This Slow Cooker Cranberry Sauce is a great make-ahead side dish for your Thanksgiving day meal.

I am always looking for new slow cooker recipes for the holidays. There is only so much valuable space on the stove for cooking.

Having a few recipes to making in the slow cooker makes extra room on the stovetop for cooking more delicious holiday food.

Cranberry sauce is one of my favorite holiday sides at Thanksgiving. I adore cranberries so much.

Cranberries are packed full of antioxidants and nutrients. I love the natural tartness of the cranberry.

To balance out the tartness of the cranberries, I like to sweeten cranberry sauce with maple syrup.

On a recent trip to Petoskey, I found this incredible bourbon barrel aged maple syrup. It was perfect in this cranberry sauce made in the crockpot.

Any pure maple syrup will work for the cranberry sauce recipe though.

The combination of oranges and cranberries is one of my favorites. These recipes for Vegan Orange Cranberry Muffins and Vegan Cranberry Orange Pound Cake both combine the two flavor combinations.

When I make cranberry sauce, I like to add orange juice. This creates a very flavorful cranberry sauce.

Orange juice adds a natural sweetness to the cranberry sauce. Since the cranberries are naturally so tart, the natural sugar of the oranges will help to balance out the flavors.

For an extra pop of flavor, you could also add orange zest. The zest would be a great addition to the cranberry sauce.

What I love about this crockpot cranberry sauce is that you really only need three ingredients. To amp up the flavor, you could add in a few extra ingredients like a cinnamon stick or vanilla extract.

how to make the recipe:

First, add the rinsed cranberries to your slow cooker.

Pour in the orange juice, water and maple syrup.

Cook on high for 3 hours or on low 5-6 hours.

Once the cranberry sauce is done, use a wooden spoon or masher, gently mash the cranberries until desired consistency is reached.

The sauce might look like it has too much liquid, but the sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.

The great thing about cranberry sauce is that it can be made ahead of time. You can make the sauce a few days before you plan on serving it.

Once the cranberry sauce has completely cooled, transfer it to an air-tight container and refrigerate.

It is so easy to make a flavorful cranberry sauce from scratch in the slow cooker!

Happy Cooking!
Jeni