This dried cranberry sauce recipe with honey and lemon juice is as simple to prepare as healthy and nutritious. It’s made with only three ingredients:
dried cranberries
freshly squeezed lemon
a splash of golden honey. You can replace this with maple or agave syrup for a vegan alternative.
This dip is an essential ingredient in many recipes for Christmas or Thanksgiving but it’s also found in other recipes.
The cranberry sauce comes in many versions like those with wine or port, orange zest, and cardamom. We wanted to propose a sugar-free version (without added sugars) that would suit any dish, taste, and diet.
Just a spoonful of delicious honey and a squeeze of lemon juice are enough to turn this into a healthy sauce, without having to use that nasty refined white sugar! The lemon also helps to add a nice flavor and prevent oxidation of the berries allowing you to store the sauce for longer.
We hope that after trying our easy recipe, you will stop buying those unhealthy store-bought sauces. It is so simple to make your own now and control exactly what you are putting in, there are no excuses anymore! Your body (and wallet) will thank you.
Ingredients
| Dry Cranberries | 100 g |
| Honey | 1 tbsp |
| Lemon Juice | 1 tbsp |
| Water | 250 mL |
Step 1
Combine the dried cranberries with honey in a saucepan.
Add freshly squeezed lemon juice and stir well. Avoid dropping the lemon seeds or the sauce will get a very bitter taste. A lemon squeezer can easily help you to extract the juices while holding any seeds.
Transfer the pan to the hob and turn to medium heat.
Step 2
Next, add the water and simmer for 10 minutes without the lid. This way, water evaporates allowing the sauce to thicken. As the cranberries absorb water, they swell and burst releasing their delicious juice.
Stir occasionally to avoid having the cranberries sticking to the bottom of the pan as the sauce reduces.
When the sauce is thick and has a jelly-like consistency, remove the pan from the heat. Remember that the sauce will thicken every more as it cools down.
Step 3
Next, blend the cranberries into a smooth sauce using a hand blender straight in the hob or transfer into the food processor bowl and blitz. The sauce should smooth, thick and gelatinous.
If preferred, you can also blend only two-thirds of the sauce and to keep bits of cranberries in the final sauce.
This naturally sweetened cranberry sauce is delicious both warm and cold depending on your recipe, but we recommend serving it slightly warm.
Keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week.
Tips
To prepare this healthy cranberry sauce without sugar we recommend to use the dried fruit as it naturally rich in sugars thus reducing the amount of additional sweeteners used. However you can also use fresh cranberries and adjust the amount of honey.
For a vegan easy sugar-free cranberry sauce just substitute honey with maple or agave syrup.