Spicy, sweet, and full of flavor, this easy Cranberry Salsa recipe is a mouthwatering addition to your holiday spread. It's SO good it will quickly become your signature holiday snack. Everyone will beg for the recipe!
Cranberry Salsa? Yup, you read that right. It’s cranberry season and cranberries never get the love and respect they deserve. So we changed that and made an appetizer that will be the star of your next happy hour.
Think of it as a fun, seasonal spin on the traditional pepper jelly and cream cheese appetizer that everyone knows and loves.
Jump to:
Why you will love this salsa
- It's easy to make! Just chop, stir and refrigerate to let the flavors develop.
- It's full of flavor from the cranberries, jalapeno and cilantro.
- It's versatile! Serve it with cream cheese, crostini or eat it straight up as a relish.
Ingredients
The list is short but this salsa is full of flavor!
Instructions
This recipe takes just minutes to make from start to finish. The longest part is waiting for the flavors to meld together in the fridge!
Place cranberries in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add sugar and stir to combine.
Add cilantro, green onions, jalapeño, salt, and the juice of one lime.
Place in a glass dish, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
FAQs
Be sure to let the salsa chill for at least 4 hours, overnight is even better. If you try and eat it right away, your mouth will pucker. Those cranberries need to hang out in the sugar mixture to mellow their tartness. But once they do, you won't be able to stop eating.
It's as spicy as you want it to be! Spicy sweet is one of my favorite combinations. This salsa has a subtle heat that is easy to amp it up with additional jalapeno or temper it by cutting back.
No worries! You can still make this cranberry salsa without a food processor, it will just take you a little longer. Grab your favorite large knife and a cutting board and chop away.
Pro Tip: Use a cutting board with an edge so that the cranberries aren’t rolling all over the kitchen. This board has saved me a mess more times than I can count.
Expert Tips for the best salsa
✘ You can decide how smooth or chunky you want it. Me? I’m a chunky salsa kind of gal, so I just give it a couple of quick whirls in the food processor.
✘ If you like it spicier, feel free to add more jalapeño or keep the seeds in.
✘ Short on time? Sometimes I pop the jalapeno, onions and cilantro in the food processor and let it do ALL the work.
✘ The waiting is the hardest, but most important part! Be sure to wait for a few hours before diving in to let the flavors develop.
More Cranberry Recipes
We love cranberries!
Check out our whole collection of simple appetizer recipes!
Did you make this recipe? We'd love to hear your thoughts!
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Recipe
Spicy Cranberry Salsa with Cream Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 12-ounce bag cranberries, fresh
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 cup cilantro chopped
- 4 green onions chopped
- 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and minced
- 1 lime juiced
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 block cream cheese for serving
Instructions
- Place cranberries in bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.1 12-ounce bag cranberries, fresh
- Add sugar and stir to combine.½ cup white sugar
- Add cilantro, green onions, jalapeño, salt and the juice of one lime.1 cup cilantro, 4 green onions, 1 jalapeno pepper, 1 lime, 1 pinch salt
- Place in glass dish and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Place cream cheese on a plate and use a slotted spoon to mound the cranberry salsa on top.1 block cream cheese
- Serve with crackers or bread.
Notes
VIDEO
Nutrition
Nutrition info not guaranteed to be accurate.
This is close to a recipe I used ...but lost . I could eat it as a meal.
I also add half an orange and Granny Smith apple finely diced. I also use the zest from the orange and the lime not to mention the juice from the other half of the orange and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Always have rave reviews with this recipe!
Is it possible to use canned cranberry sauce instead of fresh cranberries?
I don’t think canned cranberry sauce would work because the cranberries are too soft and there is too much liquid. You can definitely use frozen cranberries. If you try it with cranberry sauce let me know how it turns out!
Would it be okay to make this a couole of days in advanced, minus the cream cheese?
Absolutely!
Has anybody ever froze this?
I haven't but can't imagine why it wouldn't work. Let me know if you try it and how it turns out!
This was so good, everyone loved it and wants the recipe.
I just made a VERY similar recipe yesterday (slightly different than yours) and can't find where I acquired the recipe - I always like to give credit where it's due. But just wanted to comment that your photos of this are just beautiful. I have a good close-up lens, but don't usually take the time to use it since I have to change out my regular one. Anyway, congrats on the photos. Now I'm going to take a look at other recipes on your blog.