Cranberry Juice Cocktail Drink (Instant Pot)
Cranberry juice is so easy to make in the instant pot pressure cooker! You may adjust the amount of sugar or use a natural sweetener like honey if you wish (if you use honey, add it only after you prepare the juice).Cranberry juice is colorful, looks festive and perfect for any holidays like Christmas or any special occasions when you want a refreshing, tangy, tart and sweet drink!
Servings 3
Calories 283kcal
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups cranberries
- 2 cups water may use more later as needed
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 cup sugar adjust to taste
- ice cubes as needed!
Instructions
- Wash the fresh cranberries and add it to the instant pot.
- Add the sugar and mix well with the cranberries.
- Also add the lemon juice and 2 cups of water, mix well to combine.
- Close the instant pot with lid in sealing position and cook in high pressure for 5 minutes.
- Do a natural pressure release. If you are in a hurry, you may carefully do a gradual manual pressure release after about 15 minutes of natural pressure release.
- Once the pressure is all released, carefully open the lid.
- Stir the contents very well (you may gently mash with a ladle or spoon if needed, but do not mash a lot as it will make the filtering of the juice difficult).
- At this point, you may taste (the contents will be hot, so do carefully) and see if the sweetness is enough. If needed, add little more sugar, stir well to mix with the cooked cranberries so the added sugar will dissolve well with the contents in the instant pot.
- Let this cooked mixture sit for a while so it will cool down completely.
To make the cranberry juice cocktail:
- Once the contents are cooled enough, filter the contents through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl.
- You can use a spoon to gently mix and press the cranberries so the juice will filter down fast.
- You may also add little water to the cranberry mixture in the strainer and mix again which will help make the filtering faster and easier. You may discard the berry mixtre (or you may use it in any other recipes like muffins, pancakes etc if you wish) after the juice is filtered.
- If desired, you may add little more water (also more sugar and lemon juice if you wish) and mix well with the filtered juice to adjust to your preferred consistency.
- Transfer the filtered cranberry juice cocktail to a jar or pitcher and chill the juice in the refrigerator.
- When it is time to serve the juice cocktail, add ice cubes to glasses and pour the chilled cranberry juice to the glasses and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Make sure always serve the cranberry juice chilled and with lots of ice cubes for the best taste!
Also, you can always modify the taste and consistency of the juice by adding more chilled water, lemon juice or sugar as needed based on personal preferences.
When I tested this cranberry juice recipe with just ½ cup sugar, the juice was too tart for my preference.
Then I added more sugar as soon as the contents were cooked in the instant pot, stirred well for the sugar to mix in with the juice and dissolve completely. Then gently mashed the cranberries and let it cool down before straining the juice and chilling.
This method works the best for me, but you may adjust the amount of sugar to your prefernce, as I have already mentioned in the post.
Nutrition
Calories: 283kcal | Carbohydrates: 73g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 10mg | Potassium: 43mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 69g | Vitamin A: 30IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 1mg