Make easy Low Carb Oven Cranberry Sauce with fresh cranberries and orange zest for your next holiday gathering!
For all of you exhausted Thanksgiving cooks, this recipe is for you. Deliciously simple, this Low Carb Oven Cranberry Sauce almost makes itself, and makes a KETO Thanksgiving possible! The sauce tastes amazing with roast turkey and works as a sweet spread for leftover rolls the next day!
There’s an unwritten rule that a traditional Thanksgiving menu must include a cranberry sauce! As a kid, my Dad did all of the Thanksgiving cooking. For Dad, cranberry sauce came out of a can. No one ate it with the meal, but it sure was delicious spread on biscuits the next day!
Honestly, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as “homemade” cranberry sauce until I moved down south and my friends made it for me. That delicious cranberry sauce was definitely eaten with the meal!
HOW TO MAKE LOW CARB OVEN CRANBERRY SAUCE
For years I made almost this exact recipe on the stove top. Then one day I was making a dump cake…yes, a dump cake where you dump cake mix over fruit filling…and thought ‘why not make fruit fillings in the oven instead of the stove?’ Cranberry sauce is like a fruit filling so why not? The only changes that were made for the low carb oven version was to add more liquid, due to the oven cooking time, and use erythritol rather than sugar. After taste testing, my family of picky eaters did not even realize it was low carb!
INGREDIENTS
- Cranberries – fresh or frozen whole cranberries are needed. Those little dried cranberries will not work here because the juice from the whole cranberries is what gives it flavor.
- White wine – it adds needed liquid and flavor, Honestly, I feel fancy when I cook with wine. It is fine to substitute water if you prefer that.
- Cardamom – adds subtle flavor of citrus and eucalyptus to add depth to the sauce. With Cardamom, a little goes a long way so I start with only a pinch and add more if needed.
- Orange Zest – use fresh orange zest to add bright citrus flavor! It also acts as a foil for the tart cranberries. The oils of the zest come out due to the heat during cooking, so if you are tasting the sauce mixture before putting it in the oven, you might not taste the true orange flavor. Like many spices, a little goes a long way! Fresh orange zest can taste bitter if too much is used.
- Erythritol – this is my low carb sweetener of choice. It is measured like sugar, but not as sweet. When doing recipe conversions, I’ll add more erythritol than the sugar equivalent. Usually 1 cup sugar = 1-1/4 cups erythritol for sweetness.
FRESH CRANBERRIES VS FROZEN
There is virtually no difference between the two. In fact, because fresh cranberries are usually only available in the fall, I buy extra fresh cranberries and stow them in my freezer to use year round. I just thaw them on the counter for an hour and they are ready to go.
MORE WAYS TO USE CRANBERRY SAUCE
- Make a turkey, cheddar and cranberry sauce panini
- Serve warm over ice cream
- Spoon over cheesecake
- Mix with pecans and serve warm over melted brie
- Make a phyllo cup appetizer with goat cheese and cranberry sauce
- Stir into jello and mold
- Mix with whipped cream for cranberry fluff
LOW CARB OVEN CRANBERRY SAUCE
SAVE TO PINTEREST FOR LATER
LOW CARB OVEN CRANBERRY SAUCE
INGREDIENTS
- 1 10 ounce bag fresh cranberries
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1 tsp fresh orange zest
- 1-1/4 cups eyrthritol or similar sweetener
- pinch salt
- pinch cardomom
INSTRUCTIONS
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Place rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350° F.
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Toss cranberries, water, wine, orange zest, sweetener, salt and cardomom in an 8 x 8 glass dish. Stir to combine.
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Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries are soft and the juice is bubbling.and starting to thicken. Sauce will thicken as it cools.
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Taste and add more sweetener if needed.
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Refrigerate tightly covered in refrigerator. Will keep for up to a week.
NOTES
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NUTRITION INFORMATION PER SERVING
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