Easy Instant Pot Cranberry Sauce

A bowl of Instant Pot cranberry sauce garnished with sugared cranberries and orange slices.

Easy Instant Pot Cranberry Sauce

Our homemade cranberry sauce has a hint of orange and is lightly spiced, and it saves stovetop space since it's made in the Instant Pot! This is naturally gluten free and allergy friendly.

Makes about 2 ½ to 3 cups of sauce, 9 servings of 1/3 cup each

Gluten free, vegan

Course Condiments, Sauces, & Spreads, Side Dishes

Cuisine American

Keyword homemade cranberry sauce, instant pot cranberry sauce

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 5

Pressure release 15

Total Time 25

Servings servings

Calories 164kcal

Author Sarah Jane Parker

Equipment

Pressure Cooker

Ingredients

Cranberry sauce

1 pound fresh cranberries
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
zest of 1 small to medium orange
½ cup fresh orange juice
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
Dash salt

Sugared cranberry garnish

5-10 fresh cranberries washed and dried
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
1-2 Tablespoons sugar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cranberry sauce

This recipe is best served chilled, so made it's best made 6 to 24 hours ahead.
Measure out 1 pound of fresh cranberries and wash them, removing any that are mushy.
Add the cranberries to the Instant Pot, and add the sugars. Zest the orange into the pot then juice the orange and add the orange juice, dash of salt, and the spices. You may need juice from more than one orange for this sauce.
Stir everything together, then close and seal your Instant Pot and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes.
Once the cooking is done, allow natural pressure release for 15 minutes, then quick-release the rest of the pressure.
Open the pressure cooker and stir, it will look runny at first but will start to thicken as soon as it starts cooling and you stir. Stirring will also help to crush any cranberries that have not split open yet.
Allow the sauce to cool for about 15 to 30 minutes then put in a covered dish in the fridge to completely chill.
This tastes best chilled, or at least at room temperature, so this is best cooked 1 day ahead for chilled, or at least 6 hours ahead for chilling time or room temperature serving.

Sugared cranberry garnish

For the sugared cranberries, I took a small handful of washed and dried cranberries and added them to a small container with a little bit of maple syrup (only enough maple syrup to cover the cranberries, maybe 1 teaspoon).
Shake the container to coat the cranberries with maple syrup, then add the syrup-coated cranberries to a different container with some white sugar (or unbleached sugar) and shake them with the sugar to coat.
Add the cranberries to a cocktail pick and garnish your drink.

Video

Notes

For a less firm and "saucier" sauce: add only 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar into the instant pot with the rest of the ingredients, leaving out 1/4 cup of the white sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar and setting it aside. After cooking the cranberry sauce and allowing it to cool a bit (10 minutes or so), stir in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar while the cranberry sauce is still warm. This results in a less firm and more saucy cranberry sauce with the same sweetness as the original.

The nutrition estimates don't include the garnish.

Nutrition