By Erin Walgamuth for KHTSAM-1220.

One of my family’s favorite Thanksgiving side dishes is a wonderful cranberry relish that morphs into a zesty spread for turkey sandwiches. We also use this pretty red spread as a topping for crostini with goat cheese, and as a side with grilled chicken sausages.

Cranberry Relish
Makes 2 ½ cups

½ cup of fresh squeezed orange juice
1 heaping teaspoon of orange zest
¼ cup of rice wine vinegar
¼ cup minced red onion
¼ teaspoon of mustard seed
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon course pepper
3/4 cup of sugar
1 – 12oz bag of Trader Joes sweetened frozen cranberries or a 12oz bag of unsweetened frozen cranberries

In a medium saucepan combine the orange juice, orange zest, vinegar, onion, mustard seed, salt and pepper. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil until the liquid is reduced to ¼ cup (At this point my family used to complain about the strong vinegar smell, but they don’t anymore as the results are well worth the temporary assault on their noses).

Reduce heat to medium and stir in sugar until dissolved. Add cranberries and stir until well combined. Continue to stir frequently until most of the liquid is absorbed. Pour mixture into food storage container and cool. Store relish in refrigerator until ready to serve. Relish can be made 2 days ahead.

Note: If you are using whole unsweetened cranberries you may want to increase the sugar to 1 to 1 ½ cups. Cook mixture until cranberries pop.

After Thanksgiving I take left-over relish and puree it in my food processor. Here are a few suggestions for pureed cranberry relish.

Spread on turkey sandwiches and sprinkle with chopped walnuts
Use as a spread along with baguette, brie cheese, goat cheese or manchego cheese
Use as an accompaniment to grilled chicken sausages

Check hometownstation.com Friday for two more fun Thanksgiving leftover recipes!

I wish you all a happy, healthy, stress free Thanksgiving!

Erin Walgamuth has been an assistant Food Stylist for television and print for the past 26 years and writes this column using her own recipes. Check out her other creations in our Hometown Recipe section.