One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is my homemade cranberry sauce!
I grew up refusing to eat the jello like cranberry sauce that came from the can thinking that was what all cranberry sauce tasted like. As I got older I wouldn't even dream of having cranberry sauce on my table for Thanksgiving knowing how much I hated it.
It wasn't until 1 day many years later and many Thanksgiving day's later that I was thumbing through a "Sunset" magazine looking at their Thanksgiving issue and came upon a picture of some incredible looking cranberry jelly like stuff that in no way resembled what I had known to be cranberry sauce!
After seeing that picture I starting craving that delicious looking dish on a daily basis so when Thanksgiving day finally arrived I was more than excited to try my hand at making this recipe.
The results were amazing and the cranberry sauce was actually the first dish to disappear that year. Since then I have come up with some modifications to that original recipe and come up with my favorite combination and a perfect version for our healthy Thanksgiving!
I like my cranberry sauce a little on the less sweet side and prefer a little more tartness and some spice to mine.
12 oz. fresh cranberries
1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 a cup water
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice and zest of 1 orange
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
Directions:
1. Wash the oranges, and zest the peels then squeeze the juice to equal 1/2 a cup.
2. Grate about a 1 inch chunk of Ginger
3. Wash the cranberries and toss any that don’t look good.
4. Put the cranberries, the water, honey, orange juice and orange zest, grated ginger, and cinnamon stick into a pan. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
5. Allow the sauce to cool, and then put it in an airtight container in the fridge. Chill for 6 hours or overnight.
6. Remove cinnamon stick when ready to serve.
I hope you enjoy this Holiday recipe as much as we do! It's funny to see people turn their nose up when I put the cranberry sauce on the table but to then see them enjoying it during the meal.
Many people have never tasted true homemade cranberry sauce the way it is supposed to be prepared. Ican't tell you the amount of people who have told me that they never liked cranberry sauce until they tasted mine.
Give it a try and see how many people you can convert to cranberry sauce lovers! I love it so much now that I have a hard time not eating it all while its warm and still in the pan!
Have a great Thanksgiving and as always......in good health and happiness,
Brandy Augustine PhD