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Cranberry Salsa is made with fresh ingredients and has an incredibly sweet and tangy flavor. This beautiful appetizer is perfect for Christmas and holiday parties.
Featured with this Recipe
- Fresh and Flavorful
- Ingredients in Cranberry Salsa
- Ingredient Variations and Substitutions
- Best Chips and Crackers for Dipping
- Health Benefits of Cranberries
- Suggestions for this Cranberry Salsa Recipe
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More Cranberry Recipes to Enjoy!
- How to Make Cranberry Salsa
- Cranberry Salsa Recipe Recipe
Fresh and Flavorful
This fresh Cranberry Salsa recipe is another delicious recipe from my mother-in-law and one of my favorite appetizers all year round, but especially as one of my holiday appetizers. Fresh cranberries, jalapeno peppers, cilantro and green onions give this salsa vibrant sweet and spicy flavor. It’s delicious on its own, but we love it served over tangy cream cheese. The gorgeous green and red color make it perfect for Christmas time! Many of our holiday parties feature this delicious appetizer on the buffet table. We scoop it up with anything from tortilla chips to crackers. It’s also really good on meats, like a relish. We served it with our turkey for Thanksgiving and it was a huge hit!
Ingredients in Cranberry Salsa
- Fresh whole cranberries
- Honey
- Lime juice (for a little more lime flavor also add some lime zest)
- Jalapeño peppers with seeds removed (or leave in for more spiciness)
- Cilantro
- Green onions
- Cumin
- Blocks of Cream Cheese
Ingredient Variations and Substitutions
- Peeled and chopped Granny Smith apple
- Fresh chopped pineapple
- Red Onion
- Sugar or Maple Syrup for added sweetness
Best Chips and Crackers for Dipping
- Wheat Thins
- Triscuits
- Tortilla Chips
- Club Crackers
- Ritz Crackers
Health Benefits of Cranberries
Did you know cranberries can be very good for you? Here are some convincing reasons to eat cranberries all year long, and not just during the holidays:
- Cranberries are low in calories and saturated fat. Only 25 calories in half a cup!
- Cranberries are high in vitamin C, vitamin A, and vitamin K.
- Cranberries contain an antioxidant that prevents bacteria adhesion in the body. This is why cranberries are so well-known for preventing urinary tract infections. The same antioxidant may also promote oral health as it prevents bacteria from binding to teeth.
- Evidence suggests that cranberries may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by preventing platelet build-up and reducing blood pressure.
- Cancer research has shown that the nutrients in cranberries can help slow tumor progression, and they can positively impact other types of cancer.
Suggestions for this Cranberry Salsa Recipe
- Make sure to use fresh cranberries and not canned for this recipe. They’ll chop up easily in a food processor and gives the salsa a fresh, tart flavor.
- Remove the seeds of the jalapeño before tossing in the food processor. The seeds are where the heat lives, so you’ll want to tame that down a little.
- This recipe is sweetened with honey, which also gives it a beautiful glaze. But if it’s not sweet enough, you could add a teaspoon or so of sugar until it tastes how you like it.
- If you are using a blender, just do small pulses so you don’t make this into a smoothie! You want the cranberries to be small but not completely blended together. This is a chunky salsa!
- Make this dairy-free by using a dairy free cream cheese substitute.
- We love this over cream cheese with crackers but it is also delicious on meats like chicken, turkey, and pork. Also great served in a cute bowl or dish with our Christmas Charcuterie board.
Frequently Asked Questions
It will stay fresh in the refrigerator for about 1 week.
We have two very tasty cranberry sauce recipes for Raspberry Cranberry Sauce and Orange Cranberry Sauce.
Yes! Freeze in an airtight container. It will last for a couple of months in the freezer. Just thaw when ready to use.
Yes, frozen cranberries work great too.
Yes, just be sure to use gluten free crackers for dipping.
Read Next: Christmas Dinner Ideas
More Cranberry Recipes to Enjoy!
The tart flavor of cranberries complements desserts, breads, and meat. These are some of our favorite ways to use cranberries in our baking and cooking during the holidays.
- Cranberry Chicken – This is one of my favorite holiday dinners. The chicken is moist and tender. The pecans and cranberries give the chicken an incredible flavor.
- Cranberry Almond Bacon Cheese Ball – A delightful twist on a regular cheese ball recipe with a sweet almond crunch.
- Cranberry Almond Coffee Cake – This delicious coffee cake is perfect for breakfast or brunch. The sweet cake is flavored with cranberry and almond, and then topped with an almond strudel.
- Orange Cranberry Sauce – This cranberry sauce is made with fresh cranberries and orange juice. It is so much better than canned!
- Cranberry Sausage Stuffing – Dried cranberries, fresh apples, nuts, and sausage give this stuffing a sweet and savory flavor.
