ABC: Apple/Apricot, Beet, Cranberry Sauce--Quick Take

A colorful side dish of cranberries with roasted beets and dried apricots simmered in a sweetened apple cider/orange juice broth. A delicious addition to holiday meals and a terrific way to use farm share beets that gets the whole family to dig in.

New photos for 2015, same tasty recipe!

I'll freely admit I'm a fan of the can.  Not the jellied cranberry sauce (though I'm sure it has its uses).  I have no issue, however, with canned whole berry cranberry sauce.  It's fine. Want a recipe for a doctored up can of cranberry sauce? Here's my Semi-homemade Cranberry Pineapple Pecan Salad.

I also love cranberry-orange relish, and cranberry-apple sauce.  Whole Foods made a cranberry-beet-apricot dish on their salad bar years ago that my mom re-created.  I decided to combine all of those into this side. It's sweet but not too sweet, tangy but not too out there.  And the color is freakishly vibrant.

For more recipes using apples or apple cider, please see my Apples/Apple Cider Recipes Collection. For more recipes using beets, please see my Beet Recipes Collection. For more recipes using cranberries, please see my Cranberry Recipe Collection. This is the only recipe in the Apricot Recipe Collection so don't bother clicking over there. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating locally and seasonally from the farm share, the farmer's market, and seasonal abundance. I've got even more recipe ideas on my Pinterest boards, follow me there to see them. I'm also sharing new recipes on my FB page so check that out as well. Want to know how to use this blog?

Notes for 2015: Instead of thawing some roasted/frozen beets, I shredded a raw beet into the pan with the cranberries, juices, and sugar. The grated beets cooked while the cranberries did, and the whole thing smelled lovely. I didn't have any apricots but I did have dried pineapple, so I've amended the recipe below.

Apple/Apricot, Beet, and Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup apple cider
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 3/4 cup brown sugar (loosely packed)
• 12 oz (1 bag) fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1/2 cup diced dried apricots or dried pineapple bits
• 1 cup diced roasted beets (or shredded raw beets)
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger

Instructions

1. Preheat a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add liquids, sugar, and cranberries.
2. If using raw beets, add them along with the cranberries. If using roasted beets, add them along with the apricots.  
3. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat.  
4. Mash with a potato masher to break up the popped cranberries.  
5. Stir in apricots, beets, and ginger.  Chill for at least an hour to let the flavors blend.  
6. Keeps for several days.  Great on sandwiches if you don't have any Cranberry Salsa.

This side dish is shared with What's Cookin' Wednesday, the Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up, From the Farm Blog Hop, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays.