Flavored with orange juice and yummy spices like nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon this Spiced Cranberry Sauce will blow your taste buds away. It’s seriously delicious and the perfect condiment for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and any holiday!
I love cooking with spices. I just love the intense complexity in flavor that a little dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, or my favorite cardamon can add to a dish. When I decided to make some condiments for Thanksgiving, I thought it had to be cranberry sauce and a spiced one, too.
I love Indian spices, especially cardamom. I buy a big bag of it for making homemade Chai Tea. An Indian friend of ours taught me how to make authentic Chai and once I got introduced to cardamom, which is Chai’s premier ingredient, I was hooked.
After that I have used cardamom in many dishes I have made especially in curries as hubby and I are huge curry fans. I recently made pumpkin lassi and used cardamom for that and thought to myself it would be awesome to use cardamom in flavoring cranberry sauce, too! I know a little cardamom goes a long way, so I thought I’d try it.
Honestly, my taste buds were blown away by the flavors in this cranberry sauce. The addition of cardamom worked and the combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves was perfect.
A subtle hint of nutmeg, a nuance of cardamon, and of course the yummy flavors of cinnamon and cloves give this Thanksgiving condiment an amazing taste. And, it’s such a breeze to make! Hope you give this spiced Cranberry Sauce a try this holiday season!
FOR FULL RECIPE & INSTRUCTIONS and to PRINT, SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW.
WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS FOR SPICED CRANBERRY SAUCE?
Flavored with nutmeg, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon this Spiced Cranberry Sauce will blow your taste buds away. It’s seriously delicious and the perfect condiment for Thanksgiving, Christmas and any holiday!
- 1 cup Orange Juice or Water – some sweetness and citrus flavor are added with the orange juice so use it if possible.
- 2 cups Sugar – white or brown as preferred.
- 4 cups fresh or frozen Cranberries
- 1/2 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground Nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground Cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon ground Cloves
HOW DO YOU MAKE SPICED CRANBERRY SAUCE?
- In a heavy saucepan, dissolve the sugar in orange juice or water by stirring over low to medium heat. Bring to a boil.
- Add the cranberries and the spices and stir. Lower the heat and cook until the cranberries pop about 10-12 minutes and the sauce has thickened to your liking. It will also thicken as it cools down.
- The cranberry sauce can be made a day or 2 ahead. Refrigerate if making ahead. Serve at room temperature.
Yield: 10-12 Servings
Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cooking Time: 15 Minutes
Total Time: 20 Minutes
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Spiced Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup Orange Juice or Water
- 2 cups Sugar
- 4 cups fresh or frozen Cranberries
- ½ teaspoon ground Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground Nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground Cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon ground Cloves
Instructions
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In a heavy saucepan, dissolve the sugar in orange juice or water by stirring over low to medium heat. Bring to a boil.
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Add the cranberries and the spices and stir. Lower the heat and cook until the cranberries pop about 10-12 minutes and the sauce has thickened to your liking. It will also thicken as it cools down.
-
The cranberry sauce can be made a day or 2 ahead. Refrigerate if making ahead. Serve at room temperature.
Dear Abby, I've never cooked with cardamom before. My head must be in the sand. I'm intrigued. I love chai tea, so I must love cardamom. I definitely love whole cranberry sauce, so this will be a real winner at our Thanksgiving table. Have a blessed Thanksgiving with your family and friends. xo
My grandmas would love this! Her most favorite thing at Thanksgiving is the cranberry sauce and we always make sure we have it there for her!
Looks delicious and perfect for this year's turkey.
I much prefer spices in my cranberry sauce (or chutney) too! This one looks amazing! I save extra of it for after Thanksgiving and serve it on my curries too!
I'm a BIG fan of cardamom too, and I love all the spices you added to this cranberry sauce. Something about these spices that make anything festive. And just a little bit more special. Thanks for the inspiration!
I love cranberries and this combinations with the spices sounds delicious I will have to try soon.
We are going to be making our own cranberry sauce this year for the first time and I hope it looks as great as this!
Love homemade cranberry sauce! So fresh and flavorful, awesome idea to add ground cloves.
Amen to homemade cranberry sauce! It's so easy to make, I don't know why anyone ever buys anything else–but you've made it even better with the spices. Sounds good!
This sounds amazing! I love spices in pretty much everything, whereas my family doesn't. Fortunately, they live in another state, so we don't spend Thanksgiving together and I can eat what I want!
I love cardamom on anything so I am sold.
I've rarely been sorry when I've added cardamom to a dish 🙂
Looks delicious. Such a vibrant color!
I am looking for a new cranberry recipe this year. this sounds awesome!
Perfect recipe for the holidays right now. And love the heart shape bowl!
I love cardamom too… I use it lots in my cooking and it is fabulous with just about anything. I always have some on hand. Think I will be adding some to my cranberry sauce this year.
This spiced cranberry sauce looks perfect!
In Sweden we love cranberry sauce, but I never tried with spices. Love the idea though, it will be the perfect twist to a classic. Thanks for your recipe! 🙂
I love that you added cardamom to this! I'm sold!
Abby, your addition of cardamom is genius! Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving.
I'm a huge cranberry sauce fan, but have never used this combination of spices – love them together, especially in this context. I must try it!
I love the flavor combinations in this dish! Thanks for sharing!
great flavours to make a different cranberry sauce , thank you xoxo
I'm making this for Christmas this year – I need a change and this recipe sounds wonderful. Thanks.