Creative Cranberries

Oops!  In a rush shopping job, I bought my cranberries at Costco and when it came time to unpack my groceries at home I realized that the bags was a giant 2 pounds!  That's a lot of cranberries.

In case you also have a few cranberries too many, here are a few delightful holiday recipes for cranberries.

For all you persimmon lovers out there, here is a pretty cranberry relish sauce made with our favorite autumn fruit, Fuyu persimmons...

Cranberry Sauce with Fuyu Persimmons

3 ½ cups fresh cranberries

1/4 cup dry red wine

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons juice from mandarin or clementine

Zest from one mandarin or clementine

½ cup Sucanat or coconut sugar

3 firm-ripe Fuyu persimmons, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

Bring cranberries, wine, juice, zest, sugar, salt to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, stirring occasionally, then reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Add more sugar, to taste (up to about 2 1/2 tablespoons). Stir in persimmons.

Refrigerate.  Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.

Make cranberries up to four days in advance. Add persimmons before serving.

And if you want to try a delicious twist, why not play on the sharp flavors in cranberries by adding sour cream and horseradish?  Not only great with Thanksgiving dinner, this version makes a fantastic accompaniment to leftover turkey sandwiches.  

Cranberry Sour Cream Sauce

2 cups raw cranberries

1 small or ½ large onion

½ cup coconut nectar

¾ cup sour cream with live cultures (buy at your local health food store or Whole Foods) or Homemade Sour Cream  

2 tablespoons horseradish

Blender— Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until just combined. 

Freeze— Put the mixture in a freezer-proof container and freeze overnight.

Thaw and serve--  Thaw the cranberry sauce in the refrigerator and serve.  

And finally, here's a healing adaptation for Cranberry Nut Bread that we think you're going to love...

Cranberry Einkorn Nut Bread

2 cups Einkorn flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup coconut sugar (also known as palm sugar or coconut crystals)

Grated rind from 1 orange

2 tablespoons melted butter from pasture-raised cows

1/3 cup coconut nectar

¾ cup orange juice

1 egg, well beaten

1 ¾ cup chopped cranberries

¾ cups chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spary a 9 x 5 loaf pan with coconut oil.

Dry ingredients—In a mixing bowl, combine together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, coconut sugar and grated rind. 

Wet ingredients--  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add in the butter, coconut nectar, orange juice and egg.  Stir ingredients together until just combined.   

Nuts and fruits--  Stir in cranberries and pecans. 

Bake—Pour ingredients into baking pan and bake in the oven for 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Cool and serve.