You won't believe there's no sugar in this keto cranberry sauce! It's as sweet and yummy as traditional. Ready in 10 minutes with just 3 ingredients!
😍 Carbs in keto cranberry sauce - 2g net carbs
😋 Why you'll love this recipe
It won't spike your blood sugar. A ¼ cup serving of this keto cranberry sauce has only 2g net carbs. Canned cranberry sauce has 27g net carbs per ¼ cup serving, that's a difference of 25 grams of carbs, most of which is high fructose corn syrup!
Cranberry sauce is my absolute favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner! I look forward to it all year. As a diabetic, I can't eat traditional cranberry sauce, which is loaded with sugar. So I came up with this easy, sugar-free cranberry sauce recipe to put cranberry sauce back on the menu! It's so good nobody will know it's keto!
🦃 A must-have for Thanksgiving dinner
For me, Thanksgiving dinner just isn’t right without that sweet, tart spoonful of cranberry sauce to brighten up the flavors on my Thanksgiving plate, and for good reason. According to UCLA's Science and Food blog, just like wine, cranberry skins are full of bitter tannins which readily bind to proteins and fats. This translates to deliciousness for our tastebuds, making cranberry sauce a perfect pairing for roasted turkey and rich gravy!
Looking for traditional homemade cranberry sauce with sugar? Here's a great recipe by my friend Shruthi at Urban Farmie.
Are cranberries keto friendly?
A ½ cup of cranberries contains 4 grams of net carbs. Cranberries are naturally low-carb and low-glycemic. Eaten in moderation, cranberries can be part of a keto-friendly, low-carb diet.
Studies have found that eating cranberries can help lower blood sugar!
Cranberries are one of the best choices among fruits for lowering your blood sugar levels... high in polyphenols, they help boost insulin sensitivity. This helps your cells utilize insulin better and thus lowers the glucose levels in your blood.
Dr. Pakhi Sharma (MBBS)
How to make cranberry sauce
All you need to do is boil fresh cranberries, sweetener and water together for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cranberry skins burst and the cranberries pop open. That's it.
🛒 Ingredients
Fresh cranberries
Use firm, fresh, bright red cranberries in season for best results. Be sure to rinse and drain them before using. Pick through the berries to remove any mushy or discolored berries. These are rotten and can ruin the flavor of the sauce. Firm pink or white berries are fine. They are simply underripe berries that haven't been exposed to enough sun.
Sweetener
Using sugar or a sugar replacement helps the pectin in the cranberry skins form a gel and balances the bitter flavor of the cranberries.
For this sugar-free cranberry sauce recipe I recommend using a sweetener that doesn't crystallize after the sauce has cooled. The best choices are allulose, pentose or powdered erythritol. I used Bochasweet, a pentose sweetener.
If the above sweeteners aren't available or you prefer to use a different sugar-free sweetener, just note that you may end up with a sauce that forms crystals once chilled. Just stir the cranberry sauce before serving.
Water
You'll need a 1:1 ratio of water to sweetener.
👩🏻🍳 Step-by step instructions
Cranberries are naturally full of pectin, so they'll easily cook down into a gel as long as the proportion of ingredients and the cook times are right. Follow the exact measurements in the recipe card below.
Step 1: Place all ingredients into a pot.
Step 2: Bring to a boil.
Step 3: Reduce heat and simmer. Sauce is ready when cranberry skins burst open.
Step 4: Continue simmering until cranberry sauce reaches desired consistency.
⏲️ Simmer 5 minutes for a chunky sauce with bright red, whole berries.
⏲️ Simmer 15 minutes for smooth, deep Burgundy colored cranberry jelly.
Substitutions
You can substitute fresh cranberries with frozen cranberries. First thaw the cranberries in a colander before using.
🍊 Variations
Cranberry sauce is delicious cooked with orange zest. It's like adding a bright ray of sunshine to your sauce. You can put your own spin on homemade cranberry sauce by adding any combination of orange zest, lemon zest, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and allspice.
🦃 How to serve
Cranberry sauce is a perfect pairing with Thanksgiving turkey, but there's so many ways to enjoy it! My friend Sarah, over at Feast for a Fraction, has a great recipe for baked chicken leg quarters, which goes great with cranberry sauce.
- Make cranberry meatballs
- Swirl it into a bowl of Greek yogurt with a bit of chopped nuts for breakfast.
- Stir it into oatmeal
- Add it to your protein shake
- Make a bubbly mocktail with a splash of soda water in a glass of ice
- Mix it into your favorite salad dressing
- Make a dip with cranberry sauce and cream cheese
- Use it to glaze grilled or roasted meats
🥄 Equipment you'll need
- A pot
- A large spoon or spatula
🐿 How to store leftover cranberry sauce
Cranberry sauce keeps for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.
🧊 Can you freeze cranberry sauce?
Freeze leftover cranberry sauce by transferring it to an airtight container or freezer bag. To prevent freezer burn, first squeeze out all the air before sealing the bag. Freeze for up to two months. Thaw in the refrigerator or in a bowl of cold water
🧐 Frequently asked questions
Cranberry sauce is a thick, gooey liquid with chunks of fruit. Cranberry jelly is a smooth, thick liquid that can be molded to retain the shape of its container when solidified by chilling. They are both made of the same ingredients in the same proportions, but the difference between the sauce and the jelly comes down to pectin. To make cranberry sauce into cranberry jelly all one needs to do is to continue boiling and stirring the sauce until the berries completely break down and release all of their pectin.
Yes, but if you’ve tried eating unsweetened cranberries, they are extremely sour! Fresh cranberry juice has the same pH as lemon juice! So you’re going to need a sweetener and a pinch of salt to balance out that sour flavor. You also need the crystalline structure of sugar, or a similar type of sweetener, for pectin to do its thing and form a properly jellied sauce.
In the North Eastern United States, you can find fresh cranberries at your local farmer's markets, supermarkets and grocery stores starting around late September through December. Only 5% of the cranberry harvest is sold fresh. The rest of the cranberries are frozen, dried or processed into fruit juice.
Keto cranberry sauce recipe card
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
- Diet: Diabetic
Description
You won't believe there's no sugar in this keto cranberry sauce! It's as sweet and yummy as traditional. Ready in 10 minutes with just 3 ingredients!
Ingredients
- 12 ounces (about 3 cups) of fresh cranberries
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup sweetener
- 2 teaspoons orange zest (optional)
Instructions
- Place all ingredients into a saucepan.
- Bring to a boil. Stir constantly.
- Reduce heat and simmer. Sauce is ready when cranberry skins burst open.
- Continue simmering until cranberry sauce reaches desired consistency.
Notes
- Rinse cranberries before use. They can be quite dirty.
- Simmer 5 minutes for a chunky sauce with bright red, whole berries.
- Simmer 15 minutes for a smooth, deep Burgundy colored cranberry jelly.
- Prep Time: 3 minutes
- Cook Time: 7 minutes
- Category: sauces
- Method: boil
- Cuisine: American
More keto Thanksgiving recipes
- Best cauliflower mashed potatoes
- Balsamic glazed Brussels sprouts
- Try these smoked turkey wings by my friend Amanda over at Burrata and Bubbles.
Leave a Reply