Cranberry Salsa

When I went to Fresh Summit, I was introduced to fruits taking on a more savory note in recipes. I really didn’t think I’d like it, but oh boy, it got the creative juices flowing. One thing I sampled was at the Ocean Spray booth…while I didn’t get to speak anyone there (the summit was super busy with 20k people there), I was immediately intrigued by their cranberry salsa recipe. They were handing out samples with tortilla chips, but when I tasted this, my first thought was TURKEY. How fabulous would this be on turkey instead of the normal cranberry sauce?!

So, when we smoked the turkey this past weekend, I also whipped up a batch of this cranberry salsa. It was fantastic on the turkey! In fact, my husband (who isn’t much of a cranberry fan), loved this salsa. 🙂 It’s definitely going to be a part of our holiday menu, and I think I’m going to bring a batch to my family’s Thanksgiving when we go. It was just SO good, and very simple to make.

Cranberry Salsa
Source: Ocean Spray

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 12 oz. fresh or frozen cranberries
• 2 tbsp. chopped pickled jalapeno peppers
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 green onion, white and green parts, sliced
• 1 tsp. lime juice

Directions:

1. In a medium-sized pot, add the water and sugar. Stir the mixture, and heat it on medium heat until it comes to a boil. Add the cranberries to the mixture, and return the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat and gently boil the cranberry mixture for 10 minutes, being mindful not to stir during those 10 minutes.
2. Pour the mixture into a medium heat-proof mixing bowl, and fold in the remaining ingredients. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature, and cover with plastic wrap. It’s best served at room temperature, but you can refrigerate it overnight and serve the next day (it’s actually even better the next day, in my opinion).