Sugar-Free Keto Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Our Sugar-Free Keto Cranberry Sauce Recipe is done in 10 minutes using homemade Brown Sugar you will all enjoy. With only 2 carbs per serving, our Festive Sauce is also Low Carb, Gluten-Free, and perfect for Diabetics. 

Serve together with goulash and steamed bread or meatballs for that extra sweetness. Top up cheesecake or use it as a filling for crepes, waffles, or pancakes.

Quick and easy 10 minutes and 3 ingredients only, jellied cranberry sauce made with brown sugar, you will make day after day. This homemade cranberry sauce goes perfectly not only on your Thanksgiving table. It is an excellent addition to any meat stews, or other healthy recipes, as a breakfast jam or filling for your crepes. 

Following our great recipe to make low carb cranberry sauce is incredibly easy.

Easy Keto Thanksgiving

Cranberry sauce is a perfect addition to your Thanksgiving meals. Even though we do not celebrate this holiday in Europe, we do have a season when turkey, stuffings, and steamed bread are enjoyed.

It is also a season when we cook lots of sauerkraut dishes such as our sauerkraut soup or sausage sauerkraut. Potato salad and mulled wine are a must around this time of the year, and all pumpkin recipes are alternating.

Why cranberries?

Cranberries are a little tart taste, small round fruits like berries with excellent benefits, and the perfect addition to your dinner meal. 

You hear the name cranberries, and all you can think of is Thanksgiving. 

In Uk, it is Christmas dinner. 

In my country, it is the second day of Christmas. 

They are so high in nutrients and antioxidants that you can hardly compare them to anything else. Perfect for your gut health, especially when you have recurring urinary problems.

They can be stored in our freezer throughout the year and enjoyed.

Delicious keto cranberry recipes

For me, cranberries are an Autumn delight when lots of wild meat is prepared and served.

Cranberries always come to mind when I bake cheese. And my favorite mulled wine. It is just a must. 

With us, cranberry’s time starts in August, when all of the markets in Slovakia are filled with fresh wild blueberries and cranberries.

That is when I buy not 5 or 6, but straight 10 kilos of each, and store them in the freezer for the whole year.

I add them to almost anything.

Half is always dehydrated as craisins and added to our Challah bread whenever baked.

Dehydrate them, bake with them, and make jams and jellies. You name it.

They have so many health benefits that you do have to have a fridge filled.

Are cranberries keto?

Fresh cranberries, on their own, have a tart-like taste and are hardly sweet. They contain 87% water, low in carbs and high in fiber. 

This makes them a perfect low-carb keto ingredient for cooking or baking.

Because fresh cranberries are pretty hard, 95% of them are processed into either jams, juices, sauces, or fillings.

Is healthy cranberry sauce keto?

If you plan to purchase even a low sugar cranberry sauce from a store, read the labels, primarily concentrating on the sweeteners or sugar used. Traditional cranberry sauce is loaded with sugar and almost always sweetened with table sugar or honey, which will elevate your carbs.

But frankly, why would you buy cranberry sauce ever, when in 10 minutes, you can have your homemade one without all of the sugar?

Our recipe makes 6 servings, each containing 2g net carbs.

The best sweeteners for keto cranberry sauce

In my recipe, I have used our homemade brown sugar substitute.

I am also aware that not all of you have all the different sweeteners in the house.

Feel free to swap or add choices like stevia, allulose, monk fruit sweetener, or swerve as a replacement.

You have to be careful about keto sauces or sugar substitutes. Not all behave like natural sugar. 

For example, pure Erythritol is excellent for baking, but if you add it to some cooking dishes after it cools down, it is possible to crystalize. 

You would always have to reheat the sauce or a dish for the crystals to melt. 

One great way around it is to grind your sugar before using it. 

Using only erythritol – your sauce can recrystallize once it cools down. 

Feel free to use whatever you have at home (apart from pure erythritol), mix your sweeteners, or use already premixed ones. 

Homemade brown sugar cranberry sauce substitute

As already mentioned, our recipe uses my sweetener, and you can learn how to make keto brown sugar in your home on your own and use that.

If not, brown sugar from Besti or Lakanto works excellently as well. 

Additional flavors for sugar free cranberry sauce

As I have made this recipe several times, a few great suggestions to alternate flavors in your homemade keto cranberry sauce are:

• Add cinnamon and ground cloves for an additional festive flavor.
• As original cranberry recipes call for orange juice instead of water, you can swap a bit of water, and adding orange zest or orange extract will replace that. Please do not use recipes with orange juice as those contain lots of sugar, even if it’s mentioned as fairly low in carbs.
• For a bit of spiciness, add jalapeno peppers.
• If you want your sauce fully festive, add a bit of hard alcohol like vodka, rum, brandy, or whiskey.
• Adding a keto chocolate sauce may even help the sauce thicken and add a great flavor.

How to make sugar-free cranberry sauce without sugar

The process of making the best and fastest-ever keto cranberry sauce is so simple and easy that I feel it does not even deserve the section on the steps. But I will add them anyway because you never know. Follow the recipe and enjoy.

Kitchen gadgets needed:

• Cooking pot
• Silicone spatula
• Mason jars

Ingredients needed:

• Cranberries
• Brown sugar substitute
• Water

*Exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below.

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STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO MAKE KETO CRANBERRY SAUCE RECIPE

First step: Prepare ingredients

Prepare all of the ingredients. By having all on hand, you can add all one by one without worrying about forgetting something.

Second step: Heat up the brown sugar

First goes heating up the brown sugar. Be careful not to overheat it. Using low heat, let the sugar melt fully. Otherwise, your brown sugar will burn. And that can happen in seconds. 

Third step: Add cranberries

Once you see the brown sugar substitute almost melted, quickly add cranberries.

Fourth step: Coat

Using a silicone spatula, gently coat all of the cranberries with melted brown sugar.

Fifth step: Add water

Once you have coated the cranberries with melted brown sugar, add a bit of water and start the cooking process.

Sixth step: Cook

Let cranberries cook together with water on slow heat. This takes approximately 10 minutes. Press on all cranberries to crack them open and release the extra sauce. Switch the heat off and let the sauce to thicken.

That’s all. The best cranberry sauce is done in 10 minutes and is fabulous. No need to add anything else, but if you still do, I have mentioned a few ideas below. 

Do not worry if the keto cranberry sauce is actually not thick to your liking. The sauce will thicken while cooling down. Once you place the sauce in the fridge, the thickening process continues. 

TIPS AND TRICKS

• Cranberries – you can use fresh or frozen cranberries
• Sweetener – If you do not have brown sugar, you can use a white alternative as well, but use powdered sweetener to prevent crystallization
• Smooth – Use a hand mixer at the end of the process to get rid of all the chunks and blends well into the sauce that is super smooth and pureed if that is what you are looking for. 
• Cranberry jelly – Add gelatin if you are looking for a more regular canned jellied cranberry sauce like texture

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

How to use leftover sugar-free cranberry sauce?

Apart from adding it to your turkey dish for Thanksgiving, we like to add it to any meat stew, especially wild animals.

• Cranberry sauce is a perfect glaze for grilled meats. Just brush some sauce towards the end of the grilling.
• Add it on top of your cheesecake.
• Add it to your cake batter for more moisture and flavor in your cakes
• Use it as a jam spread on our farmers bread, almond flour bread or yogurt chaffle for breakfast
• Sprinkle it on top of your granola or greek yogurt in the morning
• Mix it into your smoothies for a boost of flavor and fiber
• Use separate or mix it with yogurt for your crepes or pancakes as filling
• Add it on top of the baked Camembert – the best and my favorite
• If you are following gluten free, those thumbprint cookies with flour adjustment can be a great idea.

Can you make sugar free keto cranberry sauce ahead of time?

Cranberry sauce can be made ahead, and that is what I make all the time. It is advisable to prepare our low carb cranberry sauce recipe ahead of time. This will help in getting the keto cranberry sauce perfectly thick. All you have to do is reheat a bit before serving.

Can I use frozen cranberries for cranberry sauce?

You can, and it is a great option as well. As mentioned above, I buy fresh cranberries in kilos and freeze them for use throughout the year. 

If you use frozen cranberries for keto cranberry sauce, ensure you add less water. While freezing, they are already filled with ice, aka water, so you might need much less. 

What if my cranberry sauce is too liquid?

No worry. You have added too much water. If you see it’s liquid, only a titbit, do not worry. It will thicken during the cooling period. Once you place them into the refrigerator, the solidification continues.

But if you feel it is really liquid, and you know the amount of water was a bit too much, just let the cranberries cook a bit longer on low heat. This will help water to evaporate, and the sauce will eventually thicken. 

You can thicken the sauce using chia seeds, a pinch of Xanthan gum, or gelatine into the sauce. Chia seeds reduce everything and are an excellent addition to jams or spreads. But I doubt you will need them. 

How to store low carb cranberry sauce?

Once the fresh cranberry sauce has cooled down, place it into the Mason Jar and store it in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. 

Canning cranberry sauce

You can also use the canning method in the water bath to store them in a jar in your storage for up to a year or two.

Can I serve low carb cranberry sauce chilled?

You certainly can, and that is how some families regularly serve it. We, for example, do it cold always with goulash or a meat stew. The dishes are most of the time so hot that cold sugar-free cranberry sauce will only complement the dish. 

Can you freeze cranberry sauce?

You certainly can. Stored in a Mason jar or any glass jar, you can keep it in the freezer for later use for up to 6 months, maybe even a bit more. 

Additional sweet sauce keto recipes

• Caramel sauce
• Strawberry jam
• Condensed milk
• Simple syrup
• Chocolate syrup

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