Ingredients

• • 1 12-ounce bag of fresh or frozen cranberries
  • 1 orange, unpeeled
  • 3/4 cup sugar

Directions

• Rinse the cranberries in a colander, remove any that are damaged or bad and set them aside to drain.

  Wash the orange and leave it unpeeled. The orange peel gives the cranberry relish more flavor and texture.

  Use a knife to cut each orange in 4 quarter slices and remove the seeds from each slice.

  Cut each of the orange quarters in half so you have 8 orange slices.

  Add the cranberries and orange slices to a food processor or blender. Use settings to pulse, chop or dice until the fruit is completely chopped into small pieces and mixed well. The fruit mixture should not be too fine or mushy. If you are using a small food processor, chop half of the fruit at a time.

  Pour the chopped cranberries and orange slices in a mixing bowl and add half of the ¾ cup of sugar. Use a spoon to mix the sugar with the fruit, stirring and folding until all of the fruit is covered with the sugar.

  Taste the mixture for sweetness and stir in the other half of the sugar, if needed. Some cooks use a full cup of sugar to counteract the tartness of cranberries.

  Place the cranberry relish in a covered dish and place the dish in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours for cooling and to allow the cranberries to soften and soak up the orange flavor and sugar.

Serving Suggestions

• • Place a serving dish of cranberry relish on the table at a holiday dinner and allow diners to spoon the relish on to dinner plates next to sliced turkey, ham or other holiday meats.

  • Serve each diner ¼ cup cranberry relish in a separate small desert bowl or glass.

  • If you use only the fruit pulp in your recipe, cut the oranges in half, remove the fruit pulp and serve the cranberry relish in the hollowed-out orange shells.

  • Spread cranberry relish on those day-after-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches.

Variations and Tips

• Variations

  • Replace the 12-ounce bag of cranberries with a 14-ounce can of whole berry cranberry sauce.

  • Add more fruit to the cranberry relish, such as a second orange or a whole apple or pear, peeled, seeded and cut into wedges.

  *Add extra ingredients, such as raisins, nuts and a few curls of lemon zest for more texture and flavor.

  Tips

  • If you are concerned about sugar content, use fresh or frozen cranberries and replace the ¾ cup sugar with a sugar substitute, such as artificial or natural sweetener.

  • Canned cranberries often contain sugar, water and high fructose corn syrup (Ocean Spray ingredients).

  • Freeze the unused portion of cranberry relish and thaw for later use, such as spooned over ice cream, mixed with yogurt or added to gelatin.