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.
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.
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.
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 make a delicious cranberry martini with this…just use a teaspoon in good vodka, shake with ice…I’m going to have one right now ..excellent simple recipe!
Do you think this recipe would work with blueberries instead of cranberries? I’m especially wondering if they would last as long in the refrigerator (through the holidays). They’re much juicier and a different consistency … looking for a cranberry allergy workaround. Thanks!
I use monk fruit for almost everything. It seems to have the least after taste or “cold” feel. But for a recipe like this, I put the sweetener into the liquid and bring it to a boil to make sure it is completely dissolved.
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!
Very tasty! I used monk fruit and added the extra like the recipe notes stated and I found the sugar sub didn’t break down enough and you could still feel the gritty of the grains…
You will get that with certain sweeteners. Next time you could try a powdered allulose instead of granular.
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??
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?
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.
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?
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!
I make a delicious cranberry martini with this…just use a teaspoon in good vodka, shake with ice…I’m going to have one right now ..excellent simple recipe!
Great idea!
so good.. I used 2/3rds cup Pyure..
This is even better than the sugary version! It’s my favorite.
Do you think this recipe would work with blueberries instead of cranberries? I’m especially wondering if they would last as long in the refrigerator (through the holidays). They’re much juicier and a different consistency … looking for a cranberry allergy workaround. Thanks!
Blueberries should work. But for a taste closer to cranberries see if you can find tart cherries.
love,love,so easy&so better tasting! I love adding cinnamon to it. YUM!
I use monk fruit for almost everything. It seems to have the least after taste or “cold” feel. But for a recipe like this, I put the sweetener into the liquid and bring it to a boil to make sure it is completely dissolved.
The aftertaste or cool sensation is because most monk fruit is mixed with erythritol.
I absolutely love this recipe and use it so many ways! I eat it every day!
This was one of the first things to go. Everyone loved your recipe. Will be added to our table all year around! Thank you!
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!
Very tasty! I used monk fruit and added the extra like the recipe notes stated and I found the sugar sub didn’t break down enough and you could still feel the gritty of the grains…
You will get that with certain sweeteners. Next time you could try a powdered allulose instead of granular.
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??
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?
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.
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?
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. 😂
Will Swerve crystalize? Also, would I be using granular or powdered? Thank you!
It will crystallize eventually. But it takes at least a few days in the fridge. I normally use granular.
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!
Yummy! Turkey and cranberries and no guilt! I did ad orange zest as I really love the combination of cranberry and orange..