Bright, tart, and abounding in festive cheer, this cranberry orange relish recipe calls for only four ingredients and can be made up to a week ahead of time!
Table Of Contents
Why I Love This Recipe
This cranberry orange relish is just the perfect amount of sweet while letting the tart cranberry flavor shine. My mom makes it every year. She’s made it for so many people, who all love it. In my opinion, no holiday meal would be complete without a bowl of it on the table!
The amounts of fruit are very flexible. Once I had lots of cranberries, but not so many apples and oranges, so I made a cranberry-heavy batch instead. I did need to increase the sweetener.
Ingredients Needed
- Cranberries — Should be raw (fresh).
- Apples — Preferably organic, or even better, local!
- Oranges — Preferably organic.
- Sweetener of choice — Honey, Rapadura, Sucanat, maple syrup, evaporated cane juice, etc.
Supplies Needed
- Food processor — Or a manual or electric grinder. If you only have a blender, you can use that too, but blend small batches of fruit at a time and use brief pulses of blending to prevent liquefying the fruit.
How to Make Cranberry Orange Relish
- Wash fresh cranberries. Remove any bad cranberries.
- Wash and core the apples, leaving the peel on, and cut into wedges.
- Peel the oranges and cut into wedges.
- Pulse all ingredients in batches in the food processor or food grinder until finely chopped.
- Mix the batches together until evenly distributed.
- Add sweetener, to taste.
- Store in the refrigerator overnight to let the flavors mingle. Enjoy!
Serving Ideas
- With holiday fare such as turkey, green bean casserole, and rolls on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day.
- As an alternative to cranberry sauce.
- On yogurt or milk kefir with granola for breakfast.
- Spread on homemade sourdough bread instead of jam.
- Loaded onto sourdough waffles for a special holiday breakfast.
- On your morning bowl of oatmeal (pictured above) or porridge.
- Or, go the extra step and turn it into fermented cranberry relish!
Recipe FAQs
Make-Ahead Instructions
You can make this homemade cranberry relish up to a week ahead-of-time simply by following the instructions above, as written!
How to Store Cranberry Orange Relish
Keep it in the refrigerator and use up within about a week to ten days. If you’d like it to last longer, try fermenting it following my instructions for fermented cranberry relish here! The fermented recipe will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks.
Looking for Other Cranberry Recipes?
- 75+ Fresh Cranberry Recipes… From Breakfast To Dessert!
- How Do I Make Cranberry Sauce In The Instant Pot? #AskWardee 050
- Lacto-Fermented Cranberry Sauce
- Allergy-Friendly Apple Cranberry Crisp {use your Instant Pot!}
- How To Make Cranberry Juice At Home (only 4 ingredients!)
- Cranberry Orange Muffins With Soaked Oats (THM:E)
Did you make this cranberry orange relish? If so, please give us a rating on the recipe card below. Then snap a photo and tag us on social media so we can see how it and your other holiday side dishes turned out!
Cranberry Orange Relish
This cranberry sauce is bright, tart, and just the perfect amount of sweet. My mom makes it every year. She's made it for so many people, who all love it. In my opinion, no holiday meal would be complete without a bowl of it on the table!
Ingredients
- 1 to 2 pounds cranberries raw
- 4 apples
- 4 oranges
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup sweetener of your choice - honey, Rapadura, Sucanat, maple syrup, evaporated cane juice, etc.
Instructions
-
Wash cranberries.
-
Remove any bad cranberries.
-
Wash and core the apples, leaving the peel on, and cut into wedges.
-
Peel the oranges and cut into wedges.
-
Chop all ingredients in batches in the food processor or food grinder.
-
Mix all batches together until evenly distributed.
-
Add sweetener, to taste.
-
Store in the refrigerator overnight to let the flavors mingle.
-
Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Keep your cranberry orange relish in the refrigerator and use up within about a week to ten days. If you'd like it to last longer, try fermenting it following my instructions here! The fermented recipe will keep for several weeks.
We only recommend products and services we wholeheartedly endorse. This post may contain special links through which we earn a small commission if you make a purchase (though your price is the same).
Wardee,
The recipe looks delicious, I can’t wait to try it myself. Thank you for all of the good recipes, I think you are the one who should be writing a book.
I want to make this again this year. Do you know if I can make it & freeze until Thanksgiving?
Michaela, yes! It freezes well. My mom just happens to be visiting me right now, and we both say so. š
YAY! Thank you so much for replying SOOOO quickly. I have everything on hand to make this tomorrow, so freeze it I will š
Oh & tell her I said thank you as well!
I would like to use dates for the sweetener, throw them in with the cranberries, do u think it would work in the ferment? I’ve heard they are high in minerals. Thanks, Gayla
Iāve been making this for years! However, I add pecans and water kefir! Then I ferment it for a few days. I thought I got the recipe from you, but your fermented cranberry sauce uses juice rather than fruit. So funny that I combined them! But itās a family favorite. Thank you!
You are amazing!
Why is my sourdough bread so dense and the bottom crust is so hard, I canāt cut it. What am I doing wrong?
Thank you for your kind words. š You may find this helpful:
https://traditionalcookingschool.com/food-preparation/less-dense-sourdough-bread-aw053/
~Peggy, TCS Customer Success Team
I have been making this relish for my family since 1982. We often add a stalk or two of celery for just that extra crunch. It stores very well in the refrigerator and freezes beautifully! In fact I make extra at Thanksgiving and freeze in smaller containers to serve with turkey or chicken throughout the year. My family is always happy to see it on the table and my grown children insist on taking some home.