Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Easy Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce Recipe with only four simple ingredients. Five minutes of prep and the scent of cranberries, cinnamon, and vanilla will fill your house. This delicious keto cranberry sauce recipe is the perfect accompaniment to your holiday meal.

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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. At least with canned whole berry sauce, you can stir it and have it look like the real stuff. But homemade is so much better than grocery store cranberry sauce, any way you make it.

In addition, healthy cranberry sauce is so easy to make that 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.

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Love cranberries? Try my Keto Cranberry Muffins, Keto Cranberry Orange Scones, and Cranberry Bliss Bars next!

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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 this cranberry sauce. I use ground cinnamon but a cinnamon stick can work as well.

See quantities in the recipe card.

How to Make Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce 

1️⃣ Cook

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 cranberries pop. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon.

2️⃣ Cool

Cool to room temperature and serve or store in the fridge.

👉 Tip: If any berries in the sugar-free cranberry sauce recipe don’t pop just smush them with a potato masher.

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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 leftovers 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.
• 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 need something to sweeten them and balance the tartness of the cranberries when making keto cranberry sauce. I use my own natural sweetener blend of sugar alcohols and stevia in my recipes. This is twice as sweet as sugar.

You can use any sweetener in this recipe, such as a brown sugar sweetener, allulose, or monkfruit erythritol blend.

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 extra 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 Sausage 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 Walnut Cake.

And if you have leftover cranberries, make some of my Sugar-Free Dried Cranberries!

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Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce

Taryn Scarfone

Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce with only four ingredients & five minutes of prep. This delicious low carb keto cranberry sauce is quick & easy!

5 from 69 votes

Print Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Servings 8

Calories 21.6

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

• 12 oz bag of cranberries
• 4 oz water
• 1 cup Joy Filled Eats Sweetener (or see alternatives in recipe notes)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp 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 Facts: The nutrition facts are for 1/8th of the recipe. This is about 2 ounces. There are 3.7 net carbs per serving.

Notes on Sweeteners: 

I use my own 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.

To sub in Swerve or Lakanto Monk Fruit use 1.5 times the amount of sweetener called for. 

 

To sub in Pyure or Trim Healthy Mama Super Sweet use half the amount of sweetener called for.

 

Substitutions will work in most recipes. They may not work in candies, such as caramel.

Nutrition

Serving: 2oz (approx.)Calories: 21.6Carbohydrates: 5.4gProtein: 0.2gFat: 0.1gSaturated Fat: 0.01gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.02gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.01gSodium: 1.6mgPotassium: 35.8mgFiber: 1.7gSugar: 1.9gVitamin A: 26.3IUVitamin C: 6mgCalcium: 6.4mgIron: 0.1mg

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Originally Published October 11, 2016. Revised and Republished November 19, 2025.