Of course, you can buy cranberry sauce. You can buy it all year round and I do get a jar or two throughout the year. But you can make cranberry sauce unlike anything you can get on the supermarket shelf. So, when cranberries come into season, it’s one of the first things I do with them.
If you enjoy the recipes here, please show your support for this blog by clicking on the ads to help keep the free content coming!
I don’t just make a little, either. I use two cartons of fresh cranberries and cram an empty ice cream tub full with the finished sauce. It keeps fresh for a few weeks, so why not indulge (though usually by the time Christmas comes around I have to make another batch because the first one has almost gone)?
There are many extras you can put in the sauce while you are making it. I opt each year for whole cinnamon sticks, orange zest and large raisins. I don’t drink so I don’t put alcohol in mine, but a good port or a red wine is great to use instead of the water if you are so inclined. I leave the cinnamon sticks and whole cloves in the finished sauce, so that the flavour continues to infuse while it is storing.
The recipe is naturally both vegan and gluten-free and a batch will keep for 2-3 weeks in the fridge. If you don’t want to make this much, then just half the recipe and shave a few minutes off the cooking time.
ORDER YOUR COPY OF MY COOKBOOK
GOING VEGAN FROM AMAZON
AVAILABLE IN BOTH PAPERBACK AND KINDLE FORMAT
Cranberry sauce
Ingredients
Gluten-Free
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil or other flavourless oil
- 1 red onion finely diced
- 2 x 275g packs of fresh cranberries
- 150 ml cold water change this for port or red wine if you like
- 175 g golden caster sugar
- 125 g soft brown sugar
- 3 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 2 sticks cinnamon
- 4 whole cloves
- The juice and zest of 1 orange
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 100 g redcurrant jelly
- 100 g large raisins
- A pinch of salt
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a small to medium saucepan and gently fry the onion for 5-7 minutes, until it is soft.
- Add the cranberries and pour in the water, then bring up to a gentle simmer.
- Put in the sugar and all of the other ingredients, bring back up to a simmer and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring often, until you have a thick, jam-like consistency. I find it helpful to break up any whole cranberries that haven’t done so themselves with the back of a spoon during cooking.
- Allow to fully cool before storing in the fridge.
- Keeps for 2-3 weeks.
Rhubarb and Blueberry Jam
This is a great recipe if you have some leftover rhubarb in your garden, in addition to some fresh blueberries, available now in most supermarkets if you don’t grow them. It’s the kind of thing you can throw together late one evening, as it only requires the occasional stir. You can then leave it to…
Caramelised Red Onion Dip
This is the perfect time of year to be experimenting with cold and light food. Easy items that you can store in the fridge and eat over a few days as the mood takes you. Dips are great for outdoor eating. You can put a selection of homemade dips on the table on any occasion,…
Roasted Asparagus, Basil and Walnut Pesto Served with Baby Potatoes and Broad Beans
You can get asparagus imported all year round in most supermarkets, but British asparagus has its growth season between May and July, with early appearance often at the end of April. Now is the perfect time to make use to these green spears in your everyday cooking. My choice for this recipe was to roast…
Asparagus, Mushroom and Leek Pastries
April 23rd marks the start of asparagus season and we are now starting to see British asparagus appear on the shelves. Young asparagus is a thin and tender vegetable that is perfect for cooking a variety of dishes. It cooks quickly, so you must keep an eye on it. The more mature plant is thicker…
Vegan Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
What is it about a plate of plump vegan meatballs in a rich tomato sauce, nestled comfortably on a soft pillow of spaghetti that is so satisfying even before a single mouthful is taken? It is a dish where even the sight and smell of it has its own umami. It creates thrilling anticipation from…
Vegan Enchiladas
To veganise something like Enchiladas now is incredibly easy with the variety of ingredients available in most supermarkets. For this one I have used fresh vegan mince, along with mushrooms and onions for the chilli base. Don’t worry if you don’t like eating vegan mince, you can always substitute this chilli for my Sweet Potato,…
Spanish Lentils with Vegan Chorizo and Black Pudding
I first tried this dish about 25 years ago, when my Spanish girlfriend made it for me in a bedsit we shared in North London back in the mid-nineties. It was cooked on one of those old Baby Belling stoves that you would often see in bedsits back in those days (they might still have…
Vegan Fudge Cookies
We’ve been enjoying packets of vegan fudge in our house for quite a while now and a recent conversation with my wife got me thinking about how great it would be to have the fudge in a cookie, just like it was chocolate chip. This recipe is the product of that discussion: a very simple…
20
20
20
20