My Family's Cranberry Relish Recipe
I emailed my mother to get her cranberry relish recipe, the one my husband and I descend on like a pair of hungry fruit bats each year. She emailed me the recipe, but what she sent didn't quite match my memory of the dish because I thought it had apples in it. By the time I got the recipe, she and my dad were on the road to Texas, to visit my sister. And though my parents finally broke down and bought a pre-paid cell phone, they rarely turn it on, so I was stuck.I decided to make it with the apples, just because I couldn't see what it would hurt. My mom said to prepare this a couple of days ahead of time because it gets better over time, so I made it this afternoon. Wow! I don't know if we'll be able to keep our hands off of it until Thursday. I suppose that relish was traditionally meant to complement the turkey (or add flavor to it if you ask me, not a turkey lover even in my omnivore days). But to me it makes a great side dish. Or even a dessert. I can just imagine it over some vanilla soy ice cream. Mmmm. Stop me before I descend on the fridge!
Probably the Brown Family's Cranberry Relish Recipe
12 ounces fresh cranberries
1 navel orange, scrubbed and cut into 8 pieces
2 apples, peeled and cut into 8 pieces
1/4 to 1 cup natural sugar
1/3 cup chopped pecans
Wash the cranberries and remove any stems, bad cranberries, or inedible stuff you find. Put half of the cranberries, orange (unpeeled), and apple into the food processor and pulse to chop coarsely. Some larger pieces are okay, but nothing big enough to choke on. Pour into a bowl and process the other half of the fruit. Put it into a bowl, add the sugar to taste, and mix in the pecans. Refrigerate it for a day or two to allow the flavors to develop. Quick! If you start now, it'll be ready by Thanksgiving.
[Speaking of which--if you're looking for more vegan Thanksgiving recipes, scroll down, or click here.]
Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free Eat to Live
Labels: gluten-free, holidays
posted by SusanV at 5:00 PM
23 Comments:
I have been reading your page for a while and have made some of the recipes you have posted. I very much enjoy your recipes! :) For this recipe (which I may make tonight) you leave the peel on the orange right? It sounds like you leave the orange whole and cut it into pieces small enough to chop in the food processor - but does the dish get bitter because of the pith? Thanks! :)
Hi Carol-Lynn! The peel does give it a strongly orange flavor, but I've never noticed any bitterness from the pith. I do think that letting it macerate for a couple of days does mellow it out some. If you're worried that it'll be too strongly flavored, you could peal part of the orange to lessen the orange flavor.
Thanks for your comment! It's great to hear that you've enjoyed the recipes.
What kind of apples did you end up adding?
Thanks!
Hey Susan. I really want to cut back on sugar, so do you have any substitutes for sugar? Would it be icky to leave the sugar out?
Anonymous, I just used Gala apples. I think any apples you like can be used, since it's not going to be cooked. I suggest the sweetest ones you can find, to balance out the tartness of the cranberries.
Mary, it would be extremely tart without the sugar. You could substitute something like Stevia, but what I recommend doing is trying it with less sugar and adding it to taste. Also, if you peel the orange, you may not need as much sugar, but the taste and texture will be different.
I love your comment..."descend on like a pair of hungry fruit bats." This looks delicious! I just made some cranberry sauce last night and this morning Marty & I had it on toast with Earth Balance. So delicious. I think I'm going to try to make up some English Muffins and eat it on that. This will definitely be the next relish recipe I make.
I had 2 beautiful eggplants and didn't want them to go bad so I made your eggplant parmesan and then I made an eggplant lasagna with some sad lasagna noodles I've had lying around for about a year. I can't tell you how much I love your eggplant parmesan dish! So delicious. For the lasagna, I doubled your white sauce recipe and basically made it exactly like the eggplant parmesan except for the addition of the lasagna noodles. I decided to try not salting/draining them and it worked out just fine! Any time I can cut down on time/steps I'm thrilled. The other thing is that I cheated and used jarred sauce!! The lasagna is in the fridge and the parmesan is in the freezer (I've made double batches before and it does freeze well).
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Susan,
I made this cranberry delight for our Feast Today, and I've gotta tell you, it's near the best thing I've ever eaten. SO good. I did peel the oranges, because I was afraid of the bitterness (and I didn't need anything to make my kids NOT eat it!) so, it was still REALLY good, and DELICIOUS! thanks again! Happy Thanksgiving!
