One of my first Christmas memories with my then-new-boyfriend 10 years ago (now he’s my fabulous husband) was experiencing some of his deeply rooted family food traditions with his parents. Norweigan Sweet soup. Spritz cookies. Norwegian Krumkake. These foods have come to mean the holidays for me, and are things I look forward to eating every year around Thanksgiving and Christmas, as do my children. Growing up, I had a couple of family recipes that got handed down, but there was not really something we ate and made every year that had historical significance, so these traditions from my husband’s family have come to be a treasured part of my holidays. What traditional foods do you eat around the holidays?
To start our Thanksgiving this year, we had Sweet Soup and Swedish pancakes for breakfast. The sweet fruity goodness of the soup warms me heart and my belly!
It may not look like much, but it’s amazing! The flavors are deep and delicious, and I invariably go back for a second helping. And then left overs (if there are any) the next day or two, too.
One of the fun things about making this soup in our family is using the old crockpot my husband inherited from his grandmother, which I’m certain made many many helpings of this sweet soup over the years, too. We are glad this crockpot is still going strong, and cooks low and steady, unlike our newer and larger crockpot, which can’t seem to cook at low enough temperatures. It will be a very sad day when this hardy crockpot dies. May it live forever!
Just to make sure I made it according to family traditions, I had my Father-in-Law walk me though how to make it. He was gracious enough to let me stage the ingredients 
Ingredients
- A bottle of Cranberry-Raspberry Juice (use the size needed for your family-- we had 7, so we used a large bottle)
- Peeled and chopped sweet apple (we used 1 large Honeycrisp apple, and you could also used dried)
- Peeled and chopped pear (you could also use dried)
- A large handful of whole seedless prunes
- A large handful of chopped dried apricots
- Raisins, Dried cherries, Craisins, or other dried fruit as desired
- 1/2 cup Tapioca pears
- 2 Cinnamon sticks
Instructions
- Peel and dice the fresh fruit.
- Dice the dried fruit (except the prunes) as needed, into the desired size.
- Pour the juice into the crockpot, and add all of the fruit, the tapoica, and the cinnamon sticks.
- Cook overnight, removing the cinnamon sticks so as to not overpower the soup.
- Thicken with more tapioca as needed.
- Serve hot or cold, as desired! (We like it hot!)
I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!
