Thanksgiving Dinner Sides 2016: How To Make Easy Cranberry Orange Sauce Recipe In 3 Steps

It might be last minute, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t enough time to make a delicious cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving dinner. Aside from the turkey, the sides are the most important part of the Turkey Day feast, after all.

While cranberry sauce is a classic, try a new riff on the traditional dish by adding some orange. Just a little zest and some juice will make the ordinary side pop. The best part: It’s easy!

For a simple recipe, courtesy of Damn Delicious, continue reading below:

Ingredients:

1 (12-ounce) bag fresh cranberries
Zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup sugar, or more, to taste
3/4 cup of water

Directions:

1. Combine orange zest, orange juice in a medium saucepan. Place it over medium heat. Cook it until the sugar has dissolved, stirring occasionally.

2. Add the cranberries and bring the mixture to a boil, which means big bubbles are bursting at the top. Once that happens, decrease the heat and let it simmer until the sauce has thickened. This should take 15 minutes.

3. Let it cool down. Serve when the turkey is ready.

Bonus: Here are some quick fun facts about cranberries, as per Fooducate:

Cranberries are one of the few fruits that are native to North America.
Ninety-five percent of cranberries that are eaten are cooked first.
Twenty percent of cranberries that are harvested are eaten on Thanksgiving.
Cranberries don’t grow underwater. They are flooded during harvesting so they float to the top.
Cranberries were most likely eaten at the first Thanksgiving in 1621.
Cranberry juice does not help cure a urinary tract infection.
It takes 16 months for cranberries to grow.

For different ways to make other types of cranberry sauce, click here.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!