Homemade Cranberry Persimmon Salad!! And a bonus recipe of my persimmon pudding, YUM. Fresh cranberries and persimmons are my two favorite Fall fruits and combined in this dish they are a knockout. What I look forward to most at this time of year is making this tasty cranberry salad, and I totally eat it as a meal. If you aren’t quite sure what to do with fresh cranberries or persimmons that are on sale in stores right now, then this recipe is for you!
And say goodbye to the weird gelatinous canned cranberry sauce we’re all used to…yuck, that’s no one’s favorite side dish. This replacement has texture, it’s colorful, fresh and super delicious. It’s also way healthier, low fat raw vegan, and a dish that your friends and family will love.
How To: Ripe Persimmons
If you haven’t had persimmons before, it can be hard to know when they are ripe since they’re often sold quite hard in the store. This is especially important because certain varieties of persimmons are very astringent unless properly ripened, and trust me you don’t want to make that mistake! The simplest answer is that persimmons when ripe should feel like a water balloon, all the way around.
However, flat varieties like Fuyu, which I use in this recipe, are sweet and fine to eat even if a little firm. This recipe still works best if they are ripe and gooey, but if you’d like to err on the safe side, choose the flatter Fuyu variety.
The other most common variety is Hachiya which are pointy at the bottom. Stay tuned for my next persimmon recipe next week where I show you how to make my awesome raw Pumpkin Pie. It’s SO good and I will be using Hachiya persimmons in that recipe so you can compare. 🙂
Persimmon pudding is heavenly! Eat by itself with a little pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon.
A Family Heirloom Recipe
This recipe is also very near and dear to my heart because it’s a family heirloom. My family made this every year growing up and it was always my favorite. The original though called for jello which contains gelatin. Gelatin is made from the ground up bones of animals, leftover from the meat industry, and no one wants to eat that! It also called for a lot of refined white sugar.
By using my persimmon pudding I was able to make the dish tastier and healthier while still achieving the same texture and effect of the jello! I hope you’ll love this recipe as much as my family does and it will become an autumn heirloom for you too.
- 12 oz (1 bag) fresh cranberries, quartered
- 1 red apple, finely chopped
- 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 6 very ripe persimmons
- 6 medjool dates
- Chop your cranberries, apple & celery finely.
- Add them to a bowl and toss with lemon juice.
- In a blender put your persimmons & dates.
- Blend until completely smooth. This is a delicious persimmon pudding you can even it by itself!
- Add the chopped fruit mixture and the persimmon pudding to the food processor.
- Pulse a few times to combine, should be a little finer, but you don't want to lose the texture. Depending on the size of your food processor, you may need to do this in 2 batches.
- Serve and enjoy!
Keeps well in the fridge for 3-4 days.
I hope you enjoy this recipe and let me know if you make it below! And post a picture to Instagram and tag me @CultivatorKitchen and use the hashtag #cultivatorkitchen so I can see! 🙂
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