From the recipe archive: Originally posted in 2008. This homemade cranberry sauce is a perfect side for your healthy Paleo Thanksgiving dinner.
This sweet yet tart raw cranberry sauce is one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes, in fact, it’s one of my favorite naturally gluten free dishes of all time!
Tart, tangy and full of healing properties, just last week I ate an entire test batch. I adore cranberries and stock up during this time of year while they are fresh, making fun cranberry dishes several times per week.
When they go out of season, I keep bags of frozen cranberries in the freezer as the boys enjoy my homemade cranberry sauce.
Raw Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 orange, peeled, sliced, seeds removed
- 1 lemon, peeled, sliced, seeds removed
- 2 dates (remove pits) and chopped
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
Instructions
- Blend orange, lemon and dates in a food processor
- Add cranberries and process until coarsely chopped
- Serve
Equipment
Beware, this raw, vegan sauce is quite tart. If that is not your thing, just add a few more dates. Personally, I’ll take mine super sour!
I would not recommend making this dish with frozen cranberries, though you can always give it a try to see how it turns out. If you do, please leave a comment and share your results.
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What is your favorite cranberry dish? Which one will you be making for Thanksgiving this year? Leave a comment and let us in on it!
michelle says
I make a raw cranberry sauce and I let it sit in the sunlight during the day, for a couple of days before Thanksgiving.
2 cups fresh pineapple coarsely chopped
2 cups fresh Brown-skinned pears coarsely chopped
1 Packages of fresh cranberries coarsely chopped
Add dates or raisins according to how sweet you want your cranberry sauce. You can also use less raisins or dates, and add stevia drops, or just use stevia alone – no dates or raisins. (Coarsely chop Dates or raisins.
Add 1/4 cup of jalapenos or scotch bonnet pepper – deseeded. Use more if you like it very spicy (finely chopped the pepper)
Add Sea Salt to your liking
Add 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar,
Add 1/4 of Fresh ginger finely chopped
Add 6-8 cloves of finely chopped garlic
Add 6-8 fresh mint leaves finely chopped
Add 1 teaspoon of clove powder
Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix them together. Put the sauce in a portable glass jar and let it sit in the sunlight on your window sill for a few days before Thanksgiving. Any leftovers can be refrigerated for later use.
Jenni says
This sounds lovely!!
Shrazzi says
I love raw cranberry sauce, and I love that you used dates and oranges to sweeten it! Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Sherri says
A local Weather Anchor for CBS here in San Francisco shared this recipe on her Facebook page last year. I made it, and it’s wonderful! Here’s her recipe:
Cranberry, Orange and Cilantro Salsa
By Roberta Gonzales
1 red bell pepper
1 fresh poblano chili
½ c. sugar
¼ c. fresh-squeezed orange juice
2 c. cranberries, coarsely chopped
¼ c. chopped toasted hazelnuts
2 Tbsp. grated orange peel
1/3 c. chopped fresh cilantro
Char red bell pepper and poblano chili in broiler under high heat until blackened on all sides. Remove from oven and transfer both to a paper bag; roll top down to enclose peppers and let stand for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, peel, seed and chop pepper and chili; set aside.
While pepper and chili are in the oven, squeeze orange juice and coarsely chop cranberries. Mix sugar and orange juice in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and mix in chopped cranberries.
Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Cool to room temperature.
Mix roasted pepper and chili, chopped hazelnuts and grated orange peel into salsa. Cover and refrigerate.
Mix cilantro into salsa once it has completely chilled. Season to taste with salt and pepper to your liking.
Makes 2 ½ cups
Sherri says
By the way, I used palm sugar to replace regular sugar.
Anastasia @Healthy Mama Info says
How wonderful :I will definitely try this recipe!
Jane Blomquist says
I make something similar, but with grated orange zest, remove pith,no dates, add Grand Marnier. Going to to try yours. Looks spectacular.
Debbie says
Wonderful recipe, thanks!
I make a similar one , only I keep the skin on the oranges and use organic sugar. I look forward to trying yours!
Denise says
My husband makes a similar raw cranberry sauce each year. He says he likes your idea of adding dates. He also makes one batch with rosewater (a few TBSP).
Jay says
As much as I love the majority of your recipes, and have & love your first book, I cannot agree with posting a recipe like this & touted it as being good.
This recipe encourages parents who are obsessed with a raw food diet to make and feed this overly tart mixture to their small children. The majority of these parents will not give a second thought to the fact some young childrens digestive systems are not equipped to digest tart foods easily.
My concern here, is not for the parents who think it’s normal to only eat raw food, they can mess up their systems all they want. My concern is that those parents will force the same eating regime on their children.
The less encouragement of that, the better.
Jenni says
Really? That’s a personal issue with parents. Elana’s not encouraging anything by posting a raw dish. She’s just sharing a great recipe that is useful to many and I LOVE the use of dates, since I can’t have any sugars including honey. If she were to take into consideration all the stupid things people do she would never post a recipe. Nix the ‘victim mentality’. People need to be responsible for themselves.
jamie says
bravo!
Jami says
AMEN!!!!!!!!!
Barbara says
Amen!
Kate Dutton-Gillett says
Very well stated.
Katie says
The vast majority of this website is cooked. Um…sometimes people don’t cook things. Salad, anyone? Or veggie sticks. We make a relish out of raw onions and habanero peppers. My two year old LOVES salsa and spicy foods, but his dad is Mexican so that is often what we make. I don’t really think your post makes a whole lot of sense. I might call this recipe a “relish” and not a “sauce” but all in all it is a condiment. I imagine if you ate a meal’s worth of any condiment you might have an upset stomach…
Anna says
Wow. I never knew that eating foods as nature intended made me “obsessive”, indeed, almost a child abuser.
It’s a lovely recipe, no different than serving your kids Walforf salad. I like it sweeter, so I add in more dates. Big whoop.
It’s amazing to me how people who are intent on finding fault do so at the drop of a hat. Humans have THRIVED on raw foods for most of history.
Don’t want your kids eating it? Don’t serve it to them. Problem solved.
denvertealady says
This sounds so yummy and tangy! My favorite cranberry sauce is a very old recipe which includes gelatin and oranges. It forms in a mold perfectly. But I’m going to give your recipe a try this year and see what the fam says. Thanks!
SarahLeigh says
My favorite cranberry dish is this cranberry salsa we make :) it has a ton of sugar in it (we only use 1/4-1/2 of what was called for in the original recipe) so maybe next time I’ll try adding in a few dates