I am not one to think there are sacred dishes that must be served for particular holidays. However if there is one dish that comes close to being sacred for me it is cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of course I like to make different variations of the cranberry sauce and would never serve the jellied stuff from the can, but I do always serve some form of cranberry sauce. Each year I challenge myself to make a variation that is different from my prior recipes.
The recipe I made this year was particularly good. Adding fresh citrus to the cooked sauce changed the personality of the dish for me. I also liked the apple and raisins in the dish. This sauce is lightly sweet but with a nice tart background. I don’t know that many children would like this recipe, but it was very popular on our Thanksgiving table. The only dish that was more popular was the butternut squash salad I posted a few days ago. Here is what I made.
Cranberry, Apple and Citrus Sauce
Makes 8 servings – about 1/3 cup each
Ingredients:
2 cups whole cranberries, fresh or frozen
½ cup water
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ginger, powdered
¼ cup golden raisins
1 apple, cored and minced
2 clementines, cut into small pieces approximately the size of a cranberry
Directions:
Cook the cranberries in the water until they have all popped. Add the cinnamon, ginger, raisins and apple and cook a few minutes until the raisins have plumped a little. This should take under 5 minutes.
Now take the sauce off the heat and add the clementine pieces once the sauce has cooled to approximately room temperature.
Refrigerate until needed and serve cold.
Nutritional Information:
Amount Per Serving
Calories - 47.97
Calories From Fat (2%) - 1.05
Total Fat - 0.13g
Saturated Fat - 0.02g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 2.66mg
Potassium - 116.3mg
Total Carbohydrates - 12.52g
Fiber - 2.57g
Sugar - 7.42g
Protein - 0.5g
Comments:
I love a sweet and tart dish like this. It is fabulous on sandwiches or on top of a nice seitan cutlet. I would also use it in or with roasted butternut or acorn squash.
If you are looking for something that is a little different than the standard cranberry sauce this dish is quick, easy and quite tasty. We had this again last night on seitan cutlets and I think I liked it a little better as a leftover. The flavors seemed to have combined better while being stored.
This is a great combination, and so full of lovely vitamins and minerals from the fruit.
ReplyDeleteRose,
ReplyDeleteThanks! It also worked really well on a sandwich with thin seitan slices, baby spinach and shredded carrrot in a whole wheat wrap.
talk to you soon,
Alicia
wowie zowie. what a great way to utilize all these great things that are in season right now. i can imagine that it tastes amazing too--what a great idea to put it on a sandwich too. i love thanksgiving leftovers :)
ReplyDeleteVeggievixen,
ReplyDeleteI agree, Thanksgiving leftover are great! Many years ago my father started the cranberry sauce on a sandwich tradition at our house and it stuck. It adds a nice sweet and tart tang similar to BBQ sauce.
Alicia
ohh, I love the idea of it in a wrap... yum.
ReplyDeleteSounds delicious. My cranberry relish this year (a slight variation on what I've made in the past) had similar ingredients: cranberry, orange, apple, pineapple, and fresh grated giner. The biggest difference is that mine is "raw" and served cold. Your post got me thinking; I don't think I've made a cooked variation Ever! I may have to try that for Christmas. Thank you for the inspiration! :D
ReplyDeleteAisling,
ReplyDeleteThanks! :) I bet the freshly grated ginger was great in cranberry sauce. There was pineapple in my frig I considering adding to this but in the end didn't want this to be too much like the butternut squash salad.
You don't cook the cranberries? Interesting. Do you grind them up first? As you can tell I haven't made a raw version of cranberry sauce. I imagine the textures are very different. Cooked cranberry sauce is similar to the texture of jam.
Thanks for the idea of a raw cranberry sauce, I may have to play around with that a little.
Nice to meet you, and thanks for commenting,
Alicia
Oh, I love a sweet and tart dish too. This sauce sounds really good and it's such a great idea to put it on a sandwich. I can't wait to give it a try, thanks Alicia:)
ReplyDeleteAlicia, I used my food processor to grate each item. The pineapple I used was crushed from a can, left over from a dessert. The version I've made in previous years was just grated cranberries, oranges, and walnuts (plus sugar.) If you look up recipes look up cranberry relish (rather than sauce.) Adding some sweeter fruits allows one to reduce the amount of added sugar.
ReplyDeleteNice to meet you too. I've been reading your blog for a few weeks and really enjoy your emphasis on nutrition. :)
Oraphan,
ReplyDeleteI love this sauce on a seitan sandwich. In the past I used it with turkey or chicken breast in place of mayo because it added so much more flavor. I hope you like it as much as we do.
Aisling,
Thank you for the details. I thought you would need to break up the berries somehow and add sugar.
I also included the extra fruit in my version to reduce the agave. Once I learned how detrimental sugar is to the human body (cancer or not) I decided to reduce it as much as I could. It is very interesting to me how little sweetener we now need after cutting back our consumption of sugar for 6 months. Our taste buds seem to have adjusted to the reduced sugar.
Thanks for letting me know you like my emphasis on nutrition. I often wonder if that turns people off or not.
Alicia
I love homemade cranberry sauce. The color of yours is just lovely! I can almost taste it.
ReplyDeleteJanet,
ReplyDeleteThanks! I love cranberry anything so I am always looking for new ways to use it. My hubby even puts this on english muffins like jelly.
Alicia
Alicia,
ReplyDeleteI'll make seitan and this sauce this week, I've all the ingredients ready and will let you know how it goes.
Thanks for the tips about packing some pasta or rice to eat with my soup for lunch. What a great idea! I'll do that today, YUM! Talk to you tonight, have a lovely day:)
Oraphan,
ReplyDeleteIf you have any questions when you are making seitan feel free to ask. I am happy to help.
I am glad you like the idea of the pasta or rice. Leftover brown rice is common in my house so I love to add it to my soup.
Have a great day at work, and talk to you tonight,
Alicia
Oh wow...I think this beats out the granita recipe in terms of priority for me...I will be making this this week for sure!
ReplyDeleteCourtney
Courtney,
ReplyDeleteThanks! :) I am glad you like the sound of the recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Alicia