One of the great Thanksgiving dinner debates is cranberry jelly or cranberry sauce? Whole berries or puréed? Which do you prefer? For me, the answer is neither. I couldn’t care less if there was anything cranberry for dinner. Cranberry dessert, sure that’s great. Dinner, not so much.
So in an effort to come up with something cranberry for the meal that I was actually going to eat I went the mustard route. Josh and I are condiment lovers and I have seen and had all kinds of mustards, cranberry being one of them.
While Josh and I are spicy mustard fans the boys are huge honey mustard fans. Why not try to please everyone this time around, it is Thanksgiving after all!
The recipe is simple, very important when you are cooking up a storm for the big day. Just cook the cranberries in honey and a little water, add Dijon mustard and blend. How simple is that?!
Will I put this on my turkey? You bet! That’s more than I can say for traditional cranberry sauces or jellies. More importantly, there is so much more I will do with this sauce.
We will be having it for snacks. My family is big into dipping pretzels in mustards. One year Josh even made homemade pretzels on Thanksgiving day and we had a mustard bar to go with it. So in that tradition we will have this sauce with pretzels.
It will also be going on turkey sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving . I am drooling as I think about it right now! Once Thanksgiving is over I will probably be making chicken tenders with a pretzel crust just to dip into this sauce. Like I said, so many possibilities!
I was torn as to what to call this. Is it cranberry honey mustard or honey mustard cranberry sauce? The name doesn’t matter, all that matters is that it is incredibly delicious! Happy Thanksgiving one and all.
Honey Mustard Cranberry Sauce
3/4 c. honey
1/4 c. water
12 oz. fresh cranberries
1/3 c. Dijon mustard
Put the honey and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook for a couple minutes, until the honey dissolves. Add the cranberries and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the berries have burst and it looks a little syrupy it is done. Remove from heat, add mustard and purée with an immersion blender until smooth. Serve warm or at room temperature or even cold on a sandwich.
Yields: approx. 2 1/4 cups
Feeding My 3 Sons 
I do love cranberry sauce and do dream about it on my turkey sammiches. All the more reason why I would love your recipe. I cannot wait to give this one a try. Thanks, Gretchen. I hope you and the men in your life have a fantastic Thanksgiving!,
Hopefully you had a fantastic Thanksgiving as well! This was definitely a fun new addition to the Thanksgiving table.
Love cranberries and don’t use them often enough. I always think the idea of Thanksgiving a darn good one. Sounds nice and warm and fuzzy. 🙂
I use cranberries quite a bit in the fall and autumn and then have a stash in the freezer for the rest of the year. This was definitely a fun new way to use them.
I think Honey Mustard Cranberry Sauce is okay because it rhymes well. I made some pork chops with mustard and cream last night and also added some port in it. They were delicious. The cranberry sauce looks delicious!
Those pork chops sounds delicious! We will definitely make this sauce again and spread it on everything!