Join me on a journey to make this Thanksgiving condiment, the best Cranberry Sauce Recipe with Orange. With no added sugar, my cranberry sauce has a much more complex and interesting flavor to it — and it keeps for weeks when properly preserved in a canning bath. Stay with me to find out more.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe
I love this recipe for how easy it is, and for the fact I can make it so far in advance of the holiday season! You’ll love it too, for reasons like:
One of the best cranberry recipes I know.
Uses dried cranberries - a great fall back if you can’t find fresh ones.
An interesting twist on a regular sweet cranberry sauce, with the addition of orange.
Has a great adults-only variation, using red wine!
Less sweet than classic cranberry fruit sauce, with a pickle-chutney vibe going on.
Quick and easy to prepare.
Shelf-stable and keeps for weeks in the pantry.
A hit with both meat eaters, vegetarians, and all cranberry lovers!
Inspiration Behind The Cranberry Sauce Recipe with Orange
Classic cranberry sauce is great, but it’s got so much sugar in it! I wanted to make a healthy cranberry sauce recipe, with no added sugar, and a more complex flavor. I remembered a fantastic orange chutney that I’d served to the meat eaters with Thanksgiving turkey a few years ago. I wondered if I could riff on that theme with a cranberry-orange recipe? Turns out I could!
My cranberry orange sauce recipe with orange is carefully balanced between the sweet cranberry jelly-like classic and a sharp, vinegary cranberry chutney, for a shelf-stable sauce without sugar, and with much more interesting flavors.
Cranberry Sauce Ingredient list
To make the cranberry orange sauce dish, you’ll need the following ingredients:
Ingredient Substitutes
Try the following ingredient alternatives if you can't find an ingredient in your pantry:
Variations
How to Make Cranberry Sauce Recipe with Easy Cooking Steps
Cooking Tools
Cooking Method
Preparation Steps
- Assemble all the tools and ingredients.
- Zest the oranges, remove the pith and slice finely.
- Sterilize the canning jars, if using.
Cooking Steps
- Put the oranges, orange zest, cranberries, cranberry juice, mustard seeds, honey, rosemary, and cinnamon stick in a saucepan, with half a cup of water..
- Place over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer at medium-low heat.
- Cook for about 10-15 minutes until the cranberries have plumped up and the orange slices collapsed into the sauce.
- Mix the cornstarch to a slurry with 1 tablespoon of water.
- Add the cornstarch slurry and stir to combine. Cook for another 3-4 minutes until the sauce thickens, then turn off the heat. Season with salt to taste, and remove the cinnamon quill and rosemary sprig.
- Leave to cool slightly for about 5-10 minutes before transferring to sterilized jars, and sealing with sterilized lids.
- Process the sealed jars in a canning bath for 10 minutes for long-term preservation.
Alternative Method
If you’re planning on serving the cranberry orange sauce within a week of making it, there’s no need to use sterilized jars or a canning bath. Simply store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to serve, and serve the cranberry sauce cold.
Best Tips to Ace this Recipe
- Be really careful to cut away all the white pith from the orange. It’s the pith of the orange that is bitter, and if you leave too much in, your cranberry sauce will be bitter as well.
- Make sure to use a good sharp zester for the orange zest. I prefer my peel to be a little more coarsely grated for this recipe.
Time-Saving Tips
I love that you can make this recipe weeks in advance of Thanksgiving! The acid in the vinegar makes it shelf-stable, meaning that you can serve homemade cranberry orange sauce on the day, without having to do anything more than open the jar!
What to Serve with Cranberry Sauce?
I love to serve cranberry orange sauce as part of a delicious spread in the holiday season, with an array of other sauces, pickles and salsas, like:
How to Store Cranberry Sauce?
- Cranberry sauce keeps very well in the fridge for at least a week, without any special preservation techniques. Simply transfer to an airtight storage container and use straight from the fridge.
- If you want to store it for longer, make canned cranberry sauce. Pack into sterilized jars and process in a water canning bath for a shelf-stable sauce.
- Be sure to use a clean spoon each time you remove cranberry sauce from the container.
Conclusion
There you have it — a deliciously easy Cranberry Sauce Recipe with Orange, guaranteed to be a highlight of your holiday table this year. Serve with vegetarian dishes, or meat eaters can use it as a condiment for their turkey as well! Whether you use the basic recipe or decide for the red wine variation for a holiday menu, give it a try, and let me know in the comments how you get on!
More Healthy Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes
Looking for more healthy vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes? Try out one of these:
FAQs
If you’re wondering how long will cranberry orange relish last in the refrigerator, the answer is at a week, if you use a clean spoon every time. If you want it to last longer, pack in sterilized jars and process in a canning bath for a shelf-stable version.
You can enhance cranberry sauce by adding other flavors to the sauce. Orange, cinnamon, rosemary, and honey are all good options.
To thicken homemade cranberry sauce, whisk in a cornstarch slurry and cook for just a few moments until thickened. Alternatively, you can blend a portion of the sauce and mix it back into the main blend.
You can freeze homemade cranberry sauce, but it’s more effective to preserve it in jars, yielding a shelf-stable product that doesn’t need to be chilled or frozen.
Recipe
Cranberry Sauce Recipe With Orange
Ingredients
- 1 cup cranberries (dried)
- 2 oranges
- 1 cup cranberry juice
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 1 stick cinnamon
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Preparation Steps
- Assemble all the tools and ingredients.
- Zest the oranges, remove the pith and slice finely.
- Sterilize the canning jars, if using.
Cooking Steps
- Put the oranges, orange zest, cranberries, cranberry juice, mustard seeds, honey, rosemary, and cinnamon stick in a saucepan, with half a cup of water..
- Place over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer at medium-low heat.
- Cook for about 10-15 minutes until the cranberries have plumped up and the orange slices collapsed into the sauce.
- Mix the cornstarch to a slurry with 1 tablespoon of water.
- Add the cornstarch slurry and stir to combine. Cook for another 3-4 minutes until the sauce thickens, then turn off the heat. Season with salt to taste, and remove the cinnamon quill and rosemary sprig.
- Leave to cool slightly for about 5-10 minutes before transferring to sterilized jars, and sealing with sterilized lids.
- Process the sealed jars in a canning bath for 10 minutes for long-term preservation.
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