Fresh cranberries, orange, a touch of honey or maple, and a pinch of cloves, simmered in one pot in about 15 minutes. Bright, tart, naturally sweetened, and ready for your holiday table.
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As the holiday season approaches, cranberry sauce is a staple on so many tables. This Paleo Cranberry Sauce keeps everything you love about the classic, that bright, tart burst of flavor next to turkey and stuffing, and makes it with a short list of whole-food ingredients.
Instead of refined sugar and additives, it’s sweetened with honey or maple syrup and brightened with fresh orange juice and zest. It comes together in about 15 minutes, keeps well in the fridge, and tastes even better made a day or two ahead, which takes one more thing off your list for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any special meal.
Tart, ruby red, and full of polyphenols.
Cranberries are rich in polyphenols, including proanthocyanidins (PACs) and anthocyanins, which have been studied for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. They also bring vitamin C and fiber.
Cranberry PACs are best known for the urinary tract, but research also looks at their role in gut and heart health. (More on cranberry’s whole-body benefits.)
The juice and the zest.
Fresh orange juice adds natural sweetness and vitamin C, so you need less added sweetener to balance the cranberries’ tartness.
The zest is where much of the flavor lives. It holds aromatic oils and citrus flavonoids like hesperidin, and it gives the sauce a bright, fresh finish.
A few simple additions round it out.
A warm holiday spice, and one of the most antioxidant-rich spices there is.
Helps the berries burst and cook down into a jammy sauce.
It thickens as it cools and keeps for up to a week.
If you take warfarin, mention cranberry to your prescriber. Large amounts of cranberry juice or supplements have been reported to affect warfarin in some people. A spoonful of sauce at a holiday meal is unlikely to matter, but it’s worth a quick conversation if cranberry is a regular part of your diet.
Grab my free pack of 42 sauces, dressings, and dips, all made with whole-food ingredients, so every plate gets a little more flavor and a lot more nourishment.
Polyphenols from cranberries, vitamin C and flavonoids from fresh orange, and a warm hint of clove come together in one simple pot, so a holiday classic brings real nourishment to the table.
