Easy Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce with only four simple ingredients and water. Five minutes of prep and the smell of cranberries, cinnamon, and vanilla will fill your house. This delicious keto cranberry sauce recipe is the perfect accompaniment to your holiday meal.
I love cranberry sauce. It just tastes like fall and any holiday table needs it. I personally prefer whole berry sauce to jellied cranberry sauce. That just looks a little too processed to me when you slide it out of the can and it still has the lines on it.
At least with canned whole berry sauce, you can stir it up and have it look like the real stuff. But homemade is so much better than grocery store cranberry sauce any way you make it.
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And healthy cranberry sauce is so easy to make you never need to buy it. It takes less than 5 minutes of hands-on time to make a batch of beautiful, red, delicious keto-friendly cranberry sauce. It is the best cranberry sauce I've ever tasted and have only 4 net carbs per generous serving. It is also low carb, gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, and THM friendly!
Ingredients
Cranberries - Fresh cranberries or frozen cranberries work well. Cranberries only have a small amount of natural sugar so they will work for a keto diet.
Water - You only need a bit of water to simmer the cranberries in.
Sugar-Free Sweetener - Any sweetener can work in this and you can really just add your preferred low-carb sweetener or sugar substitute to taste. I offer conversions in the recipe card for monk fruit sweetener and other sugar substitutes.
Vanilla - Add some vanilla extract for a boost of flavor.
Cinnamon - I love a hint of cinnamon in my sugar free cranberry sauce. I use ground cinnamon but a cinnamon stick can work as well.
The vanilla and cinnamon can really be optional, reducing this to just two ingredients, but I find that they complement the flavor of the berries nicely so do recommend adding them.
How to make Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce
Step One: Simmer the berries with a bit of water, add sweetener, and add any extra flavorings over medium heat in a medium saucepan until all the berries pop. Cool to room temperature and serve or store in the fridge.
Expert Tip: If any berries in the sugar-free cranberry sauce recipe don't pop just smush them with a potato masher.
Storage - Leftover cranberry sauce keeps for months in the fridge in an airtight container. I have kept a glass mason jar of it for up to 4 months. Depending on the sweetener you use there is a chance it could crystallize but if that happens you can reheat it to melt the sweetener.
Variations
Orange - You can add some orange zest or a little orange extract for an orange flavor in this cranberry sauce recipe.
Lemon - Lemon zest also compliments the cranberries nicely.
Spices - You can add ginger, cloves, nutmeg, or any other sweet spice you enough.
Relish - To make keto cranberry relish simply toss the ingredient mixture (omitting the water) into a food processor and chop them instead of cooking them.
Maple - For a maple flavor on keto you can add maple extract. If you want to use maple syrup that would work fine but would not be sugar free or keto friendly.
Common Questions
What is the Best Sweetener for Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce?
Cranberries are naturally very tart. You will something to sweeten them and balance the tartness of the cranberries when making keto cranberry sauce. I use my own natural sweetener blend of xylitol, erythritol, and stevia in my recipes. This is twice as sweet as sugar. It is comparable to Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet and Truvia.
Making my own sweetener blend saves a ton of money. I can make it for under $7 a pound and since it is twice as sweet as sugar it lasts longer than blends with a 1:1 sugar ratio. It is great for a keto diet with no aftertaste.
What Can I Do With Leftover Cranberry Sauce?
You can use it in dessert, serve with cream cheese and celery for snacks, or use it to top cottage cheese or yogurt.
This homemade sugar-free cranberry sauce is delicious as a surprise cupcake filling in the Cranberry Cupcakes pictured above! And I love having some sugar free cranberry sauce on hand to put on top of my Cranberry Baked Brie. Either of those is festive for the holiday season.
This homemade cranberry sauce will last for weeks in the refrigerator. I make a double batch before Thanksgiving and use it until the new year! Besides serving low carb cranberry sauce with your Thanksgiving turkey and keto stuffing for Thanksgiving dinner I use it in these cupcakes and baked brie. I also use low-carb cranberry sauce as a condiment or side dish to pork and chicken and in coffee cakes such as my Cranberry Cake with Walnut Topping.
And if you have leftover cranberries make some of my Sugar-Free Dried Cranberries!
