My favorite thing about “holiday food” is cranberries. I love cranberry sauce, cranberry relish, cranberry muffins, cranberry everything. I think they’re incredibly beautiful and I love their super tart-tangy flavor. So, when I saw this Roasted Cranberry Sauce from Bon Appétit in my Instagram feed the other day, I knew I had to make it. After all, it combines my favorite cooking method (roasting) with my favorite holiday ingredient. But, as luck would have it, cranberries are still fairly expensive right now. So I decided to sub half the cranberries with apples (more than half apples, really) and changed up the seasonings to be apple-pie-ish. I’m absolutely loving the results. This Roasted Apple Cranberry Relish is a thick, jam-like side dish that is deep and flavorful. It almost reminds me of a chutney.
How to Serve Roasted Apple Cranberry Relish
So, if you’re like me, and you don’t really do Thanksgiving or big holiday dinners, you can still use this amazing Roasted Apple Cranberry Relish. You can use it almost anywhere you’d use a jam.
I like it on bagels with cream cheese (it’s like a cranberry cheese cake!), you can scoop it over goat cheese as an appetizer, or you can make a delightful baked brie that will be sure to impress all your friends at holiday parties (pile the relish on a wheel of brie, wrap in puff pastry, and bake until golden).
Or you can just use it to top grilled meat. It would be great with chicken, but fruit compotes always go wonderfully with pork. I’m thinking it would be great on my Herb Roasted Pork Loin!
So there you have it. A super fall-inspired oven roasted apple cranberry relish that is good for way more than just a Thanksgiving side!
Roasted Apple Cranberry Relish
Servings 2 cupsIngredients
- 12 oz bag fresh cranberries ($2.79)
- 3 medium apples* (about 1.5 lbs.) ($2.58)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar ( $0.32)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves ($0.03)
- 1 tsp lemon juice ( $0.02)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Wash the cranberries and place them in a large 8×13-inch casserole dish (2-3 quart dish). Peel, core, and cut the apples into cubes roughly the same size as the cranberries. Place the cubed apples in the dish with the cranberries.
- To the apples and cranberries add the brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and lemon juice. Toss the ingredients together until well combined.
- Roast the fruit in the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, or until it is a thick, jam-like consistency. Stir the mixture once at 30 minutes, and again at 45 minutes to check doneness. Taste the relish and adjust the sugar or lemon juice if needed. Serve warm or refrigerate for later.
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Notes
Nutrition
How to Make Roasted Cranberry Relish – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Wash a 12oz. bag of cranberries then place them in an 8×13″ casserole dish (or a 2-3 quart dish). Peel, core, and dice three medium apples (about 1.5 lbs.) Try to make the apple pieces roughly the same size as the cranberries. Place the apples in the dish with the cranberries. You can use any variety of apple, but I suggest a sweet or sweet-tart variety. You can adjust the sweetness of the dish after it bakes. I used Gala apples, which are fairly tart, but only because they were the best price and best quality of what was available to me at the market that day.
To the apples and cranberries add 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, and 1 tsp lemon juice. Toss the ingredients until everything is evenly combined.
Roast the fruit in the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, or until it turns into a thick jam-like mixture. You’ll want to stir the fruit after about 30 minutes, and then again at 45 minutes to determine doneness. After baking you can taste the mixture and adjust the sugar or lemon juice if needed.
The relish is thick, aromatic, and absolutely lovely! Because the fruit kind of shrinks as it roasts, this recipe only makes about 2 cups. If you’re making it for a crowd on Thanksgiving, I would definitely double the recipe.
But I get to keep allllll this goodness to myself! :D
This is soooo good: on yogurt, on cottage cheese, with chicken and turkey, on toast, straight out of the pan…!
One comment: if you search on “cranberry”, this recipe does not show up in the list. Any way that can be changed so as not to deprive other cranberry lovers of its awesomeness?
Interesting! Thanks for letting us know, we’ll definitely look into it!
This was simple AND fantastic. My husband has disliked oranges ever since he had covid, so I needed a new fresh cranberry recipe. This one was perfect! Thanks, Beth!
Can this recipe be canned. I would like to make to give others
Unfortunately, I don’t have any canning experience so I can’t offer any advice.
I put this on everything with zero shame. Excellent recipe.
I like rustic dishes, so I used 3 medium apples, unpeeled. That adds bulk, so I needed to add more cranberries to get the ratio of cranberry to apple in Beth’s photos. Next time I will start with just 2 unpeeled medium apples.
I used this with a menu including a dish with cinnamon and clove, so I tweaked the spices to add variety. The relish was out of this world delicious with one medallion of crystallized ginger very finely minced and a sprinkling of nutmeg. I also added a pinch of kosher salt to heighten all the flavors. Home run!
I forgot to post! I made this for thanksgiving and it was a hit! Thanks for the recipe!
I made a variation of this the other day, based on what I had. Three bags of cranberries, three Gala or Fuji apples, brown sugar splenda mix, balsamic vinegar, and mixed sweet spices. Free handed the sugar, vinegar, and spices. Baked it in a large, somewhat bigger than thirteen by 9 inch cake pan for about an hour going by scent and sight. Took it out once the berries had burst and the juice had evaporated but still gquite moist because I was afraid it might begin to burn, I recommend you taste your apples first and adjust your sugar and acid accordingly. Mine turned out a little sweeter than necessary but very good. I liked it better than simmered sauce and now I’m ready to investigate adapting other sauce, chutney and relish recipes. By the way, to simplify preparation, I did not peel or core the apples, just sliced and chopped the apples, removing seeds and stems.
I bet that balsamic in there was fantastic!!
Beth this recipe is awesome, my nephew made it for our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. He said it was so easy, followed the instructions but skipped cloves at my request. Will be on our Thanksgiving menu from now on!
I made this for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and it was SUCH. A. HIT! Thanks for helping me fool my family into thinking I am a good cook. ;) I also took your advice and had the leftovers on a bagel with cream cheese this morning and it was heavenly.
I made this for Thanksgiving and it was a big hit! I used Fuji apples, which seem to have balanced out the tartness of the cranberries somewhat. I did have to cook it for a little longer — about 70 minutes — but my apples were on the large side, so there might have been a bit more juice to cook down.