When I created this recipe, it was to accompany meatballs. However, there is another recipe with which it would pair well: Thanksgiving in a burger. When you’re yearning for all the flavors of that fall holiday, but a lot less mess, make these two recipes. Your cravings (and kitchen) will thank you.
The original post from May 2017
I like to share when I have culinary successes. I also feel that I need to share when I have culinary fails. The first version of this recipe was a flop. I originally wanted to make cranberry gravy to accompany the Thanksgiving Meatballs 2.0. I made turkey gravy and cranberry sauce and then combined the two. . . and produced a pink sauce. Except for desserts, dishes should not be pink. I took a taste, thinking maybe I could overlook the color. It was odd.
Time to create a new dipping sauce for the meatballs! I really wanted to stay with the feel of Thanksgiving. I knew I could just serve them with gravy but that didn’t feel creative enough. I still had a good amount of cranberry sauce left; how could it be transformed? The answer was easily found in the door of my fridge.
Throughout my years of cooking, I’ve discovered that sometimes the best answer is the simplest. Sure, there are times when creating a whole new, multi-step recipe is the best answer, but other times simplicity is your friend. For this dipping sauce I took a fairly simple route. If you like things to be even more simple than I do, you could even use store-bought cranberry sauce. (I won’t tell anyone.)
What I really liked about the meatballs and dipping sauce is that together they provided the feel of Thanksgiving in an easy manner. No big roasting pan to clean, minimal cooking time for the dishes. Even the required serving dishes were smaller. For a taste of Thanksgiving, these two dishes definitely set you in the right direction.
- 3 cups cranberries
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- Combine cranberries, water, and sugar in a medium saucepot over medium-high heat; bring to a boil.
- Continue at a medium boil until cranberries burst, about 5-10 minutes.
- Allow to cool slightly.
- Puree 1/2 cup of cranberry sauce in blender.
- Combine ketchup, 6 tablespoons pureed cranberry sauce, and cinnamon in a small bowl, and stir well.
- Serve, or cover and refrigerate.
- If using store-bought cranberry sauce, buy jellied and you can skip the puree step.
