Are you ready for a holiday side dish that’s simple to make, requires no cooking, and is sure to become a family holiday classic? If so, you'll love this.
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This no-cook cranberry relish recipe is perfect for those days when you don’t want to spend time in the kitchen.
Cranberry Relish with Orange
Combining unsweetened cranberries with apples, oranges, and sugar gives this sweet-tart condiment just the right amount of festive flair to your Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, or other holiday meal.
So grab your ingredients – fresh or frozen cranberries, apples, oranges, and sugar – and get ready to whip up this delicious fresh cranberry relish recipe.
We Love Cranberry Recipes
One of our favorite things to do as a family is forage. And in the fall, we love to forage for (and eat) raw cranberries, which grow wild across much of North America.
I use them to make cranberry syrup, traditional cranberry sauce, and cranberry orange walnut bread. Recently, we even tried cranberry cheesecake, and I think it will now become a holiday dessert favorite!
In fact, making this cranberry sauce together has become a favorite Thanksgiving family activity, alongside making a fun (and tasty) Thanksgiving Cabin Gingerbread House!
I store our fresh cranberries in an airtight container. Sometimes I even dehydrate them.
Both high-bush and low-bush cranberries grow wild all around our home. And as recent research on cranberries has shown, cranberries offer us many valuable nutrients, including Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and Vitamin A.
Living in the high north, it can be hard to come by Vitamin C here in the winter. (We also forage rosehips for this reason.)
Whether collecting berries to freeze for later, for canning, preserving, or to brighten up your Thanksgiving table, you'll love the bright flavors of this cranberry relish made with raw ingredients.
Ingredients for No Cook Cranberry Relish Recipe with Apple and Orange
This cranberry orange relish recipe makes a sweet side for your roasted turkey or Christmas ham. And depending on how big your fruit chunks are, this can become more of a chutney-like relish.
Ingredients:
- Fresh cranberries or frozen cranberries - 500 ml or two cups (or even grab a bag of cranberries from the market.)
- Apple 1 12 medium size
- 1 whole orange ( preferably one large seedless orange. You will use the orange zest, orange juice, and orange peel in this orange cranberry relish recipe)
- 1 cup sugar
Helpful Tools
You'll also need these kitchen tools.
- large bowl
- measuring cup
- measuring spoons
- spatula
- flour sifter
- 8 x 8 baking pan
- A grinder (I love this old-fashioned grinder)
- An immersion blender
How to Make Cranberry Relish with Apples, Oranges, and Fresh Cranberries
Instructions
1. Wash all fruit.
2. Grind the fresh cranberries with a hand blender. I find an immersion blender works best.
3. Use a hand grinder or grater for the raw apple. Or dice the apple into teeny tiny cubes.
4. Grind the whole orange, including the orange peel and zest. (Remove the orange seeds.)
5. Add 1 cup of sugar. Stir well.
6. Let it sit for about 20 minutes for the tart flavors to blend together.
Tips
This cranberry relish recipe made with fresh oranges, apples, and cranberries helps bring out the flavor of roast turkey.
It's a pretty addition to your Thanksgiving plate and can be served with orange slices as another colorful garnish for your holiday table.
I find the main difference between relishes and sauces to be consistency. I consider this more of a homemade cranberry relish than a homemade cranberry sauce because of the chunkiness of the apples.
Also, uncooked cranberry sauce and raw cranberry relish offer a very tart flavor compared to the cooked versions. I don't find this to freeze well - even in freezer bags. Instead, use your leftover cranberry relish on muffins!
That's right - I love it with cream cheese on a homemade bran muffin.
Last year, I baked it into my cranberry orange walnut bread. So good -and a great hostess gift or brunch bread during the holiday season.
Editor's note: First, you might like to add a pinch of salt to this recipe for a perfect balance of salty/sweet/tart. Second, for Thanksgiving dinner in 2023, I will try to make this with maple syrup, or maybe even brown sugar. I'll update this recipe when I do.
Third, not everyone likes orange peel. If your family includes a few fussy folks, just peel the orange before grinding. The same goes for the apple.
Recipe
Homemade No Cook Cranberry Relish Recipe
Ingredients
- Fresh cranberries or frozen cranberries - 500 mls or two cups or even grab a bag of cranberries from the market.
- Apple 1 12
- 1 whole orange preferably 1 large seedless orange. You will use the orange zest, orange juice, and orange peel in this orange cranberry relish recipe
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- 1. Wash all fruit.
- 2. Grind the fresh cranberries with a hand blender. I find an immersion blender works best.
- 3. Use a hand grinder or grater for the raw apple. Or dice the apple into teeny tiny cubes.
- 4. Grind the whole orange, including the orange peel and zest. (Remove the orange seeds.)
- 5. Add 1 cup of sugar. Stir well.
- 6. Let it sit for about 20 minutes for the tart flavors to blend together.
Nutrition
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