This homemade no cook cranberry sauce (or relish) only uses a few ingredients to make a perfectly tart and sweet fall dish. The relish is delicious on its own, served over ice cream, or even just on a sandwich.
It's cranberry season! Time when everyone seems to break out those cans of jellied cranberry sauce.
Honestly, I've never been a fan of those. So I've never really been one to look forward to having cranberries over the holidays. Until a few years ago when Josh started making this no cook orange cranberry sauce. It's so amazingly delicious and tart and fresh-tasting.
And this no cook cranberry sauce is simple to make! You basically take a bag of cranberries, a whole orange, some sugar, and then just blitz it up in a food processor. You're left with a relish that has some texture and a gorgeous ruby color.
This orange cranberry relish is nicely sweet and perfectly tart. It cuts through the heaviness of the other items that may be on your plate. And honestly, I love to just eat it on its own as dessert.
Difference between cranberry sauce and cranberry relish
Technically, this is a cranberry relish. The difference is that cranberry sauce is cooked and cranberry relish is raw. So I guess really, this is a cranberry sauce alternative. And it's so delicious.
Ingredients
- Cranberries - A bag of fresh cranberries is what you need for this. They are easy to find around Thanksgiving, so grab them!
- Orange - For this recipe, you use the whole orange, peel and all! So you may want to choose an organic orange for this. (Make sure you remove the sticker if there is one!)
- Sugar - The sugar in this recipe helps balance out the bitterness and tartness of the cranberries and orange.
Customizations
- Add a little candied ginger to give it a little kick.
- Add some ground cinnamon to really intensify those fall vibes.
How to serve
The cranberry relish is delicious just as is for a side dish! It has such nice, bright flavors that makes it a welcome addition to a fall meal.
You can also serve it on top of some cream cheese as a dip, or with some fresh mint.
The cranberry relish is also tasty on turkey sandwiches (especially those Thanksgiving leftovers!)
And you can use it in desserts too! Vanilla ice cream is especially delicious topped with the cranberry relish.
Recipe tips
This orange cranberry relish recipe serves a few, but if you're bringing it to a larger gathering, you may want to double the recipe. We tend to double it when we bring it to Thanksgiving!
How to make the cranberry relish
First of all, just look at those gorgeous cranberries.
Toss those cranberries in a food processor, cut your orange into wedges and add them in (yes, the skin too!), top it all with some sugar and blend, blend, blend.
And then you're left with a lovely jewel-colored cranberry relish that's perfectly tart and sweet.
Cranberry recipes to love
- Cranberry simple syrup
- Cranberry fizz mocktail
- Air fryer cranberry apple crisp
- Cranberry smoothie
- Cranberry crumble
More delicious fall recipes
No Cook Orange Cranberry Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 bag cranberries (12 oz)
- 1 orange, medium
- 1 cup sugar
Instructions
- Wash the cranberries and the orange.
- Slice the orange into 8 wedges for easier blending.
- Place the cranberries, orange wedges, and sugar into the food processor. Blend/pulse until all ingredients are blended and incorporated.
Notes
Nutrition
If nutrition info is shown, values are based on an online calculator and are estimates. Please verify using your own data.
Jenifer
Blender works fine for this. The cranberries and orange are juicy.
Aimee
Thank you for chiming in!
Evonne
Can you prepare this using a blender? I don’t have a food processor. Thank you
Aimee
Great question! I haven't tried using a blender. I feel like most of the times blenders really need good liquid to properly blend, so I am hesitant to recommend a blender. I would guess it would not work properly.