Watch How To Make This Cranberry Salsa
Cranberry Salsa, You Are My New Favorite Holiday App.
My friend Amanda has a gorgeous recipe for a cranberry-salsa-topped dip with cream cheese. I’ve had my eye on it for years, and this was the year I finally tried it. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!
It is finely textured, juicy, zippy, fresh and sweet with a little bit of fire from the jalapeño.
There are plenty of cranberry salsa or cranberry relish-type recipes out there, but the best thing she does that’s different from other recipes is that she adds a knob of fresh ginger. Hello! So good.
I brought her dip on the platter, with the creamy base, to a holiday party in our neighborhood and it was delicious. Beautiful. So wonderful. But when we came back home, both Bjork and I went straight to the fridge for just the extra cranberry salsa – eating it plain, nothing else with it, just dipping chips straight into it like hungry little wolves.
The really fun part is that over the next few days, I found myself using that cranberry salsa on EVERYTHING – a dollop on a turkey wrap with spinach and mayo. A shmear of it on toast. A spoonful of it into my chicken and rice bowl.
So, here’s the recipe for the salsa, as I made it – I made only a few slight changes to Amanda’s recipe, most significantly, using garlic instead of green onions (just what we prefer in this house), throwing some bonus parsley in there, and adding a decent amount of pistachios for some extra body and a buttery crunch.
You can eat it fresh, for sure, but don’t skip the rest time in the fridge for some Day 2 action. It gets a little less aggressively tart and a lot more juicy.
I’ve already made it twice in the last week. Cheers to last-minute holiday recipes for people like me!
Welcome To My House! Let’s Make Cranberry Salsa!
1
Chop up the cranberries.
This is most ideal in a food processor! I use this one. (Affiliate link)
2
Chop Your Aromatic Yummy Stuff.
Again, the food processor coming in clutch!
3
You’re Done! Yum!
Toss everything up and give it a 12-24 hour rest, if you can! SO AMAZING with chips or crackers with goat cheese.
Gingery Cranberry Salsa
Total Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 2–3 cups of salsa (serves 12) 1x
Description
This is my new favorite holiday app! Cranberry Salsa that is finely textured, juicy, zippy, fresh, and sweet, with a little fire from the jalapeño.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Gingery Cranberry Salsa
- 1 12–ounce bag of fresh cranberries
- 1/3 cup sugar
- half of a jalapeño, ribs and seeds removed (see notes)
- one 1-inch knob of fresh ginger root, peeled
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
- juice and zest of 1-2 limes (to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
- 1/2 cup salted roasted pistachios (optional)
Instructions
- Chop Cranberries: Blitz cranberries in a food processor until broken down into a very finely chopped texture, being careful not to overly-chop or puree them. Transfer to a bowl.
- Combine with Sugar: Toss cranberries with sugar.
- Chop Aromatics and Mix: Add jalapeño, ginger, garlic, and cilantro to the food processor; pulse until finely chopped. Mix into the cranberry bowl; add lime juice, zest, and salt.
- Let It Rest (Optional): Let the salsa rest for 12-24 hours, if you can! This helps the cranberries tenderize and get super juicy, and the flavors will all come together so well!
- Also Optional: add pistachios to the same food processor, pulse until finely chopped, and add to the cranberry salsa just before serving.
Notes
My jalapeños have been SO spicy lately – I added half a jalapeño to my last batch of this and it was still incredibly spicy! If you’re sensitive to spice, I would suggest using just a tiny little chunk of jalapeno. Also, be sure to remove all the ribs and seeds of the jalapeño as that’s what contains the most heat.
If you don’t want to buy both herbs, I’ve made this with only cilantro, and only parsley, and it works well both ways!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: No-Cook
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: cranberry salsa, cranberry jalapeño, cranberry dip, holiday appetizer
