Orange Cranberry Sauce with Chia |
This is a delicious and healthy twist on a traditional Thanksgiving dinner accompaniment. I got the idea for this recipe simply by seeing some organic cranberries for sale in my local grocery store and being completely obsessed at the moment with chia seeds. I bought the cranberries thinking I would bake them into muffins or bread or something, but during the drive home, I had an idea. What if instead of extra sugar in a homemade cranberry sauce, you simply sweetened it with orange juice and a touch of honey and thickened it with "magical" chia seed? I was planning on having some of my left over Canadian Thanksgiving Casserole for dinner the next night, so cranberry sauce would be a perfect addition and a great way to test out a new recipe for the upcoming American Thanksgiving.
As usual when coming up with a brand new idea, I decided to check the internet to see if anyone else had tried this before. I assumed someone must have and I just wanted to see what other ingredients they used, the ratio of chia to cranberry to juice, etc. and then planned to make my own version based on what I found. But I found nothing! There was one mention of a recipe to be shared in the future and lots of cranberry sauce recipes, but nothing using chia seeds as the main thickening agent. I was fairly certain that it would work since I had seen recipes using fruit and chia to make jams and jellies, so I decided to just wing it and hope for the best. Once again, I was lucky (or just talented) because this is honestly one of the best cranberry sauces I have ever had (sorry mom!). And what is even better is knowing what went into it and that besides a mere two tablespoons of honey, it is sweetened purely with fruit. And it has chia in it which is of course amazingly good for you! Win win win. :)
As usual when coming up with a brand new idea, I decided to check the internet to see if anyone else had tried this before. I assumed someone must have and I just wanted to see what other ingredients they used, the ratio of chia to cranberry to juice, etc. and then planned to make my own version based on what I found. But I found nothing! There was one mention of a recipe to be shared in the future and lots of cranberry sauce recipes, but nothing using chia seeds as the main thickening agent. I was fairly certain that it would work since I had seen recipes using fruit and chia to make jams and jellies, so I decided to just wing it and hope for the best. Once again, I was lucky (or just talented) because this is honestly one of the best cranberry sauces I have ever had (sorry mom!). And what is even better is knowing what went into it and that besides a mere two tablespoons of honey, it is sweetened purely with fruit. And it has chia in it which is of course amazingly good for you! Win win win. :)
Orange
Cranberry Sauce with Chia
1 pint
fresh organic cranberries
2 oranges,
zested and juiced (about 1 C. juice)
1/2 C. additional
orange juice
1/2 C.
dried cranberries
1 tsp.
ground cinnamon
2 T. chia
seeds
2 T. honey
In a medium saucepan,
combine the fresh cranberries, orange zest and all the orange juice. Bring to a simmer and let cook for about 20
minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the
cranberries have popped open and softened, stir in the remaining
ingredients. Cook for another 5 to 10
minutes, stirring often. Remove from
heat and let cool. Serve warm or cold.
ready to cook |
all done |
great with some leftover Canadian Thanksgiving Casserole |
No comments:
Post a Comment