This easy homemade vegan cranberry sauce is the perfect addition to any holiday meal! It's sweet yet sour with a hint of orange and beautiful red color that will brighten your festivities. Plus it only has a few simple ingredients and takes only minutes to make.
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❓ What makes it vegan?
You may be wondering, isn't all cranberry sauce vegan? What makes this sauce vegan? Well, many processed white sugar is filtered through bone char, so it's not technically vegan. Use organic sugar, maple syrup, or agave to make the cranberry sauce vegan.
🧾 Ingredients and substitutions
- Cranberries - whole fresh cranberries. You could also use frozen if that is all you have. You don't want to use dried cranberries.
- Orange Juice - for the liquid to cook the berries in. You can swap this out with water or any other type of juice if you want.
- Sugar - to sweeten the sauce since cranberries are very sour. You can use any type of sweetener that you want. I like to use organic cane sugar since it's vegan and easy to use. You can also use agave nectar or maple syrup.
- Orange Zest - optional, yet it gives your cranberry sauce a pretty color and more of an orange taste.
🥄 Instructions
- Add the fresh cranberries, orange juice, and sugar to a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Simmer the cranberries for 10 to 15 minutes until most of them pop open.
- Serve warm or place in a heat-safe bowl and then store in the fridge. (The sauce will be thin at first but will thicken once it cools.)
- Garnish will orange zest. (You can also stir a little orange zest into the sauce for more orange flavor.)
- Garnish with a few sugared cranberries if desired.
👩🏻🍳 Pro tips
- Add a few dashes of cinnamon and/or nutmeg for more flavor.
- Garnish with sugared cranberries for a festive look.
- To make just a few sugared cranberries to garnish your sauce, just scoop out a few cranberries just after you have added them to the pot and before they have popped open or cracked. Roll them in some granulated sugar to make them pretty and sparkly. Set them aside for later to garnish.
🥡 Storage
Refrigerate: Cranberry sauce will keep well in the fridge for 3 - 5 days in a sealed container. This makes it a great side dish to make a day or two before the holidays.
Freeze: This orange cranberry sauce freezes well too and can be stored in an airtight bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. Just be sure to let it cool completely before storing and freezing or the excess moisture will turn to ice.
📌 Be sure to follow me on Pinterest for new vegan recipes!
Vegan Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups cranberries
- 1 cup orange juice
- 3/4 cup sugar or up to 1 cup for sweeter cranberry sauce
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
Instructions
- Add the fresh cranberries, orange juice, and sugar to a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Simmer the cranberries for 10 to 15 minutes until most of them pop open.
- Serve warm or place in a heat-safe bowl and then store in the fridge. (The sauce will be thin at first but will thicken once it cools.)
- Garnish will orange zest. (You can also stir a little orange zest into the sauce for more orange flavor.)
Notes
- Add a few dashes of cinnamon and/or nutmeg for more flavor.
- Garnish with sugared cranberries for a festive look.
- To make just a few sugared cranberries to garnish your sauce, just scoop out a few cranberries just after you have added them to the pot and before they have popped open or cracked. Roll them in some granulated sugar to make them pretty and sparkly. Set them aside for later to garnish.
Nutrition
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Click the stars above or leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you!
I made this for Christmas, and everyone loved it. I just found some more cranberries in the back of my fridge, so just made it again. It's so good.
I'm so happy that you liked it. Meg.