October 9, 2019

Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce – 4 ways!

Name: Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 8 ounces cranberries, fresh or frozen; 2/3 cup water; 1/4 cup Swerve Sweetener; 1/4 cup Bocha Sweet ((see recipe notes))

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The best sugar free cranberry sauce, with 4 delicious flavor options. It’s the perfect keto side dish for all of your holiday celebrations and goes perfectly with turkey or ham.

Sugar-free cranberry sauce in a crystal bowl with fresh cranberries in the background

I love the holidays and I have so many delicious Keto Thanksgiving Recipes. From keto stuffing to the best keto pecan pie, I devote huge amounts of time every year to creating recipes for a healthy and keto-friendly holiday.

And this keto cranberry sauce has been in my family for generations. No really! My stepmother taught me the secret to the best cranberry sauce ever years ago, and I am going to share it with you today. Secret family recipe. You ready?

It goes like this: Follow the directions on the back of the bag.

Now, over the years, I’ve put my own little spin on it. Which really means just subbing keto friendly sweeteners for the sugar listed on the bags from every major cranberry producer out there.

Yes, my friends. That is all you need to do to make the best sugar free cranberry sauce. It’s seriously as simple as that. But there are also plenty of delicious ways to flavor the basic cranberry sauce recipe, and I’ve got several great ideas for you so read on.

Keto cranberry sauce in a glass bowl on a white plate, with a cinnamon stick.

Can cranberry sauce be made without sugar?

That would be an emphatic yes, my friends. Don’t believe me? Watch my video to see just how easy it is to do. I make a delicious keto Cinnamon Brown “Sugar” Cranberry Sauce that makes my whole house smell like Thanksgiving.

Basic fresh cranberry sauce consists simply of 3 ingredients: Cranberries, water, and sweetener. You can replace the sugar listed in most recipes with any sweetener you like best.

The best sweeteners for keto cranberry sauce

A few tips depending on what sweeteners you plan to use. If you use all erythritol based sweeteners, your sauce may re-crystallize somewhat as it cools. To avoid this, I recommend using the powdered version and whisking it in only after you have cooked the cranberries and water.

If you prefer to use something like stevia extract, I recommend reducing the water by about half, so that you have a thicker sauce. Concentrated stevia and monk fruit extract have no bulk so they don’t help thicken your sauce at all.

My personal preference is for a combination of Swerve and Bocha Sweet, since the Bocha Sweet helps keep the sauce from re-crystallizing. It also helps make it more syrupy and thus more like conventional cranberry sauce.

Other flavors of sugar-free cranberry sauce

Basic cranberry sauce is delicious as is. But it’s also really amazing with some added flavors.

Cinnamon “Brown Sugar” Cranberry Sauce

Use 1/4 cup Brown Swerve in place of the regular granular Swerve. Then add 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon along with the sweeteners. This might be my favorite cranberry sauce variation yet!

Orange Clove Cranberry Sauce

Add 2 tsp orange zest and 1/4 tsp ground cloves along with the sweeteners. If you prefer, you can use 1/2 tsp orange extract in place of the zest. Smells like an old-fashioned Christmas!

Chipotle Lime Cranberry Sauce

Get a little Southwestern flare by adding 1/2 tsp chipotle powder, 2 tbsp fresh lime juice, and 1 tsp lime zest along with the sweeteners. A nice change from the traditional sauce.

Can you make keto cranberry sauce ahead of time?

Honestly this is my favorite Thanksgiving side dish to make ahead. I usually do it a few days in advance and just store it in the fridge in a jar. It will be fine for up to a week.

But you can also freeze cranberry sauce too. Again, store in a glass jar and be sure to give it a little head room as it will expand as it freezes. It’s good for up to 2 months.

And truth be told, the sugar free cranberry sauce I made for this video is now hanging out in my freezer, waiting for the holidays to roll around…

More Delicious Keto Cranberry Recipes

Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce

The best sugar free cranberry sauce, with 4 delicious flavor options. It's the perfect keto side dish for all of your holiday celebrations and goes perfectly with turkey or ham.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword keto cranberry sauce, sugar free cranberry sauce

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Servings servings

Calories 12kcal

Ingredients

Basic Cranberry Sauce:

8 ounces cranberries, fresh or frozen
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup Swerve Sweetener
1/4 cup Bocha Sweet (see recipe notes)

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a large saucepan and set over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium low.
Simmer until almost all the cranberries have popped and released their juices. Remove and let cool.

Video

Notes

Using a second sweetener such as Bocha Sweet, allulose or xylitol will ket your cranberry sauce from recrystallizing upon cooling. If you can only use an erythritol based sweetener (Swerve, Lakanto, etc), then use the powdered version and add it only AFTER you have cooked the cranberries and water and they have popped.

Nutrition

Serving: 2tablespoons | Calories: 12kcal | Carbohydrates: 2.8g | Protein: 0.1g | Fiber: 1g

Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.

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