Easy Cranberry Sauce with Orange Juice (Gluten-free)

Skip the canned cranberry sauce this year. Make this homemade cranberry sauce with orange juice in only fifteen minutes!

When it comes time to plan out the holiday menus, there is usually a debate on having the often dreaded cranberry sauce on the table. Trust me; I get it. We've discussed this in our house a lot over the years. I love cranberries; I always have. My sister is allergic to them, so we keep them away from her. My husband always said he was never a fan, but he was always served the jellied canned stuff growing up.

Now he's a total convert because I introduced him to homemade cranberry sauce. I mean, I can't blame him for thinking he wouldn't like it because I don't like the canned stuff, either. Granted, I also hate jello, so that doesn't help either with that stuff, haha.

I guarantee that if you think you hate it too, this is the recipe for homemade gluten-free cranberry sauce with orange juice you need to try this year.

Jump to:

• Homemade is better than canned.
• Ingredients.
• Ingredient notes and substitutions.
• Making cranberry sauce.
• Tips and Tricks
• Serving suggestions.
• Make ahead.
• Using leftover cranberry sauce.
• 📖 Recipe

Homemade is better than canned.

Here are just a few reasons why. this homemade cranberry sauce is easily a thousand times better than canned cranberry sauce.

• Uses a few simple ingredients.
• Easy to make in only fifteen minutes.
• Tastes a hundred times better than canned cranberry sauce, with the perfect balance of tangy and sweet.

Ingredients.

• Cranberries
• Orange Zest / Orange Juice
• Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Vanilla
• Salt

Ingredient notes and substitutions.

• Cranberries - I prefer fresh cranberries, but you can also use whole frozen cranberries.
• Orange Zest / Orange Juice - The orange is needed to make this cranberry sauce with orange juice. The orange juice and zest add a bit of sweetness and helps to balance the tartness of the cranberries.
• Sugar - Sugar makes a simple sweetener in this cranberry sauce. If you want to make this more of a paleo cranberry sauce, you can use honey or another sweetener of your choice.

Making cranberry sauce.

1. Bring the orange juice and sugar to a simmer over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Add the cranberries to the orange juice and sugar.
3. Let it simmer until the cranberries have started to pop and the sauce thickens.
4. Remove the cranberry sauce from the heat and stir in the spices.
5. Finally, add in the orange zest and let it chill until you are ready to serve.

Tips and Tricks

• Want more texture? - If you want your cranberry sauce to have more texture, reserve about a half cup of cranberries and stir them in once; the others have started to pop. This will allow some cranberries to stay together, adding more texture to the final sauce.
• Cranberry sauce with dried cranberries. - You can make cranberry sauce with dried cranberries. I recommend using unsweetened dried cranberries for this recipe. I would also add an additional quarter to half a cup of liquid to help rehydrate the dried cranberries.

Serving suggestions.

You can serve this homemade cranberry sauce hot or cold; it doesn't matter; I tend to serve it cold on Thanksgiving, but that's a personal preference for our house.

Make ahead.

• I usually make this cranberry sauce the day before and let it chill in the fridge overnight. You can easily make this a few days earlier if you want to.
• You can even freeze homemade cranberry sauce if you need to. When you are ready to serve it, just let it defrost in the fridge or warm it up over low heat on the stove.

Note: If you do freeze it, note that there will be a little more liquid present, and you might want to simmer it to let it thicken again.

Using leftover cranberry sauce.

We don't usually have much leftover cranberry sauce after Thanksgiving, but I am usually happy when we have some. When we do, though, it makes me happy.

• Smear some on a piece of bread to make the best leftover turkey sandwich.
• Add a dollop onto some pancakes or waffles.
• Stir some into some yogurt for an easy treat.
• You can even add some on top of a bowl of ice cream.
• Do you like cheesecake? Yea, it goes great on that too! Trust me, a homemade gluten-free cheesecake with cranberry sauce is delicious.

📖 Recipe