I love fresh cranberries. Before I came to the United States five years ago I had never had fresh cranberries. In Guatemala we would buy the canned cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and you could always find dried cranberries but we didn’t get fresh cranberries.
This salsa is ideal if you want to try something different and fresh to accompany the turkey for Thanksgiving. It also tastes sublime on a turkey sandwich, perfect for those Thanksgiving leftovers or you can try it on some fish tacos for a surprisingly delicious flavor combination your taste buds will delight in.
In past years I have experimented with different recipes of home made cranberry sauce but this year I decided to go a step further and give raw cranberries a try.
I combined fresh cranberries with sugar and orange juice, added some lime juice to really bring out the tartness. To combat the bitterness I added some sugar and some caramelized pineapple. Finally the addition of fresh cilantro gave it a fresh and fragrant touch.
Cranberry Pineapple Salsa
Ingredients
- 1 12- ounce bag fresh cranberries
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons grated orange peel
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 pineapple cut into small pieces
- 3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro and more for garnish
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 450°F
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Toss pineapple with oil then place in a roasting pan on top rack.
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Roast for approximately 40 minutes turning occasionally until pineapple is caramelized.
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While pineapple is in the oven place the cranberries in a food processor and pulse a few times until coarsely chopped.
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Transfer chopped cranberries to a bowl and stir in sugar, orange peel, orange juice and lime juice.
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Add caramelized pineapples stirring until sugar has dissolved.
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Let cool completely.
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Add cilantro and serve immediately.
You can check out some of my other Holiday recipes on my Pinterest board below!
Paula studied architecture and now makes a living as a freelance writer,traveler and amateur photographer.She started her writing & publishing career as the editor of Bebé y Mamá, the first parenting magazine in Guatemala.She is the founder of www.GrowingUpBilingual.com and www.365thingsswfl.com and writes articles in Spanish and English for both magazines and the web on travel,food and bicultural and bilingual parenting .
When she is not on a plane or road trip she likes to create recipes inspired in the flavors of her native Guatemala.
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This looks really delicious. I am going to make this for the holidays I love anything with pineapple and cranberries.
It looks so colorful and healthy. It would be the perfect dish to serve during the holidays. I will give this one a try for sure.
At first it didn’t sound to great but it looks amazing! I may just have to try this out and see how it goes. It might be something my girls would love!
That salsa sounds and looks delicious. I love fresh cranberries & pineapple
That looks so refreshing and light. I think it would be a perfect compliment to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in which the food always seems so heavy.
Were you at the store with me yesterday, I just purchased pineapple and cranberries. This is going to be perfect with the chicken I am making.
Oh, goodness! This looks absolutely delicious! I have to admit fresh cranberries often stump me . . . . but this recipe looks amazing!
Looks great. Adding to week long thanksgiving menu!
Oh my! This could be a hit if I served it for Thanksgiving! Very nice!
This would be delicious at our Thanksgiving dinner. My family are salsa nuts and this would be nice and festive.
Would you believe I have not even seen a cranberry in my entire life? I’ve had cranberry juice, though. I live in the tropics and it is pineapples that are abundant here. I will try to find these in high end grocery stores where they sell imported fruits. Thank you for sharing. Wish me luck in my hunt for fresh cranberries!
Hope you are able to find them. I lived my whole life in Guatemala and never saw a fresh cranberry until I moved to the US 5 years ago. Now I’m obsessed with them.
So yummy…
I hope to try this so I can serve my family something different.
This looks amazing! I think a trip to the store to gather ingredients is called for.
Wow, this is so unique!
sounds good! I have never had a fresh cranberry.
I love cranberries and they are so abundant at this time of year…also love pineapple so this is a perfect salsa for me. I think I will serve it with my roasted chicken.
I am making this very soon, wow it looks amazing!!
What a pretty and colorful salsa!
This salsa is intruiging and certainly delicious looking.I would love to try and definitely will soon.However I am wondering if you serve it with taco chips too??
So “gourmet” and really qualifies as a salad, so that is what I will call it. Yummy and healthy…on my menu for Turkey Day for sure.
Wow….this looks so good! I would use it year round!
This looks wonderful and I want to try it as a replacement for the usual boring cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. However, since I am one of those people who genetically cannot tolerate even a tiny amount of cilantro, I will leave that out. I’ve been told that sometimes people use parsley as a replacement. It’s probably not equivalent in flavor, but it’s the right color! Thank you.