BYThis fresh cranberry salsa dip is sweet, tangy, and flavorful. Fresh cranberries are whizzed up in a food processor with onions, cilantro, a hit of sugar, and lime juice. It’s the most gorgeous color and our favorite way to serve it is to spread over room-temp cream cheese and spread on crackers! It’s totally addicting and the hit of every gathering.
how to make it
Fresh cranberries are only in stores for a short window during this time of year and they’re SO gorgeous that I love finding ways to use them in the kitchen. If you’d like to stock up on cranberries in the fall, they freeze great!
If you have a large food processor you can pretty much throw everything in there together. If using a smaller one, you can process a bunch of the cranberries on their own first, and then add the rest of the ingredients, like I’m doing.
Pulse them until they’re pretty fine,
and then place them in a mixing bowl. Fresh cranberries are quite tart and bitter on their own, so sugar is added to sweeten them up. You can adjust the amount of sugar to your liking. Some recipes call for up to a whole cup of sugar. I like mine with about a half of a cup but feel free to adjust.
Next, process the rest of the berries with a generous handful of green onions, cilantro, and jalapeno. Like any salsa, you can adjust all of these ingredients to taste.
I’m not a fan of super spicy things, so I tend to cut way back on things that call for jalapeno, but this is an exception. For the amount it makes, and the fact that everything is mellowed by the cream cheese, you can really add quite a bit of jalapeno and still not have it be too spicy. I added 2 whole peppers and it wasn’t spicy at all.
Mix everything together and let it chill for at least a couple of hours to let the berries macerate in the sugar.
In the mean time, spread out some cream cheese on a pie plate or dish.
Spread the salsa right over the top.
serving it!
Serve it with crackers for dipping. My favorite are wheat thins because they’re strong enough to not break in the cream cheese, and those nice square edges make it really easy to grab the perfect bite.
It’s also suuuuper delicious on Ritz crackers, but I often serve those with a little spreader.
This is a great make-ahead dish you can keep in the fridge to pull out when holiday guests arrive. It’s unique, beautiful, and most importantly- tastes awesome.
Fresh Cranberry Salsa with Cream Cheese Dip
Description
The perfect sweet & savory holiday appetizer: bright and tangy cranberries combine with spicy jalapenos and are cooled by creamy cream cheese.
Ingredients
- 12 oz bag fresh cranberries, washed
- 2 jalapenos, minced (adjust according to taste)
- 1/2 cup sliced green onions, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, roughly chopped
- 1/2 tablespoon lime or lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup sugar, more to taste if desired
- 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
Instructions
- Place cranberries, jalapenos, green onions and cilantro in a food processor and process until fine. Transfer mixture to a bowl and stir in lime juice, salt, and sugar. Chill in fridge for about 2 hours or more. To serve, spread cream cheese evenly in a pie plate or other shallow serving dish. Spread salsa on top and serve with crackers.
Notes
- Feel free to adjust this basic recipe to taste. I like to be heavy-handed with the onion and cilantro, and if you like a kick, add more jalapeno peppers! One recipe makes enough for 2 blocks of cream cheese. Often I’ll just serve it over one block at a time and save the extra salsa for another night.
If you’re looking for other delicious dips, give a few of these a try!
The Perfect Cheeseball
The Ultimate Queso
Garlic-Artichoke Dip
Does this ever get too runny? What do you do to get excess juices out?
Put it through a fine sieve (strainer). 🙂 I did this today and it worked great.
I have no words for this recipe…..it left me speechless…..it was that good. I can’t thank you enough for sharing this recipe. I took it to a friends ornament exchange this year and everyone demanded the recipe. Can’t wait to make it again for our Christmas dinner appetizer this year.
This was the hit of Thanksgiving. We will make it again for sure! Thanks for sharing.
Love this recipe! Delicious!
This is sooo yummy! I made it for a Christmas party and everyone loved it. Definitely needs both jalapenos, I think – and next time I will leave more of the ‘ribs’ too. I didn’t measure very closely, but otherwise stuck to the recipe. We had it with wheat thins; seems like you could have it with/without the cream cheese depending on your crowd. Will be making again ASAP!
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we make this every year! we eat it with tortilla chips!!
This was delicious and so easy! Everyone loved it. I didn’t take your advice and only added one jalapeno. I should have listened and added 2. Can’t wait to make this again for Christmas. The red and greed were gorgeous.
Can this be made a day ahead or will it break down too much?
We made a salsa just like this but add pomegranate seeds too. I dare you to try it, I promise you will LOVE IT!