This keto cranberry sauce recipe has been in my family for generations. My stepmother taught me the secret to the best cranberry sauce ever years ago, and I am going to share it with you today. Ready for it?
Follow the directions on the back of the bag. Yup, that’s right. The bag of cranberries you just picked up from the grocery store has the best recipe right on it. All you need to do is swap in some keto-friendly sweetener and you can enjoy that tangy-sweet deliciousness.
I have so many delicious Keto Thanksgiving Recipes. From keto stuffing to gooey keto pecan pie, I love creating recipes for a holiday feast that people on a low carb diet can enjoy without worry. And this sugar free cranberry sauce graces my table every single year!
My dad always requested that I make the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. He loved it and swore up and down that mine was the best. And I always laughed because he knew full well how ridiculously easy it was. He just wanted me to make it for him.
I think of him with love every single time I make this sugar free cranberry sauce.
What readers are saying
“Absolutely AMAZING!!!! Thank you for such an easy and delicious sauce. I used Allulose and Swerve brown sugar with the cinnamon and it’s freaking delicious!” — Andrea
Reasons to love this recipe
- Classic flavor: It has all the tart-sweet cranberry flavor you expect with no added sugar and less than 2 grams of carbs per serving.
- Thick texture: Over the years, I’ve perfected this recipe so that it has the same thick, syrupy quality as the sugary kind.
- Easy to make: 3 simple ingredients and 10 minutes is all it takes!
- Customizable: I’ve got three delectable flavor variations below.
- Make it in advance: This sugar free cranberry sauce is easily frozen so you can make weeks ahead. Perfect for holiday prep!
Ingredient Notes
- Cranberries: This is the star of the show! You can use fresh or frozen cranberries. I freeze bags of cranberries in the fall so I have them ready for the following year.
- Sweeteners: To get the perfect consistency, you really need a mix of two sweeteners. I use brown sugar replacement and allulose. This gives the sauce a thickness, but also helps keep it from recrystallizing as it cools. Read my guide to keto sweeteners for more information.
- Water
- Other flavorings: citrus zest, cinnamon, lime juice, chipotle powder, vanilla extract, cloves.
How to Make Keto Cranberry Sauce
- Combine the ingredients: Place the cranberries, sweeteners, and water in a large saucepan and set over medium heat.
- Simmer and chill: Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer until almost all the cranberries have popped. Remove and let cool.
Variations
Cinnamon “Brown Sugar” Cranberry Sauce
Use 1/4 cup Brown Swerve in place of the 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.
Tips for Success
Sweeteners: It’s important to understand the role various sweeteners play in making sugar free cranberry sauce. You can work with what you like best and what’s available to you, but you may have to adjust the recipe accordingly.
If you only have erythritol based sweeteners, your sauce will re-crystallize a little as it cools. To avoid this, I recommend using a confectioner’s style erythritol and whisking it in only AFTER you have simmered the cranberries and water together.
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.
Jellied cranberry sauce: Dissolve 1 packet of Knox gelatin or 1 tablespoon of grass-fed gelatin in a quarter cup of water. Whisk this into the cranberry mixture when you reduce the heat to a simmer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can get the same wonderful, thick consistency without sugar. Cranberries contain a lot of pectin, which releases as the berries cook and helps thicken the sauce. But for a more syrupy consistency, I recommend using some allulose or BochaSweet as well. Allulose works really well in this regard.
This keto cranberry sauce recipe has 2.8g of carbs and 1.0g of fiber per serving. That comes to 1.8g net carbs in 2 tablespoons.
Absolutely! I usually do it a few days in advance and just store it in the fridge in a jar. It lasts for at least a week. But you can also freeze cranberry sauce. 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.
More delicious keto cranberry recipes
Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
Basic Cranberry Sauce:
- 8 ounces (226.8 g) cranberries, fresh or frozen
- 2/3 cup (157.73 g) water
- 1/4 cup (45.5 g) Swerve Sweetener
- 1/4 cup (50 g) allulose, or BochaSweet
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
Storage Information
Store the sauce in the fridge in a glass jar for up to a week. You can also freeze the sauce for up to 2 months. Remember to leave a little head room in the jars for the sauce to expand.Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
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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I find it is more flavorful with a pinch of Himalayan pink salt added. Just my preference.
Thank you for this. I love cranberries! I make mine with a little vanilla.
Hi did you add the vanilla at beginning or end of cooking?
Thank you
I am not Anita, but you should always add at the end. Because it’s alcohol-based, it can cook off in the boiling process.
We can’t buy allulose or Bochasweet in Australia and they are very expensive to buy from the USA. Will the sauce still thicken if I leave it out or can I use something else to replace it?
Please read the Expert tips as I already addressed this.
Allulose gives me nausea and stomach cramps. I use Bocha Sweet for cranberry sauce. It doesn’t crystalize once chilled, like erythritol does.
You’re not alone in that with allulose. I had that too, at first but it seems I no longer have an issue with it. I did switch brands (I used Keystone Bakery at first and it was awful for me) so I don’t know if that’s what helped. But BochaSweet is a good choice.
