I hope you are all having a great holiday season. It's been fun getting into the Christmas spirit this month and I thought I'd share one of our favorite holiday dips. We're going start finalizing our plans for the 2025 season after the new year and I'll even have to plant some of the super hot peppers before then. But for now, let's eat, drink and be merry.
A few years ago our youngest daughter became a fan of a YouTuber who is called Acre Homestead and we have tried numerous recipes from that channel. This one has earned a place in our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. It's very good and you can adjust the spice level by using more or fewer jalapenos. If you reduce the amount of jalapenos, add bell peppers in their place. I'm sure you could add hotter peppers, too, if you wanted it hotter. As it's written, it's not actually very hot because the cream cheese cuts the heat.
Here's the recipe. I'll add my observations below.
Jalapeno Cranberry Salsa
Ingredients
12 ounces cranberries
1 bunch green onions, chopped into 2-inch lengths
2 jalapeño peppers, roughly chopped without seeds
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1 cup cane sugar
2 lime, juiced
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
16 ounces whipped cream cheese
Directions
Place cranberries, cilantro, green onions and jalapenos into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse on and off until coarsely chopped. Scrape down the side of the bowl as needed. Be very careful not to over chop or cranberries will liquify.
Add cranberry mixture into a bowl and mix in sugar, lime juice, and salt.
Place cranberry salsa into the refrigerator overnight.
Spread whipped cream cheese on a serving platter. (Note: If you have regular cream cheese, just throw it in your mixer and whip it on high for about 5 minutes until light and airy.)
Using a slotted spoon, spoon salsa over cream cheese leaving any excess liquid in a bowl.
Serve with your favorite crackers or chips! Enjoy!
I usually pulse the jalapenos, green onions and cilantro once or twice before adding the cranberries because the caution about cranberries becoming liquid with too much processing is accurate. Make sure you drain the cranberry mixture before adding it to the cream cheese because the whole thing gets too soupy otherwise. It will probably get somewhat soupy regardless but it's still tasty. Also, it's as easy as the recipe says to whip your cream cheese.
You can make up the cranberry mixture ahead of time and refrigerate (or even freeze) it. Spoon it over the cream cheese right before you serve it. Any leftovers can be refrigerated and used later, but it never looks as nice as right after you put the cranberry mixture on.
Here's wishing you a great holiday and a wonderful winter!
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