Lately, I’ve had fresh cranberry sauce on my mind. So I researched cranberry sauce recipes, and found that most have anywhere from ¼ to 1 ¾ cups of sugar. This Paleo Cranberry Cherry Sauce, however, is made with no sugar, and has only 4 ingredients! I like a tart cranberry sauce, one that almost makes my mouth pucker, so I developed this stevia and fruit-sweetened cranberry sauce. While it’s nicely tart, the cherries and orange juice make it just sweet enough.
This is a naturally sweetened lower-glycemic cranberry sauce recipe, however I did not come up with the idea of combining cranberries and cherries myself. I found this delightfully unique flavor combination on marthastewart.com.
Cranberry Cherry Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 8 ounce package fresh cranberries
- 1 10 ounce package frozen cherries
- 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 10 drops stevia
Instructions
- Place cranberries, cherries, orange juice and stevia in a saucepan
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat
- Simmer about 20 minutes, until berries have burst and sauce has thickened
- Transfer to a bowl and serve
When I conducted a survey on twitter the other night and asked what people use to sweeten their cranberry sauce, the responses ranged from sugar to orange juice, to honey, maple syrup, apple juice and xylitol. Thanks to all of you who responded to my informal poll!
What kind of cranberry sauce do you usually make at Thanksgiving? Will you use a standard recipe this year or try something new?
Odessa says
The cherry-cranberry combination sounded fantastic and the recommendation to use pomegranate juice made this seem perfect. I made two cranberry sauces this year and this won out.
Two tweaks: I used a tablespoon of sugar and one-and-a-half tsps of honey instead of stevia and added orange zest from 1/4 of a navel orange after taking it off the heat.
Elana says
Thanks Odessa! Glad to hear this was a winner :-)
ML says
Even Easier Cranberry Sauce
1 bag cranberries
1 cup sugar (any kind you like, I use organic, unrefined cane sugar)
Cinnamon, optional
Put cranberries in casserole. Sprinkle sugar over them. Sprinkle cinnamon, if you like. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for an hour. Remove from oven and stir. That’s it. They will thicken up as they cool and become somewhat like mushy candied cranberries.
Elana says
Thanks ML!
Nancy Pendleton says
I usually use apples, orange juice and zest, and fresh ginger, sweetened with maple syrup. I may have to change up and use cherries!! Interesting twist.
Elana says
Thanks Nancy!
Susan Smelser says
Oooooohh!!! Fresh ginger – what a great idea.
Allyson McQuinn says
Outstanding! I used regular organic cane sugar as Stevia tastes so synthetic and
chemical-ly to me. I also used my zester to grate rind of the orange into the relish. The best cranberry sauce ever!
Sheva says
Can I make this a day or two ahead or best if fresh on day?
Sam says
It actually taste better the next day.
Elana says
Sam, we love it the next day too!
Tammy says
Yum! I made this today for our Thanksgiving feast this week and it is fantastic! Only change I made was I used 1/4 cup of xylitol (stevia is too bitter for me) and then once it was done simmering I mashed up the large pieces with a potato masher for a smoother texture. I tossed in a big handful of raw cranberries and it was a masterpiece! Even the hubby who won’t eat anything cranberry loved it. Many thanks!
Bernadette says
Does this recipe freeze well?
Lisa says
This Thanksgiving (like almost everyday that we make something new) I turned to the recipes from Elana’s pantry for our festivities. We made a slightly altered version of the Cranberry Cherry Relish to go with Elana’s Balsamic Roasted Turkey with Apple Stuffing. Both were spectacular. In fact our guests for Thanksgiving said the relish in particular was “the very best they ever had in their entire life.”
Because we are on a Special Carbohydrate Diet that does not allow stevia, and because we only could come across organic dried cranberries, we had to slightly alter the recipe.
Here’s what we used:
– two 4oz bags of Earthbound Farm Organic Dried Cranberries (reconstituted with 2 cups filtered hot water)
– two 10 oz bags of Woodstock Farms Dark Sweet Cherries (frozen)
– 3/4 cup of Mountain Ridge Pure Raw Honey
These ingredients were simmered in a pot for 25 minutes, then blended until smooth in a food processor. Finally the “jelly” was put in the fridge overnight and served room temperature with the turkey the next day. It was a huge hit.
Thanks Elana for all you do. You’re “awe inspiring!”
tracy says
this was delicious!! i used 2ish T of agave instead of stevia and added some vanilla extract after i’d turned off the heat. it was so good!
TaDa says
This was quite tasty! Thank you Elana for this recipe. I did add some orange zest when it was almost finished cooking. Also added the walnut that another reader posted. It was quite amazing! Thanks again!