This homemade lingonberry sauce is a six-ingredient recipe made with fresh or frozen lingonberries or cranberries, sugar, and a hint of cinnamon. This sauce is a copycat version of IKEA Swedish meatball sauce and will take you only a few minutes to make.
It's a great alternative to traditional cranberry sauce and will taste delicious with chicken, turkey, duck, and pork!
Ingredients For Lingonberry Sauce
- Lingonberries - frozen or fresh, cranberries will work. For frozen make sure to thaw them in the fridge halfway through.
- Red wine - anything that you have on hand and are not afraid to waste in the sauce! I usually prefer dry red wine for this.
- Corn starch - for thickening the sauce.
- Sugar - I used white granulated sugar but light or brown cane sugar will also work here, the sauce color might come out darker though.
- Cinnamon - good quality ground cinnamon.
How To Make Lingonberry Sauce
I prefer fresh lingonberries (also called cowberry) but of course, they are not widely available in every country and frozen tart berries, will work just fine.
STEP 1: Wash lingonberries and transfer them to a large pot. Pour in cold water and take it to a boil.
Then add sugar and cinnamon. Cook for 3 minutes, constantly removing the foam.
Remove from the heat.
STEP 2: Then you’ll need to use an immersion blender to mash the berries.
PRO TIP: Don’t mash up all the berries, I like to leave a few whole berries or just halves in my sauce. This way it will look way more appetizing and make the sauce thicker.
STEP 3: Transfer the pot with mashed lingonberries back to the stove. Pour in the wine and take it to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low.
STEP 4: Next, mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of water.
Add it into your sauce constantly stirring until the mixture will start boiling.
Remove from heat.
SERVE! Serve warm with pork tenderloin or meatballs or any of your favorite recipes.
Store in a jar in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze up to 3-4 months.
With this recipe you should have around 2 cups of ready-made sauce. About 10-12 servings.
Tips
- Sugar amount: depends on the berries. My suggestion is to add 4 tablespoons of sugar first, cook it for a few minutes, and then taste the sauce. If you like it sweeter, add a few tablespoons more, if you like it more sour keep it as it is.
- Good to know! When you cook lingonberry sauce you don’t need to use any preservatives because these berries contain benzoic acid which is a natural preservative.
What To Serve With Lingonberry Sauce
- Serve with pork, beef poultry or IKEA style Swedish meatballs.
- Instead of jam in cheesecakes!
- Serve with roasted turkey breasts.
- On toasts.
- Add lingonberries to your hot tea or drink for a proper vitamin boost!
Lingonberries Substitute
If you don’t have lingonberries, then a very close alternative are cranberries.
Simply use cranberries instead of lingonberries for this recipe. But, something to keep in mind: lingonberries naturally have a more sour taste than cranberries, so you might want to decrease/increase the sugar amount in the sauce. Personal preference, really.
Recipe
Lingonberry Sauce Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 3 ¼ cup fresh lingonberries, can use frozen
- ⅙ cup red wine, preferably dry
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ground
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 6 tablespoon sugar
- ¾ cup of water, plus few tablespoons more
INSTRUCTIONS
- Wash lingonberries and transfer them to a large pot. Pour in cold water and take it to a boil. Then add sugar and cinnamon. Cook for 3 minutes, constantly removing the foam. Remove from the heat. Then you’ll need to use an immersion blender to mash all the lingonberries.
- PRO TIP: Don’t mash up all the berries, I like to leave a few whole berries in my sauce. This way it will look way more appetizing 🙂
- Transfer the mashed lingonberries back to the stove. Pour in the wine and take it to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low.
- Mix 1 tablespoon of corn starch with 2 tablespoons of water. Add it into your sauce constantly stirring until the mixture will start boiling. Remove from heat.
- Serve warm with your favorite meat recipes, polutry, vegetables and many more!
NOTES
- Best enjoyed with pork tenderloin or meatballs recipes.
- With this recipe, you should have around 2 cups of ready-made lingonberry sauce/jam. Approximately 10-12 servings.
- For sugar amount: depend on the berries. My suggestion is to add 4 tablespoons of sugar first, cook it for a few minutes, and then taste the sauce. If you like it sweeter, add few tablespoons more, if you like it more sour keep it as it is.
Hannah
this recipe is so good, I now use this sauce for all my meats! Never thought lingonberries can taste so good with meat. I’m now planning to do the same recipe but with cranberries. Thanks for sharing!
Julia
Thank you so much Hannah, I am so happy you loved it!
Margo
Delicious!
Julia
Thank you Margo!
Lincoln
Awesome recipe, made swedish meatballs and it rocked my world. Thank you.
Julia | The Yummy Bowl
thank you Lincoln, you just rocked my world and made my day too 🙂