Healthy Instant Pot Cranberry Orange Sauce with just 3 ingredients and no refined sugar. This homemade cranberry sauce is ready in under 15 minutes!
Free up a spot on the stove this Thanksgiving with this Instant Pot cranberry sauce! This easy, cranberry sauce made without refined sugar is the perfect sweet and tangy addition to your meal!
Ingredients
You’ll only need a handful of ingredients for this cranberry sauce recipe. I’m using maple syrup and fresh orange juice as a natural sweetener.
To get started, gather these ingredients from the fridge:
Fresh or frozen cranberries
Oranges
Maple syrup
Canned versus homemade
Growing up, cranberry sauce was the easiest side dish to make. Even I could do it because I just needed to know how to use a can opener and how to wiggle the jiggly jellied cranberry sauce from the can – without breaking it of course.
We never had whole cranberry sauce, only the smooth, jellied kind that would be served sliced next to the pan of turkey and dressing.
That one can of sauce – if not on the table – would stop Thanksgiving dinner cold. It had to be there. And that’s still the case at my folks’ place in South Carolina to this day.
Make this easy homemade cranberry sauce!
Now, I know the canned stuff is easy but this cranberry orange sauce comes in a close second.
With just 3 ingredients, this easy Cranberry Orange Sauce comes together in under 15 minutes using a pressure cooker. It simply combines fresh cranberries, maple syrup, and the juice and zest of an orange.
How long does homemade cranberry sauce last?
This cranberry sauce with orange and maple is the perfect make-ahead side dish or topping. You can serve it right away chilled or at room temperature.
If you have leftovers, store it in a sealed container for up to a week in the refrigerator.
Use up leftover cranberry sauce
Add any leftover cranberry sauce in these cranberry overnight oats recipe.
No oats? Swirl it into yogurt. You can also add cranberry sauce as a sweet sandwich topper or fruity toast topping.
Add a big dollop to a snack board for a sweet tart touch to roll up with turkey, chicken, or pair with cheese.
Clearly there are lots of ways to use up leftover cranberry sauce. I’d love to hear how you use it!
Until last week, I had never made homemade cranberry sauce. But with the success I’ve had making peach jam and applesauce in the Instant Pot, I knew had to try cranberry sauce too!
I’m pretty sure it’s the only way I’ll do it now. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Instant Pot Cranberry Orange Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 12 ounces fresh (or frozen*) cranberries
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon orange zest (zest before juicing the orange)
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to the Instant Pot (or your pressure cooker) pot. Set the valve to “sealing.” Start the Instant Pot in manual mode for 5 minutes at high pressure. Let it work, releasing the pressure naturally. Once the pressure is released, open the top using a towel to protect your hands from the steam.
- Stir the cranberry sauce with a wooden spoon. Mash the berries as much or as little as you’d like to create a more smooth or chunky sauce. If you’re using frozen berries and notice a little extra liquid, use the sauté function to cook some of it off.
- Once done, serve the cranberry orange sauce at room temperature or refrigerate in a sealed jar for up to a week.
Kelly Jones
Absolutely love cranberry sauce!! Instant pot is such a great idea for thanksgiving to save time and space on the stove. It’s on my Christmas list!!
Marisa
Haha! Love that this made your Christmas list!
Gail
My Breville requires more liquid. Could I put your ingredients in steamer and add water/orange juice?
Marisa
Hi Gail! THanks for stopping by. Do you mean the steamer basket of a Breville pressure cooker? I’m not sure how well that would work. Have you tried cooking fruit in the Breville yet? Because fruit is already high in water, it helps compensate for the lower liquid requirement in this recipe. The water cooks out.
In any case, if you add more liquid (say double the juice), it won’t ruin the recipe. You can just plan to use the saute function to cook off any extra liquid after the pressure cooking is done.
Just so you know… I tried this recipe in the IP with regular white sugar then again with maple syrup and found that the maple syrup one comes out a bit more watery than the white sugar version so the liquid levels work great – at least with the IP. I need to try it in my Fagor to see if it’s difference.
Diana Starr Daniels
That answers my question about added water. TY
Serena
5 stars! Love that it’s only 4 ingredients!
Marisa
Thanks, Serena! Yes. It’s so simple. I was torn on whether it’s 3 or 4 ingredients :). Do I call the orange 1 ingredient or count the juice and zest to call it 2?
Kate Larivee
Looking forward to trying this out! Could you can this sauce using the water bath method?
Marisa
Hi Kate,
I haven’t tried canning this sauce so that I’m not sure about. Let us know if you decide to try it out. It’s low in added sugar so you might find that it becomes more tart over time as I found in simply keeping it in the fridge for a bit.
Sailkees
So easy, with only four ingredients and cranberries and maple syrup are local! Absolutely delicious! Put in my steel cut oats this morning, too die for!
Marisa
I’m so happy to hear that! And lucky you to live where the cranberries and maple syrup are local goodies!
Lovelle74
I made this for Thanksgiving and I am sorry to say it was disgusting.
LynnAnn Thomas
My IP wouldn’t pressurize until I added a cup of water. Anyone else? Final product was really good.
Marisa
Hi LynnAnn, I have not experienced that but thanks for sharing. Just curious. We’re you using fresh or frozen cranberries?
Suzanne
This is the Best recipe ever! The only addition I made is to put two cinnamon sticks in with the other ingredients. It gives it a wonderfully rich flavor! Don’t forget to take them out before serving. This will be my go to recipe for cranberry sauce from now on!