Cranberry sauce spotlight: 5 creative ways to dish it up
Ruby red and explosively acidic, cranberry sauce is one the things I look forward to the most on Thanksgiving. I’m not at all picky between canned and homemade, jellied or whole berries. I actually prefer a variety, and on my own table I serve a simple homemade recipe like this one from Simply Recipes alongside a can of classic Ocean Spray, still jiggling from being plopped onto the plate in one satisfying flop.
But, cranberry sauce isn’t just one of my favorite Thanksgiving dishes, it’s also one of my favorite Thanksgiving leftovers. It has so many uses beyond brightening up a savory holiday plate. I actually keep a jar of the homemade stuff in my fridge all Winter as a seasonal source of acidity.
Here are some ways I like use to cranberry sauce throughout the year, in the holidays and beyond:
As a salad dressing
So yummy and so simple, this is a super light, impressive recipe that you can throw together in seconds. And, it’ll help you give you a break from all the hearty, savory dishes in Winter.
Take a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and a hit of a good olive and mix in some salt and pepper. Slowly stir in the cranberry sauce to taste. That’s it!
Serve it on top of a bed of arugula with some shredded carrots and toasted nuts, and that’s a lovely seasonal salad you can serve all week.
Serve that salad with a super simple steak frites and you can have a meal big enough for a small dinner party, or a family, if you’ve got one of those.
This version from Delicious Little Bites uses apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, and dijon mustard for a well-developed, balanced zingy flavor.
As a marinade
Balance the acidity and sweetness of the cranberry sauce with salt, herbiness, and savory flavors to make a well-rounded marinade perfect for pork, seafood, and chicken.
Start with a few tablespoons of cranberry, and add a neutral oil like vegetable or canola oil. Add some salt, and then from there, the world is your oyster in terms of flavors. Try adding things like garlic, Worcester sauce, fish sauce, shallot, black pepper, chili flake, or fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme. Once you have a strong-flavored concoction that pleases your senses, marinate your protein for at least one hour or overnight in the fridge. Add some water if you need help covering the protein, just being somewhat careful as to not overly dilute the marinade.
This is a great Wintertime recipe but you could use this all year, especially when making meats and vegetables on the grill.
When developing flavors for your marinade, take inspiration from recipes like this one from Robust Recipes, which pairs cranberry with garlic and rosemary to make a festive marinade for chicken.
On top of ice cream or in milkshakes, with or without ginger snaps.
Since cranberry sauce tastes nothing like sweet cherry pie filling, despite looking exactly like it, I think people forget altogether how easily cranberry sauce can be incorporated into desserts. The acidity plays nicely off of the richness and sweetness of desserts.
A really simple way to take advantage of it is to dollop your cranberry sauce directly onto a bowl of silky vanilla bean ice cream. Crumble on some ginger snaps for added crunch and extra festiveness.
Stirred into a batter--cake, cornbread, muffins, pancakes, or brownies.
Stir cranberry sauce directly into a batter right before it cooks for a swirl of jammy brightness. The cranberry sauce looks amazing swirled in corn bread or corn muffins. If you like a fully-loaded dessert, brownies with caramel and salt are a great counter to cranberry sauce’s fruity zing. Or break out the cranberry at breakfast with healthy oatmeal muffins boosted by cranberry flavor. This is a great way to get a lot of mileage out of not very much cranberry sauce--great for when you're dealing with the dredges of leftovers at the end of the holidays.
For a simple take on the cranberry cornbread, check out this recipe from Food Meanderings that also includes bacon bit and maple syrup for a super creative twist on a classic that’ll help you really transform your cranberry sauce, preventing midwinter boredom.
On toast, especially with tea.
This one is so simple and yet so refined. Especially homemade cranberry sauce on top of wheat toast or a crusty bread gives a homestyle feeling to a simple, light breakfast.
I like to spread chunky peanut butter on wheat toast, slater on some cranberry sauce, and top it with a dusting of cinnamon and chia seeds. It’s beautiful enough to impress guests and low key pretty healthy, especially for a sweet breakfast, if you’re into that kind of thing.
These tips are great with canned cranberry sauce like the ones from Ocean Spray, but I’m also dying to try these fun homemade recipes with a twist:
Cranberry sauce has been the culinary star of my holiday season thus far, and I hope I’ve inspired you to see its potential not as a holiday dinner table condiment but as an uplifting festive staple.
Photo from Food Network, link to the recipe.