In my last blog I told you that I’m no Thanksgiving specialist, but my husband Keith’s grandma’s fresh cranberry and fruit relish is a recipe that everyone begs me for every Thanksgiving. You can use it as either cranberry sauce for turkey or dessert. So I’d like to share it with you today.
If you have a food processor, it’s super easy, and everyone loves it.
Grandma Henrietta’s Best Ever Fresh Cranberry and Fruit Relish
Disclaimer: These are old videos but of course, the method is the same. As a matter of fact, it’s so old YouTube didn’t allow me to edit anything including the part where I state my old blog url which doesn’t exist any longer. So please ignore after 4 minutes 45 seconds. (LOL)
Please ignore after 55 seconds.
Ingredients:
- 3 oz/85g Jello (strawberry or raspberry)
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 bag fresh cranberries (about 12 oz/350g)
- 2 apples, cored and chopped in about 1 inch/2.5 cm cubes
- 2 firm pears, cored and chopped in about 1 inch/2.5 cm cubes
- 2 oranges (peeled and segmented)
Method:
- In a large bowl, dissolve 1 box of Jello into 1 cup of boiling water. Set it aside.
- Chop the apples, pears and oranges into bite size pieces. Pulse all the fruit in the food processor, until chopped into small pieces, about 1/4 inches or 5mm size.
- Mix all the fruit into the bowl of jello and mix well.
- Chill the jello in the fridge until the jello is set, about 6 hours. It’ll be softer than regular Jello.
That’s it! If you want to eat it as dessert, you may want to serve some whipped cream on top.
In addition to Thanksgiving, this dish is my go to when we have the flu or fever and don’t want to eat anything. (As you can imagine, it doesn’t happen often unless I get really sick…)
I do hope no one gets sick, but when you do, try this recipe. It’ll make you feel so much better!
By the way, there’s a funny story about this recipe.
Right after we got married and got a food processor, my husband called his mom for this recipe and asked me to make this for Thanksgiving.
The instruction was a box of Jello, a bag of fresh cranberries, 2 each of apple, pear and orange, all ground up and chilled together. You only need boiling water as the liquid from the fruit will be enough for the Jello to set. Easy peasy.
When we went grocery shopping, there was a big box and small box, but they didn’t have any red ones in the small size, so I got a large box and used only a half of it. After all, there was no instruction about “using the “big box”. So I made it with that amount every Thanksgiving and whenever we got sick. Those who got this recipe from me are using the same ratio.
Years later when we had Thanksgiving in Milwaukee at his parents, I was shocked!! As his mom was using the entire big box to make this cranberry and fruit relish!
So, whether you use the entire big box of Jello, or half (or a small box), it’s up to you. Obviously with the big box, it’s sweeter, firmer and more Jello-y, and takes less time to set. But I personally like it better with more fruit and less sweet.
It’s your call. Both are good!
Stock up some extra cranberries after Thanksgiving and keep them in the freezer as the price goes down significantly. As long as you have them on hand, you can make this pretty much any time of the year.
So what Thanksgiving traditions do you have? Please leave your comments below.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
