Every year of my life I have had cranberry slush at Thanksgiving. It’s a tradition from my mom’s side of the family that we all faithfully stand by year after year, and with good reason. This stuff is delicious! Every year I put cranberry slush on my Thanksgiving menu, hoping some people reading will adopt it as one of their own holiday traditions. I think I’ve converted a few of you over the years!
Cranberry slush is a great drink to serve when entertaining for the holidays. Cranberry-flavored anything reminds me of the holidays, and this recipe can be easily scaled up to serve lots of people. This year I’ve added a twist to the recipe, creating cranberry orange slush. Orange is another one of those holiday flavors that I love, so I figured throwing it in with cranberry would be a good thing. I was right! The cranberry orange slush is just as good as the original, just less tart with a sweet and fresh hint of orange flavor. I sort of feel like I’m betraying Great-Grandma Blomquist a bit by changing things up, but I’m sure she would approve of this tasty concoction!
- 2 cans whole cranberry sauce
- 4 cups orange juice
- 2¼ cups cranberry juice
- 2¼ cups ginger ale
- Run whole cranberry sauce through a colander (pictured here) or press through a fine sieve with a large spoon (pictured here) over a large bowl. Keep pressing until you just have skins left in the colander/sieve. Add the orange juice, mix well, then freeze until hardened (I always make this part of the slush at least a day or two before Thanksgiving). I freeze the juice in a flat, plastic container so itβs easy to break up later (this recipe fit in an 8½ cup flat tupperware, pictured).
- When ready to serve, mash up the frozen juice in a large bowl. I break it up with a butter knife and then smash it with my pastry blender. Add cranberry juice and ginger ale until itβs the consistency you like. I like to keep it on the slushier side and let it melt in the glasses, but feel free to add a bit more than the recipe calls for. Serve immediately! (Mixing the slush is the last thing I do before we sit down to the Thanksgiving table!)
- Makes about 12 servings.
I used Tropicana’s Pure Premium orange juice, which isΒ 100% pure Florida orange juice. I love that it is made with fresh oranges. It tastes mighty fine. In fact, I may have taken a few swigs straight from the bottle on occasion. I kind of can’t resist. Connect with the folks at Tropicana at Facebook.com/Tropicana.
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Hi! My name is Jane Maynard and you've landed yourself on my blog, This Week for Dinner™. Every Sunday I share a weekly menu...and count on you to share yours! You'll also find other deliciousness that I hope you'll enjoy!
I LOVE this stuff! Can’t wait to try it with the orange juice!
The kids will love this! They keep asking for a “special drink”
Thanks for sharing!
I think you found the “special drink”! π
this sounds SO good. π
Mmmm…I would love a glass of this right now! I’ve never made it, I’ll have to try this season. I feel like this would work in December, too. Am I right? I’m traveling for Thanksgiving and it won’t work for me to make it at the person’s house I’m staying at.
yes, definitely good all holiday season!!
looks delicious!
what a fun idea to do with seasonal flavors!
Oh, YUM! I love this kind of slushy drink, so fun!
And if we add some vodka or champagne to this, it will help us to deal with some of the relatives! π
haha! yes, my friend jen always adds a bit of vodka for the adults! π
ΓΒES!!!!! I’m adding this to my menu this year.
Orange juice??? Probably tastes good but I am afraid I will always be a purist – at least during the holidays! π
I always make a lime slush in the summer that uses a similar technique, so I thought I would share one tip I have learned over the years. I used to always freeze my slush in large pans or Tupperware managed to spill it into the freezer on more than one occasion. Now I freeze it in gallon-size zip lock bags and lay it flat in the freezer. It seems to be much less messy for me.
I’m excited to try this holiday version!
the bags are a great idea! love it!
Thanks for sharing. We made this for Thanksgiving this year and my kids loved it. We will be adding it to our menu every year.
yay! so happy to hear that! π
Yay! I need to make a slush for an event on Thursday and I was was hoping I could find this recipe easily! Perfect, timing! This stuff is DIVINE!
Yay! I need to make a slush for an event on Thursday and I was was hoping I could find this recipe easily! Perfect timing! This stuff is DIVINE!