Still looking at the bowl of leftover cranberry sauce in the fridge? The nice thing about cranberry sauce is that it has a pretty long shelf life (the sugar acts as a preservative). But the question is always, what do I do with it all?
Well, I’m here to help. Once again, here is my list of 12 things to do with leftover cranberry sauce.
- Mix a tablespoon of it into chicken or tuna salad.
- Make a salad dressing. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons to a homemade vinaigrette.
- Use it as a sauce for meats, vegetables, fish, and (my favorite) vegetarian “chicken” patties.
- Mix about ½ cup to 1 cup of it into cheesecake before placing it in the oven. (Just swirl it in; don’t overmix.)
- Dollop some on top of slices of pound or angel cake.
- Stir about 1 cup of it into a big pot of chili.
- Make ketchup out of it—add it to a traditional homemade ketchup recipe.
- Turn it into salsa by adding some minced jalapeno or some chili powder and cumin to it, or a chutney by adding other dried or fresh fruits, such as raisins, chopped dates, or chopped apple.
- Use it as jam for toast, muffins, or bagels.
- Mix about ¼ cup into muffin batter (these will be the best cranberry muffins ever!).
- Use it as an ingredient in homemade ice cream.
- Add it to a breakfast bread.
This recipe is a healthy loaf (which many people appreciate after Thanksgiving), using whole wheat flour and flax seeds. You can have a healthy post-Thanksgiving breakfast or snack while still enjoying holiday flavors. You don’t need a lot of sugar, either, because there are sweeteners already in the sauce. As for the flax seeds, use a clean coffee grinder to grind it until you get a coarse powder. Enjoy!
Cranberry Sauce-Walnut Bread
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons flax seeds, ground
2 tablespoons sugar or maple crystals
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
½ cup cranberry sauce
½ cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line an 8 x 4-inch loaf pan with parchment paper so that parchment sticks out of the sides (or grease it very well).
In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, flax seeds, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and salt.In a small bowl, mix together eggs and buttermilk.
Mix this into the flour mixture just until all dry ingredients are moistened.
Stir in the walnuts. Swirl in the cranberry sauce, but don’t mix it in completely—you just want it to run through the batter.
Spoon batter into loaf pan. Bake until lightly golden on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out fairly clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Some moist cranberry on the toothpick is okay.
Set pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Turn loaf out onto the rack. Serve warm or cool completely.
If you have any cranberry sauce left, dollop a spoonful on each slice.