Canned Cranberry Sauce Is What You Need For Holiday-Ready Meatballs

Thanksgiving is the time of year for making buffets of delicious dishes, including roast turkey, stuffing, all the sides and pies, and, of course, the ubiquitous dish of canned or homemade cranberry sauce. However, once the holiday meal is done and dusted, you've often got piles of leftovers on your hands. And that's a bonus if you play it right.

One food often still sitting on the table after the Thanksgiving dinner is finished is the aforementioned cranberry sauce. Don't make the mistake of thinking the only thing you can use it for is as a turkey topping. Cranberry sauce can be a terrific addition to the sauce of your favorite meatball recipe for a delicious holiday dish packed with seasonal flavor. The tangy turkey accompaniment enhances the flavor of sauce bases such as ketchup, barbecue sauce, and chili sauce, and the result is a sweet and tangy meal with juicy, savory meatballs that look bright and festive. 

The first thing to know if you make meatballs in cranberry sauce is that any kind of meatball can work, from traditional ground beef or pork to meatballs that don't have any meat at all. Cranberry meatballs made with ground turkey are terrific Thanksgiving appetizers. You can use premade, frozen meatballs, or make one of your favorite homemade meatball recipes. Since the cranberry sauce is incorporated into the sauce used in the recipe, you don't have to use any particular recipe to ensure a tasty final dish. 

Whether you use jellied or whole-berry cranberry sauce is a matter of personal preference, because either will work for this dish. The obvious difference is textural — jellied cranberry sauce is obviously going to create a smoother sauce than you'll get with the whole-berry version.

Cranberry sauce meatballs can be made on your stove in less than an hour, or they can cook for several hours in a crockpot, the major determination on which method to use is your time and preference. Whichever route you take, it can lead to a mix of sweet and savory flavors inspired by the holidays. 

Making these meatballs isn't the only way to make good use of any extra cranberry sauce you still have after the holidays. Creating a sandwich out of Thanksgiving leftovers – the turkey, the mashed potatoes, the stuffing, all slathered in tangy, juicy cranberry sauce and captured between slices of sourdough – could be the ultimate way to enjoy, and use, all of the holiday's dishes.

Alternatively, you can turn leftover cranberry sauce into a dessert. Use whole-berry sauce in your cranberry streusel bars recipe. Canned jelly-style cranberry sauce is great for making tasty cranberry gummies. You can also simply add a dollop of it to the top of your pumpkin pie, and gobble two leftovers in one dessert presentation.

So, use leftover cranberry sauce to make savory, festive meatballs, bake it into sweet treats like gummies and streusel bars, or spread it all over a holiday sandwich — there are plenty of ways to enjoy this tangy topping.