Cranberry Salsa over Cream Cheese is a delicious appetizer perfect for the holidays! It’s fresh, tangy, ready in minutes, and an easy make-ahead recipe! This Cranberry Salsa recipe is a tasty crowd favorite anytime!
This Cranberry Salsa over Cream Cheese is a festive, favorite appetizer we love and serve often for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. And if you are looking for other appetizers to make for the holidays, you’ll love my spinach artichoke dip, cookie dough dip, and bacon ranch cheese ball.
Juicy cranberries and other fresh ingredients make a sweet, tangy, and spicy salsa that’s absolutely divine! This is so delicious that I wait impatiently for the fresh cranberries to arrive at the grocery store. And then I stockpile bags for my freezer! Cranberry Salsa is great served as a salsa with chips and more. And it’s out of this world delicious served over cream cheese and eaten with crackers, fruit, or chips. It’s a great make-ahead recipe for the holidays, too!
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Tastes amazing. It is the perfect combination of sweet, spicy, and fresh! Great as a salsa with chips and over cream cheese, too!
Quick and easy. It comes together quickly and is such an easy recipe!
Make-ahead perfection. Make the cranberry salsa up to 7 days ahead to make entertaining even easier!
To make this cranberry salsa, you will need:
How to Make Cranberry Salsa with Cream Cheese
Ingredients
Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full listing of ingredients, instructions, notes, and estimated nutritional information.
- cranberries – Use fresh cranberries, or if using frozen cranberries, thaw them overnight in the refrigerator.
- sugar – Use granulated sugar
- jalapeno pepper – Remove the seeds and the pith, then chop the jalapeno.
- green onion
- cilantro – Use fresh cilantro
- orange zest
- orange juice
- cream cheese – For serving
- Serve with crackers, fruit slices, or tortilla chips.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Add fresh cranberries (or frozen cranberries you’ve thawed overnight in the refrigerator) and sugar to your food processor or high-speed blender. Then, pulse about 30 pulses until the cranberries are coarsely chopped.
Stir in jalapeno, green onions, cilantro, orange zest, and orange juice.
After adding these ingredients to the cranberry sugar mixture, pulse a few times until coarsely chopped.
Serve the cranberry salsa recipe with chips or enjoy it on a sandwich, wrap, beef, or fish.
You can also spoon the salsa over softened cream cheese on a serving platter. Serve on the platter with sliced fruit, butter crackers, wheat thins, or tortilla chips, and enjoy!
Easy Make Ahead Holiday Appetizer
This cranberry salsa recipe becomes even more magical as a make-ahead appetizer. Pour the salsa into a bowl, cover it with a tight-fitting lid, or wrap it with plastic wrap and then refrigerate it overnight (or at least 30 minutes to let the flavors develop).
It is one of my favorite make-ahead recipes for the holidays!
Storage Tips
To Store: Place in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 7 days. You can make the cranberry salsa well in advance to keep your holiday entertaining as stress-free as possible.
To Serve: When ready to serve, place your cream cheese onto a serving platter about 15 to 30 minutes before serving time. Then, as you begin to serve, spoon your cranberry salsa onto your cream cheese and watch a crowd gather around it!
Cranberry Salsa Cream Cheese Spread
Spread softened cream cheese in a shallow bowl and combine with some of the cranberry salsa. Spread on bagels, toast, Ritz crackers, wheat thins, or fruit slices. It is perfect for dipping!
Other Favorite Cranberry Recipes
Sweet and Spicy Cranberry Cocktail Meatballs
Warm Brie with Honeyed Fruit Compote
Here’s the Cranberry Salsa Cream Cheese Spread Recipe. I hope you love it as much as we do!
Cranberry Salsa over Cream Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 (12-ounce) package fresh cranberries
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 medium jalapeno pepper, deseeded and chopped
- 2 tablespoons sliced green onions,
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened, for serving
- crackers or fruit slices, for serving
Instructions
- Add cranberries and sugar to a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped, about 30 pulses. Stir in jalapeno, onion, cilantro, orange zest, and orange juice, and pulse a few times until these ingredients are roughly chopped and blended with the cranberries. Cover and store in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to overnight.
- To serve, arrange cream cheese on a serving tray, strain away juices from the cranberry salsa, and spoon on top of the cream cheese. Serve with assorted crackers or fruit slices. The salsa can also be served on its own with tortilla chips.
Notes
Make Ahead Cranberry Salsa
Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 7 days. When ready to serve, place your cream cheese onto a serving platter about 15 to 30 minutes before serving time to reach room temperature. Then top with cranberry salsa and serve.Storage Tips
To Store: Place in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 7 days. You can make the cranberry salsa well in advance for busy holiday entertaining. To Serve: When ready to serve, place your cream cheese onto a serving platter about 15 to 30 minutes before serving time. Then, as you begin to serve, spoon your cranberry salsa onto your cream cheese and watch a crowd gather around it!Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
Absolutely love the idea ! With all of the listed ingredients it could easily become my main 🙂 Thank you !
Love this recipe. Had to use a blender, because I don’t have a food processor. I just would pulse small amounts of the cranberries after I sliced them in half first. So I’d divide the 12oz into pulsing 4 oz at a time and it came out great 🙂 a little more work, but I love this recipe. Much better than using lime juice in my opinion.
Thanks so much, Sophia! We love this salsa too – so glad you did as well! xo
Can I use stevia instead of sugar? Also ban I use fresh squeezed orange juices instead of store bought?Â
Hi Angel,
I’ve not used stevia in this recipe. You can use fresh squeezed orange juice if you wish. Enjoy it! xo
You mentioned “orange cranberry chicken” – do you have a recipe for that?Â
I took this to a church fellowship and to say it was quite a hit is an understatement! There were several “demands” for the recipe right then and there – good thing I had it on my phone. Thank you for sharing this recipe.Â
Where I live in the Caribbean we don’t get fresh cranberries, I am wondering if we could use craisins instead, and eliminate or reduce the amount of sugar to my taste. Definitely want to try this. Thanks
Where I live in the Caribbean we don’t get fresh cranberries. Can I use craisins instead and reduce or eliminate the sugar to my taste? This sounds like something I want to try. Thanks
How much orange juice? Â Thanks. J
Hi Jeanette,
You’ll use 2 tablespoons of orange juice. Thanks for catching that! xo
Hi, how much orange juice?
Thanks.
Hi Brenda,
You’ll use 2 Tablespoons OJ plus the orange zest amount listed in the recipe. Enjoy!
Are you able to find fresh non-GMO cranberries?
Hi Juanita,
You should be able to find fresh cranberries in stores now. I used fresh, organic cranberries in this.
I must admit they can be hard to find sometimes here in the south earlier in the fall, so when I find fresh ones I’m known to freeze a lot of them so that I have them anytime I want them!
Hope you enjoy this – it’s so delicious! xo