Easy Tart Cherry Cranberry Sauce! Whether you spoon it over your thanksgiving mains, dollop it alongside roasted veggies, or add it to your holiday leftovers, this unusual but crowd-pleasing condiment will have everyone asking for the recipe.
This homemade Easy Tart Cherry Cranberry Sauce is the ultimate holiday upgrade: bright, bold, and totally irresistible. Made with juicy tart cherries and tangy cranberries, this easy holiday sauce comes together quickly and delivers that perfect balance of sweet and tang that tastes like it belongs on your Thanksgiving or Christmas table. Think of it as a fun twist on traditional cranberry sauce: it’s familiar, yet pleasantly unexpected, with fruit-forward flavor in every bite.
Whole Food Plant Based, Vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.
Hi there, Ameera here!
We love cranberries,and honestly, we’re especially obsessed with cranberry sauces! This one is so good it practically disappears right off the spoon.
The tart cherry addition makes it feel extra special, while the cranberries keep it vibrant, tangy, and seriously flavorful.
If you’re looking for a delicious homemade cranberry sauce that’s a little different from the usual, you gotta give this one a try; you’ll be so glad you did!
Tips for Success:
- Flavor Profile: This homemade Easy Tart Cherry Cranberry Sauce is an easy holiday sauce full of delicious tart cherries and cranberries. Absolutely delicious and a fun twist on traditional cranberry sauce. This unusual dish is a great and tasty pivot from the traditional cranberry sauce.
- Mashing the Cherries and Cranberries: During the last few minutes of cooking, if you wish for a “smoother” sauce, simply use a potato masher to break down the cranberries and cherries into a compote type mixture where the sauce is a mixture of jelly-like sauce with pieces of broken cranberries and cherries throughout.
- Cranberry Sauce: Cranberries have natural pectin which allows the sauce to thicken naturally. As the cranberries pop in the heat, they release their natural pectin. As the sauce cools, it thickens even more.
- Cranberries: Use fresh or frozen cranberries. 16 oz. of fresh cranberries is approximately 4 ¾ cups.
- Texture: The texture is a combination of sauce and broken cranberries and cherries. While hot, the sauce will appear slightly running. After refrigeration, the sauce thickens up.
- Serve Warm or Cold: This tart cherry cranberry sauce tastes fantastic both warm and cold. It is delicious!
- Optional Vanilla: The vanilla almost gives it a pie filling flavor.
- Serving Ideas: This tasty sauce is fantastic served warm over “nice”cream, oatmeal, yogurt, Overnight oats, or ice cream, etc.
- Frozen Red Tart Pitted Cherries: We used tart cherries because of their unique flavor and complementariness of the cherries with the cranberries.
- Frozen Red Tart Pitted Cherries Substitutions: You can substitute the red tart pitted cherries with dark sweet cherries, regular red cherries, or a blend of red tart and dark sweet cherries.
- Table Salt: If using table salt, you should use less table salt than the amount listed in the ingredients as sea salt crystals are larger than table salt crystals. Since table salt crystals are very fine, less table salt is required to season a dish. We would suggest starting with about 1/4 to 1/2 the amount of sea salt listed. You can always add more salt but cannot take it away. We recommend using sea salt as it is less refined than table salt.
- Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs
Leftovers and Freezing:
Leftovers will generally keep 7 days in the refrigerator. Store in a covered air-tight container.
This cranberry sauce freezes well.
Pantry Products:
- Frozen Red Tart Pitted Cherries: Our local grocery store had frozen red tart pitted cherries under their own label (Giant Eagle); however, with a quick internet search, we found that many of the large grocery store chains carry the same. Feel free to use your favorite brand.
Kitchen Equipment:
- Medium saucepan
- Potato masher (optional)
If you try this delicious cranberry sauce, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us! We would love to hear from you.
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Easy Tart Cherry Cranberry Sauce
- Prep Time: 5 Minutes
- Cook Time: 20 Minutes
- Total Time: 25 Minutes (+Rest Time)
- Yield: 5 Cups 1x
- Category: Sauce, Side
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This homemade Easy Tart Cherry Cranberry Sauce is the ultimate holiday upgrade: bright, bold, and totally irresistible.
Ingredients
Sauce Ingredients
- 16 oz. fresh (or frozen) cranberries (approx. 4 ¾ to 5 cups)
- 1 – [ 12 oz. package ] frozen red tart pitted cherries (approx. 2 ¾ cup) *
- 1 cup water
- ¾ cup pure maple syrup (+/-)
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt *
Optional Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Make the Sauce by placing all the Sauce Ingredients into a medium sauce and heat over high heat until boiling. Once the mixture starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium and boil for 10 to 15 minutes or until all the cranberries burst and have thickened into a jelly-like substance, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Use a potato masher, if needed, to mash the cranberries and cherries together.
- Once all the cranberries have popped and the sauce has thickened, remove from the heat. Stir in optional vanilla, if desired.
- Allow to sit for 10 minutes or longer, serve warm or cold. If you prefer to serve cold, then place the warm sauce in a glass container and allow to come to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.
Notes
Please reference the blog post for Tips for Success, Pantry Products Used, Storage and Freezing, and Kitchen Equipment Used.
Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
Servings: 10 (makes 5 cups)
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