This festive Cranberry Salsa recipe is an amazing holiday appetizer that is served over cream cheese and paired with your favorite chips or crackers. You’re going to love this fun twist on holiday party food!
Festive Cranberry Salsa Recipe
Every time we bring this dish to a holiday party, it is an instant hit! It’s popularity is no surprise though, seeing as we’ve been making this for years, and have been thoroughly obsessed with it ourselves.
Everyone expects tortilla chips and salsa at a party, but this gives them a fun and festive twist on a holiday party staple. We love how the cranberries make this salsa so fresh and vibrant, and serving it over a brick of cream cheese with some crackers just makes it all the better.
Best of all, this Cranberry Salsa recipe is so quick and easy to make, that the hardest part is merely choosing what to use to dip! Pick out your favorite crackers or chips, and get dipping!
Ingredients
12 oz bag of cranberries
½ c sugar
¼ c sliced green onions
¼ c fresh cilantro leaves, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 jalapenos minced
8 oz cream cheese for serving (spread cranberry salsa over the cream cheese)
Wheat Thins (or any other cracker you love!)
Instructions
Thoroughly rinse and drain cranberries, discard any that are soft or bruised. Add to food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Be careful not to do it too long as they will get mushy.
Cranberry Tip: Fresh cranberries are commonly sold in the grocery store in 12 ounce packages. They are most often found in the fall right after the cranberry harvest. When working with fresh cranberries, be sure to rinse them under cold water while running your fingers through the cranberries to find any that are soft or mushy.
In a medium sized bowl, mix together blended cranberries, green onions, jalapeños, cilantro and ginger.
Jalapeño Tip: The jalapeños give this salsa a nice kick, but you are welcome to make this according to your own taste preferences and use more or less jalapeño.
Ginger Tip: This recipe calls for fresh ginger. When using ginger it is easiest to cut off any gnarled spots before peeling. Once peeled you can grate it easily on a hand grater. Once it gets down to a nubbin of stringiness just toss the stringy mess away.
Add lemon juice and sugar and mix some more.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate to let the flavors develop, the salsa will initially be bitter so allowing it to sit will let it sweeten before serving.
A common and popular way to serve cranberry salsa is over a brick of cream cheese. You can also serve it up plain, as you would any salsa. It pairs well with Wheat Thins, Ritz crackers, and tortilla chips.
