Healthy Cranberry Recipes

Sticking to its food-waste mission, L.A. Kitchen created this dessert to work with almost any fruit you have on hand. We've done it here with pears and apples, but you can use berries or even tropical fruits instead. The addition of dried fruit adds a concentrated hit of flavor you won't get from fresh alone.

These lemony cranberry-studded muffins crunch lightly with cornmeal and are topped with a kiss of sugared lemon zest. They're great warm from the oven, but also keep well for a few days and freeze beautifully.

Make this simple festive appetizer for your holiday guests. Toasted baguette slices with creamy, melted brie are topped with an orange-cranberry-pomegranate mixture--each bite delivers an explosion of flavor and texture!

This fresh-tasting, 10-minute salad is a simple mixture of fresh baby spinach and dried cranberries. To save time, we use bottled Italian dressing, but with a few extra minutes you can easily switch up the flavor by making your own dressing--just try our All-Purpose Vinaigrette (see associated recipe).

Start your day off right with these easy pancakes, packed with cranberry's sour spike. One of you can make the coffee and heat the maple syrup while the other makes the pancakes. It's instant relationship bliss.

This easy holiday salad gets its flavor from a sweet citrus dressing that's infused into the kale by massaging the greens and the dressing together with your hands. We like a mix of kale for this recipe, but any type of kale will work.

A clever knife technique is the key to this stuffed tenderloin, which gets rolled up with a sweet-savory combo of wild rice, apples and cranberries.

This healthy roasted pork tenderloin is crusted in mustard and fresh herbs for a flavorful bite, while the sweet-tart cranberry-port sauce adds brightness and acidity.

No other dessert turns heads like a trifle. Festive in every way, this trifle recipe glows from within with scarlet layers of juicy cranberries. The filling is made from an astounding 6 cups of antioxidant-packed cranberries! We made the custard “skinny” with a combination of low-fat milk and light coconut milk. From-scratch brown-butter sponge cake, made with whole-wheat pastry flour, stands in for store-bought ladyfingers.

This is our go-to recipe for homemade cranberry sauce. It's simple (just five ingredients!), is lightly sweet without being too sugary and has just the right amount of zesty flavor from orange peel. Plus, it's so easy--it goes from stove to table in just 20 minutes!

Give some zing to your traditional cranberry sauce recipe by adding jalapeño and lime. This healthy, homemade cranberry relish pairs beautifully with turkey, but also works just as well as a spread for sandwiches or even as a taco topping.

Apples and fresh cranberries add a unique twist to this variation on the classic stuffing. Use fresh sage or rubbed sage in this healthy stuffing recipe; the ground version is too bitter.

One of Colorado chef Eric Skokan's favorite desserts is this simple French dish. The sweet, custardy cake is a wonderful foil for tart cranberries.

This custard filling is what takes this buttermilk pie recipe to the next level. It tastes like a panna cotta with a bit of attitude from the tang of the buttermilk and a generous sprinkling of cranberries on top.

This colorful and healthy cranberry salad will brighten up any Thanksgiving spread. It's sweet but not overly so, with juicy oranges, crunchy walnuts and crisp celery and apples. It's easy to make and can be prepped ahead--plus, you can use fresh or frozen cranberries, which extends the season of this salad. We call for Honeycrisp apples, but Gala or Fuji would also work well. Serve this cranberry salad with your Thanksgiving turkey, of course, or try it with chicken or pork any time of year.

Pumpkin puree and applesauce provide tenderness and moisture to this pumpkin Bundt cake, eliminating the need for butter or oil.

This pretty pumpkin-cranberry Bundt cake is a delicious alternative to holiday pumpkin pie.

This buttermilk pie is a stunner—and perfect for the holidays—with its creamy, golden custard marbled with a crimson cranberry swirl.

New Mexican chef Jonathon Perno shares his favorite raw sauce of bracing cranberries tamed a bit with apple and sugar. The orange goes in unpeeled so it adds both juicy sweetness and the essential oils from the skin. This relish complements any roast turkey but makes a great match for the complex flavors in Perno's chile-glazed bird (see Associated Recipe).

This healthy, gluten-free dessert has everything--crisp-on-the-outside, gooey-inside meringue base, whipped cream, tart cranberry sauce and toasted nuts. Plus, you can make everything ahead of time, then simply assemble and serve.

Give leftover turkey new life with these delicious stuffed potatoes. A drizzle of homemade honey-mustard dressing soaks into the hot potatoes, adding tons of flavor.

Most cranberry sauce recipes add tons of sugar to mask the tart taste of the cranberries. In this simple cranberry sauce, we lighten things up by skipping the sugar and opting for a healthier combination of dates and apple cider which adds just enough sweetness without overpowering the cranberry flavor.

This make-ahead cranberry sauce recipe features chile and ponzu for a kick of heat and acidity.

A small portion of this sweet and spicy compote adds a tangy note to any holiday meal. We suggest serving it atop or alongside our Rosemary Salmon (see Associated Recipe). It's also delicious spooned over turkey or roasted pork tenderloin. Serve it at room temperature or chilled.