- Cranberry Almond Bread with Cream Cheese Swirl – This sweet bread is like Christmas in a loaf pan. It is easy to make and so good!
How to Make Cranberry Salsa
Cranberry Salsa Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 1 package whole cranberries fresh
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 Tablespoon lime juice
- 1 jalapeño with seeds removed
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1 teaspoon cumin
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor.
- Pulse a few times, until ingredients are in small bits but not completely blended together. Serve over cream cheese with crackers or chips. You can also serve as a relish over meats.
Notes
Recipe Tips:
- Make sure to use fresh cranberries and not canned for this recipe. They’ll chop up easily in a food processor and gives the salsa a fresh, tart flavor.
- Remove the seeds of the jalapeño before tossing in the food processor. The seeds are where the heat lives, so you’ll want to tame that down a little.
- This recipe is sweetened with honey, which also gives it a beautiful glaze. But if it’s not sweet enough, you could add a teaspoon or so of sugar until it tastes how you like it.
- If you are using a blender, just do small pulses so you don’t make this into a smoothie! You want the cranberries to be small but not completely blended together. This is a chunky salsa!
Nutrition Information
How long will this “keep” refrigerated? Thinking of making ahead for a potluck.
It should stay good in the fridge for about 5-7 days!
Cranberry salsa is one of my favorite holiday snacks It is just so fresh and bright tasting. I love just a little kick of heat in mine!
Love a good cranberry salsa for the holidays and this is a great recipe!
This looks so delicious and tasty! I can’t wait to give this a try! My husband is going to love this!
Thanks for the inspiration to use cranberry for this recipe. I definitely don’t use It enough even at this time of year. This sounds amazing with the jalapeno in there too.
This cranberries salsa is such a perfect seasonal recipe! I love this use of cranberries in such a unique and delicious way. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Emily, thank you for sharing all these with us, the recipes, health benefits and other recipes about Cranberry. I can’t wait to give it a try and I believe my family will love it!
Wondering what is the size of the bag of cranberries? Definitely making this, and if I don’t hear from you in time, I will proceed by taste alone.
You can use a 12oz. or 1 Lb. bag… it won’t make much of a difference. Hope this helps!
This is somewhat reminiscent of the raw, fresh cranberry relish my mother makes for Thanksgiving dinner: put one bag of fresh cranberries, 1 cup sugar, and one, preferably organic orange, quartered, in the bowel of a food processor, and process until evenly chopped in small pieces (you do not want it pulverized or pureed). It is another case of a wonderfully vibrant, fesh tasting salsa featuring sweet/sour cranberries. Beautiful, lasts forever, so delicious, and so good for you.
Thank you for sharing this!
This is very good but I would not recommend making it in a blender. It didn’t chop up very well and I had to keep dividing it to get it evenly chopped. I would also leave some of the seeds in the pepper, needs a little more heat. Took it to a party and everyone loved it!
Thank you for sharing this, Nancy. These are great tips!
Loved trying different salsas. This one sounded great. I may have made a LARGE mistake, I used a 4oz. can of diced jalapeños, oops! It is SO hot. To correct this I added 2 apples, 1 orange, 1 more Tablesppon lime juice and 1/4 c. more honey. It is still hot. I will let the flavors marry. My second thought is to roll out cream cheese and put a layer of salsa on top, then roll it into a spiral. So much for my short cut using a can, instead of fresh jalapeño.
oh noo, sorry it is so hot– the cream cheese idea is a great one! Let us know how it turns out!
I HAVEN’T USED FRESH CRANBERRIES BEFORE, YOU DON’T HAVE TO COOK THEM???
No, you use fresh and uncooked for this salsa.
No, you don’t cook them. All fresh ingredients. I chop mine ‘chunky’ and serve with plain tortilla chips. I haven’t put over cream cheese before.
Do u have to put cilantro in it
You don’t HAVE to but it adds a great dimension of flavor! 🙂
I am really excited about this recipe (I’m going through the archives from before I followed your all’s blog) because it’s hard to find cranberry relish/salsa and my mother-in-law has got me hooked on thin sliced french bread topped with brie and cranberry relish/salsa. It’s incredible.
Do you add any sugar to this? Don’t understand where the sweet comes from.
There isn’t sugar, but there is honey.
I bet it is good made with dried cranberries.
I haven’t tried dried, I am not sure how that would turn out.
I’ve seen a few recipes floating around the web and recipe blogs for this kind of dip. It looks sooo yummy! But I must ask, does it have a “kicky” flavor to it, a sweet flavor, a good combination of both? I can’t handle hot things very well so I thought I better ask 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
It has a little bit of a kick, but definitely sweet- like you said, it is a good combination of both.