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📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 oz bag of cranberries
- 4 oz water
- 1 cup Joy Filled Eats Sweetener (or see alternatives in recipe notes)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Combine the cranberries and water in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until all the berries pop, about 5-7 minutes. Add the other ingredients and reduce the heat to low. Cook until desired thickness. It will thicken further as it cools.
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 weeks or you can freeze for 2-3 months.
Notes
Nutrition
Originally Published October 11, 2016. Revised and Republished August 3, 2023.
Alyda Dykstra says
I absolutely love this recipe and use it so many ways! I eat it every day!
Michelle says
This was one of the first things to go. Everyone loved your recipe. Will be added to our table all year around! Thank you!
Deanna J Biegel says
I've made this sugar free cranberry sauce now for 3 years in a row! It turns out better each time now that I've good experience with the recipe details. We love it for many occasions, especially over vanilla ice cream!
Kim says
The first time I made this it became crunchy. Adapted my sweetener levels adds turned out much better. Try it warm with low carb spicy sausage balls! Who needs Christmas cookies??
Alicia says
Taryn, since you say your homemade sweetener mix is twice as sweet as sugar, couldn't we use a half cup rather than a full cup for 12 oz. of cranberries?
Taryn says
You can use as much as you like. I have tested this recipe using a full cup of my sweetener. Try half a cup and if it's not sweet enough just add more later.
Mamaowl says
OH. MY. This was sooooo good! I made it for our church Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and it was a BIG hit. Several people asked for the recipe. I was ORDERED to bring it to our Friendsgiving on Thursday. LOL! I already have numerous plans to use this throughout the year (read cheesecake there 🙂).
I was wondering about adding gelatin to firm it up a bit more. Mine was thick like a sauce or spread, which would be fine in most applications, but just wondering about being able to slice it. Any thoughts?
Mamaowlh says
Guess if I would read the comments first, I would have found my answer. 🙄. I was just too excited to tell you how yummy this was. 😂
Destiny Rodriguez says
Will Swerve crystalize? Also, would I be using granular or powdered? Thank you!
Taryn says
It will crystallize eventually. But it takes at least a few days in the fridge. I normally use granular.
Julia Bettis says
I love making this sugar free version of jellied cranberry sauce! It is so simple and easy! I run the cranberries through my food processor to break them up ahead of cooking. I also add a package of gelatin to the final mixture to get a firmer result. Delicious!
Marlene says
Yummy! Turkey and cranberries and no guilt! I did ad orange zest as I really love the combination of cranberry and orange..
Rachel says
Oh this was lovely. I also doubled the recipe. I used one cup gentle sweet and one half cup super sweet. I also squeezed about a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice (I just had half a lemon from another recipe hanging around). I did use the vanilla, but for the cinnamon, I placed four cinnamon sticks into the mixture as it was boiling. It was the best cranberry sauce I’ve ever made. Thank you for the simplicity of this recipe! <3
Bridgette Robertson says
I love this! Why is it S instead of FP? Just curious. Thank you!!! It’s so good!
Taryn says
It is a FP. 😊
Kathleen Blando Brand says
Love it doubled the recipe. Used scant cup ERythritol, scant half cup golden Monkfruit, two TBS Stevia. My Keto phobic husband liked it a lot. Now that's a big deal!
Elizabeth Ferrell says
Yummy. I also added to this 1 granny smith apple and 2 mandarin oranges then blended because my family does not care for chunky sauce. Loved it!!!
Alice says
Delicious! So simple and easy to make! Mine got a little crystalized, I used Lakanto monkfruit sweetener. But the flavor was amazing! Thank you for this recipe.
Jenny says
This is so yummy! But over night it crystallized and got crunchy! Is that normal? Any thoughts on what went wrong?
Taryn says
Which sweetener did you use? Mine has never crystallized even after a couple weeks in the fridge.
Jenny says
Gentle sweet
Jenny says
I tried it again with some xylitol mixed with stevia and it is delicious and not crunchy! I had used the xylitol free gentle sweet previously. Thanks for a delicious recipe! Happy thanksgiving!
Diona says
So how much truvia would I use in this recipe? That's the only sweetener hubby likes.
Thanks!
Taryn says
The same as the sweetener listed.
Taylor says
This is so so yummy! Such great flavors and perfect for summer!
Love Keil says
This sauce looks and sounds amazing for upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday!
Lisa says
What is a serving size?
Taryn says
1/8th of the recipe. Depending on how much your cranberry sauce cooks down that is 3-4 tablespoons.