Two ingredient easy cranberry salsa will be the hit of the dip table at your next party – and it takes less than five minutes to make!
Perfect for the holidays, this easy cranberry salsa is a unique, fruity twist to ordinary salsa. It’s so beautiful, too, isn’t it, with jewel-like tones of cranberry red garnished with bright green jalapeño? The contrast of the sweet cranberry sauce, savory tomato salsa, with zingy jalapeño peppers, and salty chips is pretty hard to beat.
If you’re looking for a really quick appetizer idea, this one is for you! You probably have the ingredients you need already in your pantry, especially this time of year.
I always grab a can or two of cranberry sauce when I see it on sale at the grocery store. Often there are stacks of it in the middle aisles. I figure I’ll use it somehow and I always do although not usually on the Thanksgiving table. I like to make my own Cinnamon Apple Cranberry Sauce orOrange Cranberry Sauce with Cardamom.
Even if you have a couple of cans still hanging out in your pantry after the holidays, cranberry salsa is welcome in the coming months. Serve it at your next party and just watch it disappear. It’s perfect with a festive co*cktail like cranberry margaritas or a pomegranate mojito.
About this cranberry salsa
This insanely easy cranberry salsa is made with only two ingredients: whole berry cranberry sauce and a jar of thick and chunky salsa. That’s it!
Because there are only those two ingredients, make sure you have the right stuff. You need whole berry cranberry sauce, not the jellied cranberry sauce that comes out of the can all in one can-shaped piece. Use a thick and chunky salsa for best results.
So here’s the how-to’s: Open a can of cranberry sauce, put it into a bowl, and break up any largish chunks. Open the jar of salsa, drain lightly to remove some of the watery juice, and add that to the bowl. Stir lightly until the two ingredients are blended. That’s it!
The bright green garnish of chopped jalapeño peppers is totally optional but it does add a nice pop of color. Chopped cilantro would do the trick, too, if you’re not crazy about peppers.
Serve the salsa with tortilla chips. Have you noticed how many different kinds of tortilla chips out there to choose from? Lately one of my friends has been bringing pumpkin tortilla chips to parties. I’m not sure where she buys those but they have just a hint of cinnamon and I could so easily get addicted to those babies. Super tasty!
Choose the tortilla chips you like best. Have you ever tried blue corn tortilla chips? They’re fun to serve with this colorful salsa. Kale/spinach chips with their green tint would be great, too! Crackers aren’t bad, either.
Well, since there are only two ingredients, it’s a little hard to be creative with this one. I like to use medium salsa but maybe you prefer mild, or fiery hot. That’s up to you.
If you want to go beyond the two basic ingredients, stir in finely chopped red onion, chopped fresh cilantro, or finely diced jalapeños. Or maybe you’d like to try my popular restaurant style salsa or homemade pico de gallo. Mexicali dip is always a hit at parties.
Make ahead and storage
This cranberry salsa can easily be made ahead. In a tightly covered container, it will keep well in the fridge for at least a few days. Makes it a rather perfect appetizer idea, right? I love recipes that can be prepared ahead of time although, admittedly, since this one only takes a couple of minutes to make, the advantage of making it ahead is minimal. But hey, anything you can do to avoid the last minute rush is good, right?
Easy Appetizers
I’m always on the look-out for easy appetizer ideas. Try:
Homemade French Onion Dip — goes great with potato chips or veggies
Mexican Corn Dip
Cherry Cheesecake Dip with Lime (10 minute recipe)
Pepperoni Pizza Pinwheels orPickle Roll Ups with Ham (Pinwheels)
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
Cranberry sauce can be served either as a gooey liquid or as a solid jelly. The jellied version is solid enough to retain the shape of the container in which it's placed whereas the sauce version is much more fluid. The difference between the fluid sauce and the jelly versions comes down to pectin.
One possibility is that you may not have used enough sugar: Sugar helps the sauce firm up, so be sure to use the full amount called for in a recipe. Another possibility is that the cranberries need to boil for longer, releasing their pectin and ensuring a jelly consistency.
Adding a teaspoon or two of fresh lemon or orange zest, a tablespoon of chopped candied peel, or even a splash of juice to your canned sauce will brighten flavors and bring in some homemade flavor.
Slight edge to homemade. Ocean Spray's sauce is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, whereas homemade uses cane sugar. I spent an hour making the homemade cranberry sauce. Prep for the store-bought one, for those unfamiliar, goes: open can, pour onto serving plate, eat.
Best Jellied Cranberry Sauce: Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce. The Ocean Spray brand is pretty much synonymous with all things cranberry, so it's not really a surprise that they have their cranberry sauce dialed in.
The major variation you're likely to come across is "whole berry" versus "jellied." The only difference between them is that the jellied sauce is cooked until the berries have completely broken down. They both slide out of the can as a wobbly red cylinder.
"Instead, start by stirring in one tablespoon maple syrup and one teaspoon of a sweet drink like apple juice, orange juice, or fruity white or red wine. Add more to taste. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt (in small amounts, it intensifies sweetness)."
Dear Evelyn: I had the same problem when I first started making my own cranberry sauce. I found out that you should cook them just until they pop. Further cooking will make them bitter, and once that happens, you need to start again.
Maple syrup, brown sugar and even honey can make your cranberry sauce more dynamic. And don't forget the spices! Cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, citrus zest and star anise all work well with cranberries and can be added while the sauce cooks to infuse your sauce with flavor.
Cranberries are also rich in vitamin C and fiber, as well as the metabolism-boosting mineral manganese. And yes, you reap all these benefits whether the cranberry sauce on your holiday table is homemade or canned, jellied or whole-berry.
Prior to opening, cranberry sauce can be stored at room temperature or in the refrigerator if you prefer it chilled. After opening, remove from the can and store tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
The sauce will thicken as it cools. If you want a cranberry mold that holds its shape, continue to boil the mixture so that more pectin is released from the fruit, additional water evaporates, and the sauce becomes thick enough to set into a firm gel.
Though they won't tolerate runny sauce, so it's time to fix that. The simplest reason that your cranberry sauce is too runny is that it has too much liquid in it. Usually, this is just water, but some people use orange juice or other flavored fluids. No matter what you're using, the answer is to cook it longer.
And deep down, they are not so different after all: Whole cranberry sauce indeed involves whole berries. Jellied cranberry sauce goes through much the same process, but it is heavily strained, removing elements of nature — skin, seeds — that would impede its perfect silken texture.
There are four major varieties of cranberries: American, European, Mountain and Highbush, with American being the most common variety used for juice and sold as fresh berries. Highbush is mostly used for jelly, jams and sauces. Most cranberries are picked by machines, however, machines damage the berries.
There are more than 100 cranberry varieties including Alfredo Compact, Baily Compact, Ben Lear, Bergman, Compactum, Crowley, Early Black, Howes, McFarlin, Pilgrim, Redwing, Searles, Stevens, and Wentworth.
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