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You are here: Home / Recipes and Cooking Tips / Homemade Cranberry Sauce with Orange Zest

Homemade Cranberry Sauce with Orange Zest

October 31, 2022 by Alea Milham 6 Comments

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Orange cranberry sauce recipe with cinnamon

This homemade Cranberry Sauce recipe is flavored with orange juice, orange zest, and cinnamon to create a flavorful side dish for your Thanksgiving feast.

This is an easy recipe for Orange-Cranberry Sauce. Homemade Cranberry Sauce takes less than 30 minutes to make, but needs to chill before serving.

I love the flavor combination of orange and cranberries. I am not that crazy about cranberries on their own but add some grated orange and a little cinnamon and it becomes one of my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes.

It is really easy to make your own cranberry sauce. You just need to factor in time for it to chill. I usually make this the day before Thanksgiving and let it chill overnight which saves me time on Thanksgiving day.

Cranberry Sauce is one of the few dishes that actually costs more to make from scratch. You can buy a can of cranberry sauce for about half the cost of a bag of fresh cranberries, but for me, this is one of those times where quality beats frugality.

Don’t be alarmed if you hear popping while the cranberries are cooking. The cranberries “explode” while they are boiling. it’s a good thing, it will make the job of blending them much easier.

Blender Cranberry Sauce

I usually make a somewhat chunky Cranberry Sauce, but I wanted this cranberry sauce to be smooth so that I can use the leftovers as a spread on Turkey Salad Sandwiches and swirl it into coffee cakes. Because of this, I use an emersion blender to blend the cranberry sauce. If you don’t have an emersion blender, you can carefully spoon the cooked cranberry mixture into a traditional blender. When you have hot food in a blender you want to take extra precautions. So if you use a traditional blender be sure to place a potholder on one hand and use that hand to hold the lid on the blender while it is turned on.

Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Be sure to allow time for cranberry sauce to cool completely before serving.

Ingredients:

  • 12 ounces whole fresh cranberries
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • zest of one orange
  • 1¼ cups sugar
  • 1½ teaspoons cinnamon

How to make homemade cranberry-orange sauce

Directions:

  1. Add the cranberries, orange juice, orange zest, sugar, and cinnamon to a medium saucepan.
  2. Cook, while stirring over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
  3. Once the sugar dissolves, bring the mixture to a boil.
  4. Lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  5. Use an immersion blender or carefully pour the cranberry sauce into a blender and blend until it is smooth.
  6. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate until the sauce is cooled completely. Serve chilled.

Printable Recipe for Orange-Cranberry Sauce

This is an easy recipe for Orange-Cranberry Sauce. Homemade Cranberry Sauce takes less than 30 minutes to make, but needs to chill before serving.
Print
5 from 1 vote

Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe

This easy cranberry sauce is flavored with orange zest and cinnamon.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Keyword Homemade Cranberry Sauce Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Cooling Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings 8
Calories 200kcal
Author Alea Milham

Ingredients

  • 12 ounces whole cranberries
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • zest of one orange
  • 1¼ cup sugar
  • 1½ teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

  • Add the cranberries, orange juice, orange zest, sugar, and cinnamon to a medium saucepan.
  • Cook, while stirring over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
  • Once the sugar dissolves, bring the mixture to a boil.
  • Lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Use an immersion blender or carefully pour the cranberry sauce into a blender and blend until it is smooth.
  • Pour into a bowl and refrigerate until the sauce is cooled completely. Serve chilled.

Nutrition

Calories: 200kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 13mg | Potassium: 73mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 50g | Vitamin A: 80IU | Vitamin C: 16mg | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 1mg

More Thanksgiving Recipes:

  • Pumpkin Pie Spiced Sweet Potatoes
  • Wild Rice Stuffing
  • Corn Casserole
  • Chocolate Pecan Pie
  • Pumpkin Pie
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About Alea Milham

Alea Milham is the owner of Premeditated Leftovers and the author of Prep-Ahead Meals from Scatch. She shares her tips for saving money and time while reducing waste in her home. Her favorite hobby, gardening, is a frugal source of organic produce for her recipes. She believes it is possible to live fully and eat well while spending less.

Comments

  1. Julie Briones says

    November 8, 2022 at 11:45 am

    I love that this recipes is for an actual smooth cranberry sauce. I always prefer cranberry jelly, so this sauce is right up my alley! Thanks for sharing at Tuesday Turn About. You will be one of me features today! Pinned!

    Reply
  2. Ashley says

    December 22, 2020 at 7:58 am

    5 stars
    I made this last year, and everyone loved it. Decided to use up my supply of fresh tangelos that I got from my mom’s tree this year. Hopefully, it will still turn out alright. I think I might have gone overboard with zest. Oops. Not the fault of the recipe. The recipe is awesome!

    Reply
  3. Marol says

    November 25, 2020 at 11:03 am

    When did you add the cinnamon? At the end? I didn’t see it mentioned in the recipe

    Reply
    • Alea Milham says

      November 26, 2020 at 1:53 am

      You add the cinnamon in the first step.

      Reply
  4. Nicole says

    November 16, 2017 at 8:13 pm

    What a great idea to make a cranberry spread for turkey sandwiches! Yum, this sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing your post with us at the #HomeMattersParty this week. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

    Reply
  5. Erlene says

    November 12, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    Yummy. I bet this would be great in a turkey sandwich. Thanks for sharing on MM, pinned it.

    Reply

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Welcome. I'm Alea!

On Premeditated Leftovers I share simple recipes made with whole foods, practical shopping tips, time saving techniques, and meal planning strategies. I also share tips for minimizing food waste, so more of the food that is purchased ends up on the table.

While volunteering as a budget counselor, I realized that food is the element of most people’s budgets where they have the greatest control. I set out to develop low-cost recipes from scratch to prove it’s possible to create delicious meals on a limited budget. Eating well while spending less is about more than just creating recipes using inexpensive ingredients; it’s about creatively combining ingredients so you don’t feel deprived and are inspired to stick to your budget.

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