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.
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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.
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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.
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