Easy Cranberry-Orange-Apple-Walnut Relish

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Easy Cranberry-Orange-Apple-Walnut Relish is beautiful, refreshing, and delicious.

This is one of the recipes that nearly always sends at least one of my Thanksgiving guests over the moon. It's sweet, tart, fresh, juicy, and crisp. It makes your taste buds stand up, salute, and break into the Hallelujah chorus. With all the carb-heavy, butter laden dishes we typically serve on our Thanksgiving menus, this dish provides a welcome palate cleanse, in between bites. And no one can believe how easy it is to make!

An additional reason I adore this dish is because my Mommy made it, and I remember helping her crank the handle of the food grinder to make it. Happily for ALL of us, somebody invented the food processor, and now this dish takes all of about 30 seconds to prepare, once your ingredients are prepped.

Mom didn't leave me a written copy of it, so I had to go hunting for a recipe that would approximate what I remembered her making, and happily, I found something similar in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I have altered the recipe somewhat by adding an apple, and reducing the sugar, to suit our taste. This year, I also roasted the walnuts, just to deepen their flavor a bit, and I like that change as well. (350º for about 8 to 10 minutes)

So here it is, my easy-peasy, amazing cranberry relish. (Dedicated to my dear daughter, my sister-in-law Kim, and my friend Rich, who each would like to have their very own bowl, please.)

Cranberry-Orange-Apple-Walnut Relish

4 cups of cranberries (about 1lb.)
2 medium oranges, and their grated zest
1 apple (like a Honeycrisp, or a Gala: something sweet and tart and crisp), peeled and sliced
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. roasted, and then finely chopped walnuts

With a microplane zester, zest the outer peel off of two oranges. (Use the orange part only, not the bitter white of the pith underneath). then peel and section the oranges. Put cranberries, orange sections, zest, and apple slices into food processor and pulse until mixture is finely chopped, but not puréed. Add most of sugar and taste, adding more sugar to suit your taste. Stir in walnuts and refrigerate.

If you make this the day before (or a few days before), the color will be an even more brilliant red, as the juices of the cranberries work their way into the apple and orange. I usually make this on Monday or Tuesday of Thanksgiving week (but then, I have to keep my daughter out of it all week, till Thursday). Prepare early at your own risk: it may be hard to stay out of it.

Serve cold.

Do you serve cranberries with your Thanksgiving meal? How do you serve them?