BEST Ever Cranberry Pineapple Relish {healthy, easy, vegan}
I grew up 10 minutes from my grandparents, and my Grandma really loved to cook good food. Every holiday was celebrated with unique family favorites–birthdays were Waldorf Astoria red cake, Christmas always featured a cheese log, spiced tomato juice and one of my most favorite parts of Thanksgiving was cranberry relish.
The rest of us were taking on the cooking duties during these years, even and especially Grandpa! But I always loved the cranberry relish and volunteered to make it. With canned pineapple and strawberry jello, the tart cranberries were perfectly complemented in a bright and flavorful garnish for our Thanksgiving feast.
Over the past several years, I’ve been determined to find a way to enjoy this delicious combination without the jello and without all the sugar!
It has taken A LOT of experimentation, but finally this year I had an idea for a recipe that was far simpler, but proved to be by far our favorite!
With just 5 ingredients and less than 10 minutes, you can enjoy the health promoting benefits of cranberries in a delicious garnish. The pineapple and strawberries add a lot of natural sweetness and really compliment the tart cranberries, so if you don’t mind some tartness you can avoid adding any sweetener all together.
Most of us are used to having our cranberries pretty sweet however, so I added some maple syrup and found it to be a total hit with my whole family.
Chill for 1 hour or up to 1 day–the chia will absorb the liquid and help to thicken the sauce. This is the perfect thing to make the day before!
We’ll be loving the way this tastes with our lentil meatloaf, mashed potatoes, stuffing and lentil gravy!
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Passive Time | 1 hour |
| Servings |
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- 1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
- 1 1/2 cup fresh or canned pineapple chunks reserve juice for another purpose
- 1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
- 1-2 T chia seed more if fruit mixture is juicy or you like it thick
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup to taste
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts optional
Ingredients
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- Thaw strawberries and drain pineapple in advance if needed.
- If needed, use processor to chop walnuts slightly smaller than pea-size. Put walnuts in mixing bowl.
- In a food processor, pulse cranberries until pieces are about pea-sized. Add pineapple and strawberries and pulse a few more times until everything is about the same size.
- Remove blade from processor and stir in chia and 2 T maple syrup. Stir, taste and add additional maple syrup to achieve desired sweetness.
- Chill in the fridge for 1 - 36 hours.