This quick and easy Cranberry Jalapeno Salsa recipe is tangy, spicy, super fresh, and tastes amazing served over soft cream cheese with your favorite crackers. It’s the perfect festive appetizer for holiday parties, Thanksgiving dinner, or any time you can get your hands on some fresh cranberries.
If you love all things cranberries, you'll love this Cranberry Sauce, Baked Cranberry Brie, Brie Bites, Cranberry Muffins, and these Orange Cranberry Cookies. For another fun appetizer variation, you can also use Pepper Jelly on Cream Cheese.
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Cranberry Jalapeño Salsa Recipe
This cranberry salsa recipe is always a huge hit at holiday parties. The flavors and textures are unique but familiar, spicy and tangy, sweet and creamy—there’s definitely nothing boring about it. Plus, it’s a no-bake appetizer that takes a matter of minutes to throw together and saves you precious oven space.
Our favorite way to serve this is scooped directly over a block of softened cream cheese. Put out a bowl of Wheat Thins, Triscuits, Ritz Crackers, tortilla chips, or any of your other favorite crackers and watch it go poof.
Ingredients You Will Need
- Cream Cheese - place a full 8 ounce block of cream cheese on a serving plate and let it come to room temperature before spooning the Cranberry Salsa over the top of the cream cheese.
- Cranberries - you should be able to find fresh cranberries by the bag in the produce section of your local grocery store.
- Lime Juice - fresh lime juice (or even lemon juice) tastes best.
- Cilantro - freshly chopped cilantro leaves taste amazing with the zesty cranberries and spicy jalapeños. If you aren’t a fan of cilantro, feel free to nix it.
- Green Onions - this adds a nice fresh onion flavor.
- Jalapeño Peppers - be sure to remove the seeds before adding to the food processor.
- Sugar - use white granulated sugar to add a little sweetness.
How to Make Cranberry Salsa
- Pulse ingredients. In a food processor, add the cranberries, lime juice, green onion, cilantro, jalapeño, sugar and salt. Pulse until finely chopped. Scrape down the sides and pulse again until no large chunks remain.
- Store in the refrigerator. Store in a bowl covered with plastic wrap for 4 hours to allow time to marinate.
- Serve. Before serving, drain the juices from the cranberry mixture. Place the room temperature cream cheese on a serving platter and scoop the Cranberry Salsa over the top. Serve with crackers or tortilla chips. Enjoy!
Recipe Variations To Try
- Add diced mango or pineapple and a bit of honey to the rest of the cranberry salsa.
- Toss diced apples in lemon juice and brown sugar, then add to the salsa.
- Add diced avocado and a touch of honey.
- For a cranberry orange variation, you can either add a little orange juice and zest, or you can also add some mandarin orange slices.
- To make this a bit more savory, try adding black beans to the salsa.
- Add nuts—walnuts, almonds, or pistachios would all taste great in this salsa.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- You can adjust how fine or how chunky your salsa is by how much you pulse it.
- Taste the salsa while it’s still in the food processor and if it’s a bit tart, you can add more sugar to taste.
- Be sure and let the Cranberry Salsa sit in the fridge for at least 4 hours. This allows the sugars to slowly break down and flavors develop.
- Try adding a tart green apple, such as Granny Smith, for some extra crunch.
Storing Cranberry Salsa
- Refrigerator: this Cranberry Salsa will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Cranberry Jalapeno Salsa Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 oz Cream Cheese room temperature
- 12 oz Fresh Cranberries
- 2 Tablespoons Lime Juice or lemon juice
- ¼ cup Cilantro roughly chopped
- ⅓ cup Green Onions chopped
- ½ small Jalapeño seeds removed
- ¾ cup Sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- In a food processor, add the cranberries, lime juice, cilantro, green onions, jalapeño, sugar and salt. Pulse until minced. Scrape down the sides and pulse again until no large chunks remain.
- Store in an airtight container for 4 hours to allow time to marinate.
- Before serving, drain the juices from the cranberry mixture. Place the room temperature cream cheese on a serving platter and scoop the Cranberry Salsa over the top.
- Serve with crackers or tortilla chips. Enjoy!
Nutrition
More Of The Best Dips and Salsa Recipes
- Holiday Veggie Tray
- Everything Bagel Seasoning Dip
- Best Guacamole
- Cheesy Bean Dip
- Corn Salsa
- Easy Fresh Homemade Salsa
- More Holiday Recipes
- More Appetizer Recipes
This Cranberry Jalapeno Salsa recipe is spicy, sweet, tangy, crunchy and so simple. It's a quick and easy no-bake appetizer that takes minutes to throw together and saves precious oven space.
wilhelmina
The flavor of this is incredible! I just love the fresh tang of the cranberries!
Natalie
This looks fantastic. I'm adding this to my NY party menu. Thanks for sharing this lovely idea!