Cranberry Sauce – the perfect sauce to bring your Thanksgiving plate to the next level. Tart, sweet, tangy and ready in under 30 minutes – this make ahead sauce will become a staple on your table!
Easiest and most delicious cranberry sauce for thanksgiving!
As we all prepare to give thanks, then followed shortly by stuffing our faces and loosening the ties of our stretchy pants in the aftermath, I want to thank each and every one of you for reading Ahu Eats over the past few years. It is a pleasure exchanging bits of our lives with each other – mostly food related – and I truly appreciate each comment, share, post, pin, etc! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving no matter where you are, surrounded by loved ones, filled with laughter and of course delicious food!
3 Ingredient Cranberry Sauce, easy and delicious
Now for the good stuff… here’s my favorite recipe for Thanksgiving Cranberry Sauce – we’ve made this basic (3 ingredient!) recipe for years in our family. It’s super simple and can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the fridge. I love my cranberry sauce on the tart side and it’s absolutely necessary to have a little dash of it with each bite of turkey, stuffing and of course mashed potatoes. The orange juice and zest balance out the tartness of the cranberry – plus, look at that color! It’s like a jewel you can eat.
As an aside, I don’t know why cranberry sauce isn’t consumed outside of the holidays – because it’s so delicious! Stay tuned, I may have a solution for you 😉
- 1 12-ounce package of cranberries
- ¾ cup of sugar (note: I like my cranberry sauce on the tart side – you could always add closer to a cup of sugar if you like yours less tart)
- ½-1 cup of water
- Zest of 1 orange (tip: zest the orange first then use the same one to juice)
- Juice of 1 an orange
- A dash of salt
- Rinse your cranberries in a colander and pick out any mushy or unripe ones.
- Combine all the ingredients along with ½ cup water.
- Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and stir while sugar dissolves.
- Reduce heat to a simmer and add water if necessary.
- Simmer for an additional 15-20 minutes until the cranberries all burst and the sauce is a bit thick.
- The sauce will thicken up significantly when cooling so remove when it's somewhere between a soupy and stewy consistency.
- If you prepared it early, you can warm it up and add a bit of water to achieve the desired texture.
Love this! So simple, yet so important on the TG table..
Your photos look absolutely gorgeous..
BTW, no need to reheat I would just leave it out of the fridge for an hour before eating, to become room temp.
i LOVE cranberry sauce. I agree I don’t know why it’s not year round. It’s so tasty. Great post.
This is so easy to make! I love cranberry a lot n this is perfect as sauce! I think i can put it on ice cream too! Cant wait to try it!! Thx for the recipe, girl!
Yours is very similar to Mark’s, except he adds lots of cardamom. Happy Thanksgiving, Ahu! xox