Cranberry Chutney

November is upon us, and I'm sure lots of you out there are thinking about Thanksgiving.  Making plans, scheduling trips, planning menus, etc.  If you are like me, you may even be searching for new recipe ideas to spice things up a little.  I get bored easily with the same old holiday staples, but unfortunately my husband greatly restricts me when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner.  He is very insistent on having the traditional dishes, cooked in the traditional manner.  BORING.....I'm yawning as I write this.  

There are few dishes he will allow me to stray from the norm on at Thanksgiving, but cranberry sauce is one of them.   Probably because it's not the most popular dish at the Thanksgiving table.  In fact, I think I may be the only one who loves it and would be miserable if it somehow got excluded from the menu.  I've always made my own, but this year I'm am going to change it up and use this cranberry chutney instead.  This is an excellent recipe, if I do say so myself.  It is a combination of chutney and cranberry sauce, so even those that don't like chutney should still enjoy eating this with their Thanksgiving dinner.  My husband informed me he doesn't like chutney, so I just told him it was cranberry sauce with a twist, and sure enough he liked it!  ☺

As you can see in the picture above, it can be used for other things as well.  It's downright delicious with cheese and crackers, and even better on sandwiches. So even if you prefer the more traditional cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving, maybe you could make this recipe and use it for something else.  Either way, why not try something different?

Cranberry Chutney

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 cups or a 12oz bag of cranberries
1/2 cup diced dried apricots
3 tbsp cider vinegar
1, 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves

In a medium saucepan, combine the water, orange juice and both sugars and bring to a boil, stirring to make sure sugar dissolves.  Add the ginger and reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 20 minutes.  

Add the cranberries, apricots, cider vinegar, cinnamon and cloves and simmer for about 20-25 minutes, or until thickened.  Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl to cool.