Homemade Cranberry Sauce (Instant Pot or Stovetop)
This is a subtly sophisticated but still widely popular take on homemade cranberry sauce. Made in the Instant Pot, it's ready in minutes. Or make it on the stovetop.
Servings: 12
Calories: 256kcal
Ingredients
- Zest of 1 medium navel orange
- Juice of 1 medium navel orange about ½ cup
- ½ cup apple cider
- 12 ounces fresh cranberries
- ½ cup sugar see note
- 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
Instructions
- Use a microplane to zest the orange.
- Cut the orange in half and juice it. You should end up with somewhere around ½ cup of orange juice. A little more or less is 100% fine. If it's a lot less, add more juice from another orange or — if you don't have one — add a little more apple cider than called for.
Instant Pot Cooking Instructions- Place all the ingredients into a 6-quart Instant Pot.
- Position the lid and set the vent to sealing.
- Cook on manual, high pressure, for 3 minutes. The pot will take 10 minutes or so to come up to pressure, during which time you'll see some steam escaping.
- When the cooking time ends, carefully perform a manual pressure release.
- Open the lid. Cancel the keep-warm function and then press the sauté button. Cook, stirring frequently, for just a few minutes, until the sauce is a little bit thicker. It will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Cool to room temperature before serving.
- Stovetop Cooking Instructions
- Place all the ingredients into a medium pot with a heavy bottom.
- Bring to a boil over high heat. Then reduce heat, cover, and simmer, stirring from time to time, until cranberries have burst, 30 to 45 minutes.
- Uncover and simmer until thickened, keeping in mind that the sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.
- Cool to room temperature before serving.
Notes
- This recipe makes a fairly tart cranberry sauce. If you would like to make it sweeter, you can add additional sugar. Cool a small spoonful after simmering, taste, and stir in more sugar (from ¼ to ½ cup) if you like. We never do this, but we like things on the tart side.
- If you prefer to avoid refined sugar, you can substitute an equal measure of mild-tasting honey or maple syrup for the sugar in this recipe. It will change the taste, but if you like the taste of those ingredients, you'll probably like the result. We prefer to use regular sugar to let the flavors of the other ingredients shine through.
- You can definitely make this recipe in advance — well in advance if you like. It keeps well in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze it for up to a year.
Nutrition
Calories: 256kcal | Carbohydrates: 66.4g | Protein: 0.8g | Fat: 0.2g | Fiber: 2.3g