This Spiced Cranberry Sauce for the holidays is sweet, tart, and warmed up with cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. From start to finish, the recipe takes only 20 minutes and will add beautifully to your Thanksgiving and/or Christmas table.

After I eat something sweet, I crave something salty.

And my favorite is to have sweet and salty all in one bite.

This is exactly why I think adding cranberry sauce to your holiday spread is essential.

Listen, I know you have dozens upon dozens of cranberry sauce recipes to choose from, and here's why I hope you'll chose mine.

Two good reasons: it's super quick and easy to make, and the delicious addition of the spices makes it unique.

• These Spiced Cranberries take twenty minutes to make, from start to finish.
• Cinnamon, cardamom and cloves -- these three spices are typically combined with other spices to make a chai spice blend. 

Ingredient Notes

• fresh cranberries - During the fall and winter seasons, fresh cranberries should be available in the produce section of most markets. If it's off season, they'll be in the freezer section.
• ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground cardamom - This combination of spices adds warmth to almost anything it's added to, bringing it to another level.
• sugar - Feel free to adjust the amount of sugar to your taste.

(See recipe card below for quantities.)

How to Make it

- Rinse the cranberries in a collander.

- Then, combine them with all of the other ingredients in a small saucepan.

- Place the saucepan over low heat and simmer until the cranberries have broken and become soft, and the liquid has thickened. This should take about 20 minutes.

The spice mix: cardamom, cinnamon and cloves.

Recipe Tips, Substitutions and Variations

• Add citrus juice and zest. If you want to add a little tang to your cranberry sauce, use orange juice instead of water, and add about 1 teaspoon of orange or lemon zest.
• Add orange segments. I love adding beautiful orange segments. Here's how to cut citrus for adding it this recipe. You can also use mandarin oranges from a can, drained.
• The spices in this recipe make it interesting and different, and you can change them up if you'd like, adding just one or two, or more or less of them.
• This is not a super sweet cranberry sauce. Feel free to add more or less sugar if you like sweeter or less sweet.
• Can you use frozen cranberries? Yes you can use frozen cranberries. Just be sure to thaw them before starting the recipe. (If once thawed there is excess liquid, drain them.)
• The longer the cranberry sauce sits after it's cooked, the thicker it will become.

Serving Suggestions

Of course cranberry sauce is expected at Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, however -- whether you're celebrating -- or not, this will add beautifully to almost any meal.

Savory gravy, cornbread stuffing with mushrooms and bacon wrapped turkey are simply a bit more delicious with a sweet spiced cranberry sauce. Not to mention how beautifully the vibrant red color will add to your table.

Can you make it ahead?

Absolutely. You can make this spiced cranberry sauce recipe up to one week ahead.

Once it's made, cool it to room temperature, cover and refrigerate. (Bring it back to room temperature before serving.)

What to do With Leftover Spiced Cranberry Sauce

• Like most cranberry sauces, this spiced version is amazing in a grilled cheese sandwich! Especially with a brie grilled cheese.
• You can warm spiced cranberry sauce and spoon it over vanilla bean ice cream.
• And you can also make my Cranberry Sauce Muffins or Balsamic Cranberry Vinaigrette.

I hope you love this spiced cranberry sauce, along with all the other Thanksgiving and holiday recipes.