Healthy Cranberry Sauce with Raspberries and Pineapple

Cranberries naturally sweetened with raspberries, pineapple, and honey, are bright and delicious in this healthy cranberry sauce recipe. Free of refined sugar and common allergens, this easy cranberry sauce recipe is also gluten free and grain free.

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Cranberry sauce is a classic dish for many holiday tables. Ripening in the fall, cranberries in the form of sauce traditionally make their appearance at the Thanksgiving table. Sometimes they stick around for Christmas!

I consider this to be a Christmas cranberry sauce recipe. There is no reason you couldn’t make it for Thanksgiving, or any time you wanted. Something about it says “Christmas”, though. The flavor is different because of the less typical fruit additions, but the cranberry flavor still zings, and the red color sparkles.

Another item missing from this healthy cranberry sauce is the refined sugar. Present in copious quantities in most cranberry sauce recipes, and certainly in store bought cranberry sauce, refined sugar works against us in many ways.

No big deal now and then, maybe, but if you make cranberry sauce often or don’t want the cranberry sauce to represent a major sugar splurge, you may seek to cut back on the sugar.

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Is “Healthy Cranberry Sauce” really good for us?

It can be pretty good for us! Here is what we will use:

• cranberries— more than just a pretty color, cranberries offer vitamin C, antioxidants, polyphenols, heart benefits, protection from harmful bacteria in the digestive and urinary tract, immune support, maybe oral health benefits, and more. Find out more here.
• pineapple— fresh pineapple offers vitamin C, manganese, enzymes, antioxidants, and more to help us with staying healthy, digesting our food well, fighting cancer, reducing inflammation, and more. Some of these benefits are lost in cooking, though.
• raspberries— packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and phytonutrients, raspberries can help prevent disease, protect our eyes and skin, manage blood sugar, promote digestion and brain function, and more.
• raw honey— a real superfood, good quality raw honey provides too many benefits to mention, beginning with antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antiviral properties, and cardiovascular, brain, and digestive support. While it is a sugar, it behaves differently from other sugars. To retain the benefits of raw honey, we will not heat the honey. You can use regular (pasteurized) honey that isn’t raw in this recipe. It won’t have all the health benefits, but it will work the same otherwise and taste just as good.

Questions and Answers

Is this a low-carb cranberry sauce?

No, it has plenty of carbs. The fruits and the honey are full of carbs. They are good-for-you carbs, but if you need to keep your carbs very low, this recipe isn’t going to work for you.

It this recipe GAPS approved?

If you stick with the fresh or frozen (not canned) fruit and raw honey, this is a good recipe for the GAPS diet. You may want to stick with a small serving, though.

Can I use canned pineapple?

Yes! Fresh pineapple is wonderfully sweet and lacks potential toxins from the can, but canned also works very well. One small can of crushed pineapple or pineapple tidbits can replace the fresh pineapple, and you can use the juice for sweetness. Frozen pineapple is also fine; just cut it small.

Can I use fresh raspberries?

Either fresh or frozen raspberries are fine.

What if my cranberries are frozen?

They will work well, just thaw them first. Or heat them very slowly, perhaps adding a little water, if you start with frozen. They will take longer to release their juice and need longer cooking if they are frozen at the beginning.

Will other forms of sugar work instead of honey?

You could use maple syrup, brown or white sugar, coconut sugar, or other sugars in place of honey. Some will add a unique flavor, which you might prefer. Or not. You might need a little more sugar if you replace the honey, as honey is a little sweeter than the others.

Can I use a sugar substitute?

I have not tried sugar substitutes in cranberry sauce. If you have one you like to use in cooking, you could try it. It would probably work, but I can’t say from experience which ones will work well.

What if I can’t eat pineapple?

You may do fine with cooked pineapple, in which case you will be able to use this recipe. The enzymes in fresh pineapple bother some people, giving them a sore mouth. Cooking pineapple deactivates the enzymes; if that is your problem with pineapple, you will do fine.

If you can’t eat cooked pineapple, either, I would try using grated apple instead. Try one or two apples to equal about a cup of grated apple. It will lack the bright pineapple flavor, but apple will add bulk and sweetness. You could also add a little orange for extra flavor somewhat like the pineapple– juice, zest, or a little finely chopped orange with the membranes removed. Or try my cranberry orange sauce instead!

How to Make Cranberry Sauce with Raspberries and Pineapple

This healthy cranberry sauce recipe could hardly be easier. Teach your children to make it!

Start by preparing your fruit. Wash the berries and pick out any bad ones, and chop up the pineapple. Save the juice of the pineapple if you can! It is very sweet and can go into your pot at the beginning.

Put all the fruit in a saucepan big enough to fit. If you don’t have any juices from the pineapple, add a tablespoon of water so the fruit doesn’t burn.

Set the pan on very low heat, and cover so it heats quickly and the liquid builds up. After it comes to a simmer and the fruit is releasing plenty of juice, remove the lid and let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes. The color will become uniform, the berries will break down into a sauce, and the enzymes in the pineapple will be deactivated.

(These enzymes could keep the sauce from thickening later. We want them to break down for that reason. Eat the rest of the pineapple fresh; the enzymes are good for you!

Once your sauce has bubbled along for awhile and looks sort of uniform, remove it from the heat. Let it cool to something like lukewarm or room temperature, then add the honey. Start with a little honey and add more until you like the sweetness. The amount you add will depend on your taste and on how sweet your fruit was.

Pineapple can be intensely sweet, especially if it is very ripe. It also may not be so sweet. If you use canned, it will be less sweet. Find your “sweet spot”!

Once your honey is adjusted, chill the sauce well and scoop it into a pretty bowl before serving.

What can I do with leftover Cranberry Sauce?

Besides eating healthy cranberry sauce alongside leftovers from the holiday meal, you could:

• Serve it with something totally different! We think of cranberry sauce alongside roasted turkey, but it is delicious with roasted chicken or pork as well. We like to have it with Swedish meatballs if we don’t have lingonberries, too!
• Spread it on toast or a sandwich.
• Use it to top pancakes, waffles, or French toast instead of syrup.
• Stir it into plain yogurt.
• If you have a lot, mix it with a similar amount of whipped cream or sour cream for a “cranberry fluff” dessert.
• Whiz it into a smoothie.

Looking for other cranberry sauce ideas? I have some!

cranberry orange sauce with no refined sugar!

fermented cranberry relish— easy and not as weird-tasting as it sounds!