit sweet might use less trivia baking blend next time but this will definitely be a hit!
Thank you

Lynne

Truvia Baking blend is a mix of stivia and cane sugar in case you didnt know. Thats why you got such a sugar hit . I had used the packets and they are a stivia eryhritol mix so I thought the big package would be the same. I read the label a littler closer and put it back. I used Lakanto monkfruit plain which is monkfruit and eryhritol mix, it bakes great and didnt crystallize in this recipe. I made her pumpkin cheesecake today as well with it and it was perfection.

Lisa S Tabor

This made an amazing cranberry sauce, although I did not include the orange zest (it was still delicious!)

sonia caravan

I used half the erythritol and would omit the orange rind as it now tastes like orange and not cranberry. Other than that it’s good

When you’re grating the orange peel, make sure you’re only getting the orange colored part and not the white membrane. Use a fine grater or microplane so that the orange zest is very fine, as opposed to using a knife and cutting out large pieces.

Carol Kellum

This looks soo good. I shall be doing a test run before Thanksgiving. Thank you.

Ana

Thank you! I’m already thankful for this recipe and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet for more than two months. 🙂 I’m diabetic, my mom is diabetic and we always had the sugary store bought cranberry sauce counted into the carb limit. The drawback? We had to settle for less pie (which we always make sugar free from scratch), which is quite sad as we both have a sweet tooth. This year, we’ll try this recipe and have a tiny serving of the sides too!

You’re welcome! Cranberry sauce is surprisingly easy to make without sugar (and tastes like the real thing), and it would be a shame to use up your carb “budget” with the sugary versions 🙂

Amy

Could you use stevia in place of the erythritol to avoid the crystallization?

Yes, that would work well. Either add to taste, or calculate the amount of stevia you need for the same amount of sweetness.

I used Lakanto plain and had no crystallization. Was just like my mom used to make! Yum! monkfruit erythritol doesn’t spike my blood sugar either. YUM again!

Cranberry Sauce