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.
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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Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce
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.
Carol S Tibbs says
I make it and use it on salad as a dressing.
Marla says
I was wondering what to do with the left over fresh cranberries! I made this! I am so excited to have cranberry sauce again but without the sugar! The next thing I want to make is the walnut cranberry cake...
Peggy Randen says
Have you tried making it jellied with your recipe? My family likes jellied and It seems like it would be fine, but wonder if anyone tried it.
Taryn says
I have not but it should work. I would puree it and then strain it.
Peggy Randen says
Usually I just pour them into a wire strainer and then mash them with a spoon into a bowl. I actually think those are the directions on the package. It doesn't take long and works great!
Marcy youker says
I am making it tomorrow sounds great, had a bag of cranberries,did not know what to do with it, I will like to add some orange to it.thanks for sharing.
Joella says
Soooo good. I put some of it still warm over some cream cheese! Yum!
Marla says
Oh! I LOVE this idea!
Kim says
I made this last year and it was so good. I'm going to have to make a double batch this year!
Rebecca Hubbell says
This is going to be great for Thanksgiving, I have a few family members doing keto!
Linda says
This looks delicious and so easy to make! I've made a cranberry orange relish but I love your version with the vanilla and cinnamon. I'm keeping this in my back pocket for the fall holidays.
Renee says
I'm excited to make this recipe! I love homemade cranberry sauce, but I don't like them too sweet!
Heather says
Could this be done with strawberries? I’ve made you “tagalong” sour cream cupcakes and have wanting to experiment by making strawberry cheesecake cupcakes with the base recipe. I was think abt the filling being strawberries and the frosting being a pink cream cheese frosting. Thoughts?
Taryn says
Yes. I have a strawberry jam and a lemon cupcake with raspberry frosting. You could definitely combine the recipes. Those sound delicious!
https://joyfilledeats.com/fresh-strawberry-jam/
https://joyfilledeats.com/raspberry-lemonade-cupcakes/
Beverly Daffron says
That sounds
Scrumptious !!! It will look so pretty, too!
Kathleen says
No wonder I never liked the canned stuff. This recipe is amazing. All 4 of my kids love it too. I always make your baked brie recipe with it too. Yum!
Melanie Holcombe says
Loved it! Thank you!
Wanda says
This is awesome. I put some orange zest in mine while it was still hot. Sooooo good.
Karianne says
I bought a big bag of cranberries from Costco. Do you know approximately how many cups of cranberries in a 12 oz bag?
Taryn says
No, but google did 🙂 "There are 3 cups of cranberries in one 12-ounce bag."
Leslie says
Just pulling off the stove and it smells delicious! So easy!
Kathleen says
I have never bought cranberries. 12oz bag, are they frozen? Or in produce?
Taryn says
This time of year they are in produce. Off season you can find them frozen.
Kathleen says
Thanks found them. Oh this cranberry sauce is so good and I usually am not a fan. Have some in your baked brie recipe cooking right now! I LOVE how easy your recipes are.
Felicia says
How much sauce does this recipe make? Enough for your cranberry swirl cheesecake bars (1.5 cups)? Thanks!
Taryn says
Yes, this makes about 2 cups.
Alicia says
Wonderful recipe! I adore cranberry sauce on turkey sandwiches and this was a perfect swap for the canned stuff. Only adjustments I made were 6 oz of water instead of 4, and .75 c gentle sweet instead of 1 to avoid it being overly sweet. Thank you so much for posting this!!
Barbara Curtin says
What is the purpose of sweetening with 3 different products? Why not just pick one and make the cranberry sauce that way?
Taryn says
You could do that but I prefer the flavor of the blend. Just stevia can be bitter and just erythritol can have a weird cooling affect. It is also cheaper to add a little stevia to the sugar alcohols to stretch them. You need half as much that way.
Kirsten says
Awesome! I made it in the Instant Pot for 8 minutes HP, NR instead of doing it on the stovetop. I really like the flavor of the cinnamon with the cranberries, even though it's not as 'traditional' as the canned stuff I've always had. Next time I make it I may cut back a bit on the Gentle Sweet so it's a bit more tart. As it is, it is great for a sweet topping (and I'm dreaming of it on brie!). I'm never buying the canned stuff again! 🙂
Thanks!
Taryn says
I use this on brie all the time 🙂 http://www.joyfilledeats.com/cranberry-baked-brie
Staci McCafferty says
I love that you made it in the Instant Pot. I think I’ll try that and after it’s finished I’ll probably add in some pecans. That’d still be Keto, right?
Taryn says
Yes, you can have pecans on keto.