When I make my cranberry sauce I like to use unsweetened O J concentrate along with some zest and a little lemon zest as well. I also add about 1/4 of an apple (peeled) to help thicken with the natural pectin. I add the cinnamon and sweetener, usually a mix of sucralose and natural stevia, near the end of the cooking process.
Oh, Carolyn, my friend!!! You have outdone yourself with this recipe. ❤️ A question though. Your Jellied Cranberry Sauce instructions:
Jellied cranberry sauce: Dissolve 1 packet of Knox gelatin or 1 tablespoon of grass-fed gelatin in a quarter cup of water. Whisk this into the cranberry mixture when you reduce the heat to a simmer.
For my PICKIEST eater ever ( aka hubby) how do I remove the berry peels? Run it through a food mill or zap it in my high powered blender?
I’d go for the blender. It will become a nice thick puree.
If I want to make the ‘seedless jelly ‘ canned version- do i need to increase the amount of cranberries since I’m milling the cooked fruit. If so, what would the amount be?
I honestly don’t know, I’ve never made it that way. You will need to experiment, but it will be tasty!
Carol, I am maintaining now with Keto….I have kept your site, the recipes are so good…I use them all the time to continue my weight loss. I am 73 and got such a fantastic yearly check up that I am going to be a continuous fan of yours and your recipes. This is going to be a star recipe for my Thanksgiving meal. I know it is good from the one I have made for years, thank you for testing so many great recipes out, I just trust that they are going to be as good as the one before. Your recipes for desserts are the only one’s I use, as well as your other recipes. Thank you for putting so much time into them……and continuing Keto for all of us fans as well as newbies.
You’re welcome!
Dear Carolyn,
I don’t know if you respond to followers emails, but I will take a chance. Reading your Cranberry Sauce recipe, it calls for allulose and I am assuming powdered allulose. I believe another recipe of yours called for liquid allulose. I’m still trying to figure out the gluten free/keto baking secrets, so I am a fan of yours! My wife and I have a couple of your cookbooks and we subscribe to your emails. Lots of pertinent information from those sources. Anyway my question is, can I substitute liquid allulose for dry or powdered and vice a versa? If so, what are their measurement equivalents? Any light you can shed would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Kevin
Hi Kevin! When a recipe just says allulose, always assume granular. It’s like saying “sugar” and “liquid invert sugar”. Whenever someone says “sugar”, you know it’s table sugar. And very few of my recipes call for liquid allulose, so I always specify the liquid part when necessary.
As for subbing one for the other, I don’t recommend that. Simply because the liquid allulose will introduce a whole lot of liquid into a recipe, and that may throw things off a lot. If you can only purchase one, get the granular! It’s much more useful. And if something calls for liquid allulose and all you have is granular, you can always use the granular and add more liquid.
I can’t put a rating on the recipe
I have questions
cranberries is not keto friendly, so how is it you say that this is keto? low carb? yes I can agree to that, but I can’t on the keto part, now am I missing something? I’ve been keto off and on for 3 years lost 183 pounds, still fighting with that last 100, just to give you a little bit of back ground on me,
in all my research cranberries has always been a big fat no, now if I am missing something please explain, no I’m not trying to come off as the keto Nazi, just trying to better understand
thank you for your time and yes I do follow you and make some of your recipes I’m a big fan…
Hi there. Cranberries are most certainly keto. In fact, they are one of the LOWEST carb berries out there… as long as we are talking about fresh or frozen RAW cranberries. I suspect you are getting confused by the fact that DRIED cranberries usually have a ton of added sugar, and thus are very high carb.
1 cup RAW cranberries has 13g of carbs and 5g of fiber. But you don’t eat
I made your cinnamon, “brown sugar” cranberry sauce variation. It was delicious. I was very impressed by how well it thickened. It didn’t need chilling to get a good consistency before dinner.
I made this yesterday. It reminded me so much of the cranberry sauce my mom made when I was a kid. It was my favorite part of our Thanksgiving meal. More tart than sweet … love it! So easy to do, I won’t wait for November to make it again.
So glad!
for the CranberrySauce with cinnamon and brown sugar Swerve, is the Bocha Sweet still needed?
Yup… otherwise it will recrystallize a lot.
Thank you, ty, ty! Been basically using the orange zest and clove version for 8 years now but add cinnamon and a dash of vanilla too, at the end. I make more than what I need for the meal and freeze some for turkey sandwiches throughout the year. So good! Gets compliments every year, even cranberry sauce haters love it!
when substituting xylitol for bocha sweet is it a 1:1?
Yep!
dear Carolyn,
I have tried so many of your recipes and purchased 2 of your books and I am overjoyed I watch you on you tube when I can and I am so grateful for the time you put into your work. I just want to thank you from the top and bottom of my heart. May you be greatly blessed for all your hard work. happy tasty Holidays.
Thank you!
This is the second year I have made this and it’s outstanding. I use orange zest, a touch of clove and cinnamon and it’s heavenly. I have a double batch frozen and ready for Thanksgiving. Thanks for all your great recipes!
So glad to hear it!