That sounds delicious. Cranberries, apples, and orange are a great team.
My family's traditional cranberry relish was this recipe without the apples or nuts. This year I tried your recipe; the apples and nuts make a mellower relish, and my husband has announced that he actually likes this one. (Darn, that means I have to share it!) Thanks for the great addition to a classic!
For those who worry about the amount of sugar, I always start with half the amount and add sugar to taste. (Different batchs of cranberries and oranges require different amounts.)
I wanted to let you all know this relish freezes really well too. The recipe makes quite a lot and I had several small containers to freeze.
I bet this would rock on top of some wild rice! Yum!
This is very similar to my recipe, only I add raisins, and instead of regular sugar, use a combination of maple syrup and brown sugar.
I also mix it in with some vanilla soy yogurt for a tasty snack.
Thank you so much for posting this! My grandma has made this exact recipe ever since I can remember and I've never know anyone else who knows about this *far superior* cranberry salad. My grandma's recipe changes year to year because she never really measures anything, but it always features hand-collected (and cracked) black walnuts.
I've moved from Illinois to England, and this is the one dish that I miss terribly.
I'm definitely going to try this out for Thursday. I'm hopefully making it today... But do you know how much this recipe makes?
I just finished making the relish. yum. I used almonds instead of pecans though because they're all I had available. This recipe definitely yields a lot of relish. I left the orange peel on, the mix does not taste bitter at all. If the dish tastes this good now, I bet it's going to be the bomb dot com tomorrow!
Fabulous and E-A-S-Y recipe... I should have made it at least a day ago so as to allow time for the flavors to "merge". Although, in complete honesty, I don't think it would still be in my refrigerator. It is absolutely delicious. My nephew is allergic to nuts so I omitted them. It is fabulous even without the nuts.
This recipe is AMAZING! One of the most delicious things I've had. I was just curious if you had the nutritional information on the relish.
I made this for our Thanksgiving feast (without the nuts b/c we were having nuts elsewhere), and it was the BEST cranberry sauce/relish I've ever had. I grew up eating canned cranberry "sauce" from a can, but have been trying out homemade recipes for the last several years. I haven't really loved any of them, and took a chance on this one, even though I had reservations about the no-cook aspect.
I think our apple were on the large side, so we got away with a bit less sugar. We pureed up the first half much more than recommended, and then left the second half chunky. The relish was a hit with everyone, and it will be our holiday recipe from now on. Thank you!
This looks fabulous and I haven't tried making it (yet) but would it be possible to use two tangerines or mandarine oranges instead of one orange, to help reduce the amount of sugar needed?
I would think that since the tangerines have thinner peels, therefore less pith, and they're sweeter, you could still get the nice citrus taste and yet be able to reduce the sugar a bit.
Haven't tried it, so not sure, but maybe an idea :)
I found a recipe almost identical to this on thekitchn.com and made it (for my vegitarian thanksgiving). The only difference in their recipe was that they call for orange zest and chopped oranges (I used 4 clementines and they worked beautifully). I think the orange zest worked really well, so that might alleviate concern over the peel.
Just wanted to chime in and say this will be the third Thanksgiving that your family's relish will be on our table. We just love it. The first two years I served it alongside with the usual cooked relish, as I knew some members might not like raw and some wouldn't like orange. This year, we don't care who doesn't like it and this is the only one on the table. My batches make a generous two pints, and I just ate the amount that didn't fit it the jars on top of Greek yogurt. Truly amazing flavors, even when freshly made. Thanks so much for contributing to our family traditions!
I made this for Thanksgiving. It was a perfect cranberry relish. It was so good that I ate it by itself as a salad. Yummy!
Been making a relish that is virtually the same for years. We use a can of frozen apple juice as sweetener, tangerines and whatever apples are on hand. I tend to try to forage for fruits for the holiday meals and happen to have a tangerine tree. This year I will add persimmons to the mix too!. In any case, I also use agar agar to make it thicker- we get long strings of it from an oriental food market- cut up and melted in the warm “stew”, it thickens up very nicely. EXPERIMENT and make your’s one of a kind!
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