Healthy Cranberry Sauce

Funny thing about cranberry sauce; for years as a child and into my teen years I thought it was canned beets. The handful of Thanksgiving dinners I went to there was canned cranberry sauce served. I had no desire to try it because I thought it was beets. Looked like blended up and canned beets and why would I eat canned beets?!? I liked fresh beets and wondered why fresh were not used.

One year I was talking to my friend about traditional Thanksgiving foods. She said she loved thanksgiving food and could eat it all the time, I enthusiastically agreed, mostly. I threw in the fact that I didn’t love the canned beets they put on turkey. She was surprised that my family served beets at a dinner. I told her it was not just my family, I had seen canned beets all sliced up in perfect round circles on a dish at multiple Thanksgiving dinners.

She thought for a minute, then slowly asked me if I was talking about cranberry sauce. “What’s that!?!” I replied with excitement, because I loved dried cranberries, so this sounded good. She explained to me what cranberry sauce was, how fresh tasted way better but lots of people use canned. I slowly connected the dots 🧐. All these years I thought the cranberry sauce was blended up beets! She even saved me a bit of fresh cranberry sauce her parents made that Thanksgiving and I loved it.

I have made sure to prepare fresh cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving since that enlightening day. As of now it has been 12 years since my switch to whole foods and cutting out refined sugar. Some years I make a date sweetened cranberry sauce, some years I make it with honey or dates. This is my recipe for the sauce made with honey/maple syrup. I hope you enjoy it and have a happy healthy Thanksgiving day!