5 Ingredient 5 Spice Cranberry Sauce

Hi friends!

Here is the recipe for the Five Spice Cranberry Sauce we made on Thanksgiving that we absolutely LOVED.  This was inspired and adapted from one I saw by Michael Gelman (producer on Live with Kelly and Michael).

What you’ll need:

1 large navel orange, to be zested and juiced

1 bag frozen cranberries (10 oz), no need to thaw first

1/2 cup coconut nectar (or agave, honey, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, etc.)

3/4 teaspoon Chinese Five-Spice Powder

1 Serrano pepper  (if you like heat feel free to use 2 or you can keep some of the seeds in)

First you’ll want to zest your orange (set the zest aside) then cut the orange in half and juice it (with a citrus press or juicer).

Pour 1/2 cup of the orange juice into a medium saucepan pan and add the cranberries, coconut nectar and five spice powder.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat.

While the cranberries are coming to temperature: destem, deseed and finely dice your Serrano pepper.  (Whenever you handle hot peppers, be sure to wash your hands right after so that you don’t inadvertently rub your eyes later.)

When the cranberries are boiling, add the diced serrano pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of the reserved orange zest you set aside earlier. (If you have leftover zest let it sit out for a few days to dry then you can keep it in an airtight container and use when you need some the next time.)  Turn the heat down to a low simmer – I let mine simmer for a good 20 minutes or more while I was preparing other parts of our meal.

If you like your cranberry sauce chunky, you can use a potato masher at this step to break up the cranberries.  Or if you prefer it blended, like we do you can remove it from the heat and use an immersion blender.  Or transfer to a blender and REALLY puree it!

At this point you can serve right away or you can transfer it back to the pan, covered over low or no heat, until your other meal components are ready.

We loved this!  It stole the show at the dinner table.  It yields approximately 1.5 cups – depending on how much it reduces during your simmering time.

The ‘quick directions’ if you want to copy, paste and print:

Ingredients:

• 1 large navel orange, zested (1/2 tsp) then juiced (1/2 cup)
• 1 bag frozen cranberries (10 oz), no need to thaw first
• 1/2 cup coconut nectar (or agave, honey, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, etc.)
• 3/4 teaspoon Chinese Five-Spice Powder
• 1 Serrano pepper, stem/seeds removed, finely diced  (if you like heat feel free to use 2 or you can keep some of the seeds in)

Procedure:

Add 1/2 cup orange juice, cranberries, coconut nectar and five spice powder to a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Then add the Serrano peppers and the reserved 1/2 tsp zest.  Simmer over low for 20 minutes or so (this is flexible) then blend and serve.

***

I served mine on salmon.  Cory had his on his turkey breast.  And then we used the leftovers in Grilled Gruyere + Cranberry Sandwiches!  

These were delicious!  Especially with a glass of hard cider.

Have a great day friends!  Happy eating!

– Shari B. =)