RSS
Home
Cranberry salad recipe
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
1 12-oz. package fresh cranberries, frozen
1 big Jonathan apple, diced
1 can mandarin oranges
1 can crushed pineapple
1 cup pecan halves or pieces (or more to taste)
1/3 cup real maple syrup (or to taste)
Rinse fresh frozen cranberries in a colander and then chop still frozen cranberries in food processor or blender in a couple of small batches or so. Transfer chopped cranberries to a big bowl with enough room to stir all ingredients well. Add cut-up apple to the bowl of cranberries. Drain mandarin oranges and crushed pineapple, and reserve the juice in a fancy goblet as a refreshing reward for the cook. Add drained mandarin oranges, drained crushed pineapple, pecans, and maple syrup. Stir well. Serve individually on a bed of lettuce or pass around the table in a festive bowl as a cranberry relish.
This cranberry salad is especially good for Thanksgiving and Christmas because of the colors. Some people like a lot more maple syrup in it. Others prefer it tangier. If you prefer it really tangy, add the juice of a lemon. You can make this salad ahead by a day or two. It is wonderful both the minute you stop stirring well and a couple of days later, after the flavors have had a chance to meld and the fresh fruit has had a chance to macerate. This recipe also works well with fresh oranges and fresh pineapple if you have the time to prepare them. If you use Sucanat or other granulated sugar or stevia or other sweetener instead of maple syrup, you may want to let the salad sit in the fridge for a day or two to let the graininess disappear.
This cranberry salad is one of those items on your holiday menu that you can start planning for now. If you’re a fan of FlyLady, you’ll know that her Holiday Control Journal and her Cruising through the Holidays approach suggest making your lists well ahead of time and stocking up on ingredients that you know that you will need, starting now. She suggests picking up a few items on your list every time that you go to the store with the goal of being entirely ready for, say, Christmas by December 1, as if you were leaving on a cruise that day and had to have everything ready before you left for the dock. Cranberries have already started appearing in grocery stores in the Kansas City area, so buy a couple of packages each time that you pass through the fresh fruit aisle and freeze them in their package as soon as you get home. That way, you will not have to worry about the cranberries going bad, and this recipe works much better with frozen cranberries anyway because they don’t get mushy in the food processor or blender.
This cranberry salad in one form or another has been a crowd pleaser in at least one vegan’s family for more than half a century. When she was a little girl, she used to watch her mother use a food grinder attached to the kitchen table in their home in Lansing, Kansas, to process the cranberries. She can still hear the cranberries go pop pop pop as her mother turned the crank by hand. Thanks, Mom.
Related Articles:
Comments
Single, married or something in between? Find what you need for Valentine's Day.
