Cranberry Orange Granola

The week after Thanksgiving is the week of leftovers, and I am not ashamed to say that Thanksgiving leftovers are better than Thanksgiving dinner. There, I said it. The turkey sandwich on Friday, made with leftover turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing on white bread, is the best sandwich in America and I will accept no arguments.

I made turkey soup on Saturday from the carcass. You put the turkey bones in a big pot with water, onion, carrots, celery, salt, and peppercorns, and you simmer it for three hours until you have the richest, most golden broth you have ever seen. Then you strain it, pick the meat off the bones, add it back with egg noodles, and you have a soup that would make a restaurant charge eighteen dollars and would make Gayle say it is fine, which is Gayle for exquisite.

Leftover stuffing got fried in butter on Sunday morning and served with eggs, which is a breakfast I invented out of desperation and which has become a family tradition. Fried stuffing is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and tastes like Thanksgiving had a baby with breakfast and the baby is delicious. Tyler ate three servings. Justin ate two. Josie ate the eggs and ignored the stuffing, which I have stopped trying to understand.

I also sent a container of soup and leftover turkey to Gayle, because she went home Thursday night with her empty pie plate and her full heart and I know she does not cook for herself when she is alone. She heats up soup and eats crackers and watches Wheel of Fortune, and that is her evening, and it is fine, but I want her evening to include soup that someone made for her with love and a turkey that I cooked and a reminder that she is not as alone as the empty house suggests.

Monday I was back on the road, hauling the endless freight of post-Thanksgiving America. Everyone ordered everything, which means trucks are full and routes are long, and I-80 was packed with semis and I was one of them, carrying my share of the load, with turkey soup in my slow cooker and the memory of Thanksgiving at the table, and the road went on, and I went with it, and the soup was good.

The cranberry sauce on that Friday turkey sandwich is what started it — once you realize cranberry belongs everywhere, you cannot stop. This cranberry orange granola is the recipe I come back to when I want that same sweet-tart brightness in something I can bag up and take on the road, or leave on Gayle’s counter next to the soup. It takes about ten minutes to pull together and the oven does the rest, which is exactly the kind of cooking that fits between a long week and a longer Monday.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup raw pecan halves, roughly chopped
1/2 cup raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon fresh orange zest (from about 1 large orange)
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 325°F and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, combine the rolled oats, chopped pecans, and pepitas. Stir until evenly distributed.
Make the wet mixture. In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, melted coconut oil, orange zest, orange juice, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and sea salt until smooth.
Combine. Pour the wet mixture over the oat mixture and stir well, making sure every oat and nut is coated.
Spread and bake. Spread the granola in an even layer on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 28—32 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until the granola is golden and fragrant. Watch the edges — they brown first.
Cool completely. Remove from the oven and let the granola cool on the pan without stirring. This is how you get clusters. It will crisp up as it cools.
Add cranberries. Once fully cooled, scatter the dried cranberries over the granola and gently fold them in.
Store. Transfer to an airtight jar or container. Keeps at room temperature for up to two weeks — if it lasts that long.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cranberry Orange Granola — The Cranberry That Carried the Week