I love cranberries! I love them so much, I usually wait for fall, buy a ton and freeze them. Like that I get to enjoy cranberry sauce all year round. It is perfect paired with curries or salads. If you follow my blog, you also know that I like fermenting vegetables. I got this crazy idea: why not make a fermented version of cranberry sauce?
Here is what you need:
- 300g cranberries (fresh or frozen)
- 3 small oranges (I used blood oranges)
- 1 tsp coarse sea salt
- 1 cup maple syrup-sweetened dried cranberries (you can also use fruit juice-sweetened dried cranberries)
- 2 tbs chopped candied ginger
Here is what you do:
- In your food processor, chop the fresh cranberries for a few seconds. You want most of the berries to be chopped, but chunks are okay.
- In a large bowl, mix the chopped cranberries and the salt. Let sit.
- Peel the oranges and remove the membranes to keep only the supremes (pulpy part). Cut them in small chunks. If the membranes are really thin and the pulp is really stuck to them, just cut the oranges in small chunks.
- In the mixing bowl, add the orange chunks, dried cranberries and ginger. Mix well.
- In a sterilized jar, pour the mixture. To seal, I used a ziploc bag: press the empty bag on top of the mix to remove air pockets. Once everything is well pressed and covered with the plastic, fill in the bag with water to add some weight. Close the bag and place your jar in a large plate to catch any overflowing liquid. Let sit out of light for 5 days.
- On the fifth day, remove the plastic bag, close the jar with its lid, and place in the fridge to stop fermentation.
This is great! There are two sour points: the cranberries and the fermentation, which creates a more complex flavour. The ginger also gives this a slightly sparkling taste which is complementing the sourness perfectly. The oranges add a sweet note to the mix, but if you find that it is too sour, mix in some maple syrup or honey to even things out. This is clearly a winner! It is super delicious, so tasty, and look at this color. Let me know if you try it out!
My Lighthearted Kitchen 
omg this looks so good! no sugar either?
Except for the maple syrup dried cranberries there’s no sugar. The oranges bring some sweetness 🙂
Great idea! Sounds like something I would do!
Well let me know if you give it a try! 😀
I have been looking into the benefits of fermented food and really want to try it. I am surprised that there is no vinegar. Is that used with vegetables?
I usually don’t use vinegar because when you are lacto-fermenting (which is the type of fermentation that happens here and also with sauerkraut) it creates acidity so you don’t need vinegar… I’m not an expert however! 🙂 Let me know if you try this out and what your fermentation experiments create!
Thanks for your reply and tip. 🙂 Do you use vinegar with other vegatables? Have you noticed fermentation helping your body?
🙂 I never used vinegar with other veggies. I really like adding fermented foods because it makes my gut happy and helps clear out my skin too (which is always great!)!
So it does work, good to hear from someone who actually uses it. I have read about it and want to try.Gut clearning and skin…I’m in 🙂 thanks
Wow! This is like cranberry kimchi. My husband and I too like experimenting with food fermentation. Cranberry sauce fermentation looks even more appealing, because both of us were tahter fond of Crasins (dried cranberries) a lot, until we came to note how much added sugar it actually has. That was a dampener, for sure. So your recipe with only moderate amount of maple syrup sounds very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad you are excited to try it out! Let me know how it goes; I’m sure you’ll enjoy it! I love the name ‘cranberry kimchi’: sounds super cute and yummy to me! What are some of your fermentation experiments?
🙂 I am glad you liked the name. Sure, will try and let you know.
Oh, we make kimchi and kombucha very regularly… You would find batches in the making on our closet shelves and ready ones in the fridge. Apart from that, I often make traditional Indian and Ethiopian pancakes like dosa, appam, and injera, made from fermented batters of rice-lentils and teff, respectively.
Ohhh! The pancakes sound amazing! I’ll have to look into it! 😀
You should share those recipes on your blog!!!
Thanks! Appam and kimchi recipes is already there.
https://foodncheer.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/appam-hoppers-treat/
https://foodncheer.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/kimchi-chronicles/
Injera and dosa, I will post soon. For kombucha, I will have to prod my husband to write a guest post 🙂
Great! I’ll keep my eyes open for those! 🙂
I love cranberries and candied ginger too! I have never tried fermenting before. I have wanted to try it with beets.
You should definitely give this a try then! 🙂 Fermented beets are also great: so crunchy!
I have read about it, but I am wondering about how to sterilize the jar? I see recipes using fermented beets with meat or as a soup. But this recipe with cranberries and ginger, well, that is tough to beat!💖
I usually take a large soup pot and boil my jars. I then let them cool in the water until I need them. I think it’s the easiest way to sterilize them, but you do need to plan it ahead. 🙂
Thanks!