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Can you guys believe that Thanksgiving is next week already?! There are so many recipes that I would’ve liked to have gotten done before Thanksgiving, but I am a woman of limited time, talent and resources, so I guess some of the recipes on my to-do list will have to wait until next year. Job security.
I did get one important recipe done: this healthy remake of the gorgeous cranberry orange Jello salad that my mom makes for Thanksgiving!
Because of copyrights, I didn’t want to call this “Jello” salad, hence the name “Jiggly Cranberry Orange Salad”. I bet your kids will love it!
I don’t know what was more fun – eating or photographing this stuff. Some recipes are just more naturally photogenic than others. This salad – it’s SO PRETTY!!
My mom’s original Jello salad recipe calls for some sort of berry flavored Jello, but of course that was a no-no if I wanted to make this healthy. I brainstormed about what I could use to replace that flavor, and the best thing I could come up with was my favorite Lorann flavor oil: Royal Raspberry. Using that for flavor and plain gelatin for congealing purposes worked perfectly! If you don’t have this yummy flavoring oil, you could use your favorite berry/fruity flavored extract to taste. Lorann flavor oils are super concentrated so not much is needed, hence why this recipe calls for only a few drops.
Trim Healthy Mamas, there aren’t necessarily enough carbs in a serving of this salad to turn your meal into an E meal, but it does use E ingredients. Pair it with some other healthy carb sources to turn your dinner into a full-fledged (E)nergizing one.
My mom likes to eat this gelatin salad with some homemade Greek yogurt (lowfat) and a slice of homemade cinnamon cranberry toast for a yummy E breakfast.
If you want a side dish that could fit in with a low-carb (THM:S) dinner, you could try making a Fuel Pull (low-carb, low-fat) version of this salad by replacing the oranges with 1 cup of strawberry slices and increasing the amount of orange extract. If you try that, let me know how it works!
Did you see my Thanksgiving menu recipe roundup last week? You can check it out here if you still need ideas for Thanksgiving dinner (and if you have this year’s menu done already, you could always plan for next year!). I also did a roundup of my pumpkin spice recipes!
Some of my blogging buddies are really tearing up the Thanksgiving field! Sarah Criddle recently posted a whole slew of Thanksgiving-ready recipes, like this Sweet Pumpkin Casserole. Another super-exciting development is that Gwen is working on an ebook of a bunch of new holiday recipes. You can get details for that here.
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You can find this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.
- 1 12 oz. bag of fresh cranberries
- 2 medium oranges, peeled and chunked
- 4½ cups water (divided)
- 5 tsp. plain Knox brand gelatin (if using beef gelatin such as Great Lakes brand or THM Just Gelatin, add an extra 1 + ¼ tsp.)
- ½ tsp. salt
- 5 tsp. THM Super Sweet Blend (or more, to taste - I like mine tart)
- 10 drops Lorann Royal Raspberry flavor oil (or your favorite fruity extract to taste)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- ½ tsp. orange extract
- Pulse the cranberries, orange chunks, and 4 cups of water in a food processor until finely chopped (but let it retain some texture).
- Bring the cranberry mixture to a boil in a medium saucepan, then reduce the heat and simmer (covered) until the fruit is mostly soft. Meanwhile, stir the gelatin into half a cup of cold water and let it sit for a few minutes.
- When the cranberry mixture is soft to your liking (I don't mind mine with a little crunch yet), take it off the burner and whisk in the gelatin, salt, sweetener, and flavorings. Let the mixture cool on the counter for a little while so it's not super hot, then pour it into a greased mold of choice (or pour it into an ungreased bowl if you just want to use a spoon to serve it). Refrigerate for several hours or overnight until the salad sets up. Unmold it if desired and serve! Garnish with sliced oranges if you like.
If you don't have the raspberry flavor oil, use your desired fruity extract to taste.
Suggested products:
- Knox plain bulk gelatin
- Lorann Royal Raspberry Flavor Oil
- THM Just Gelatin and Super Sweet Blend can be purchased from the Trim Healthy Mama online store.
I tried the FP versional again. I love it! I’ve made this probably 4 times now. I ran out of raspberry extract so I tried cherry oil flavoring. NOT a good idea! Used 10 drops, the whole thing tastes kind of like thick cough syrup! Oops. So as not to waste I mixed with Greek yogurt and some peanut powder, little vanilla and tad more sweetner and its kinda like PB&J. Not bad! But next time I need to go back to Raspberry!!
Haha…good save!
In reference to what you were talking about in the last comments: I made this for lunch today. I used 2 slightly rounded tablespoons of the Great Lakes brand gelatin. I was a bit nervous that it wouldn’t hold its shape but it did. I do think next time I would use another 2 t. as it was just a bit soft for a mold, but at least it didn’t collapse. I put cottage cheese in the center. It was really good!
Thanks for the report!
It is soft set, just didn’t hold form when I tried to flip it. Kind of like the consistency of a thick jam. It’s not runny or anything. It set overnight for probably 9 hours. Next time I might add a tsp more gelatin or maybe let it set longer.
I’ll have to experiment with it. Thanks for letting me know!
I think I found out the problem! One of my blogging buddies told me that Great Lakes brand of gelatin isn’t as strong as Knox brand, so you need to use 1 T Great Lakes gelatin for every 2.5 tsp. Knox gelatin. That means 2 T, or 6 tsp. for this recipe (instead of the 5 tsp. the recipe calls for).
Hi Brianna, I tried the fuel pull version with strawberries in place of oranges. I used frozen strawberries, 6 oz by scale weight. I increased orange extract to 3/4 tsp. I didn’t have lorann oil, so used 1/2 tsp rasp extract. Otherwise I followed recipe. I found it rather tart, so I added extra sweetner (basically doubled it.) In the end, very tasty, but it didn’t set up like yours. I had to scoop it into a glass dish and serve with spoon. I like it as is, but I also like it mixed into a bit of Greek yogurt. Yum! Oh I used Great Lakes brand gelatin. The beef red can.
Thanks so much for trying it and reporting back! I’m sorry it didn’t set up; I’m not sure why that would be. I thought that all gelatin was pretty much created equally as far as set-up power. Maybe not having the oranges in there does something to the natural pectins. Interesting.
Looks wonderful, Briana! I love the idea of such a tasty treat and having it be a FP as well! Adding one more thing to my “to try” recipe list. 🙂
Here’s my recipe for no-sugar-added cranberry salad.
1 bag of cranberries
1 can of apple/raspberry juice concentrate
1/2 navel orange
5 small apples, peeled and chopped
1 20 oz can pineapple (I used slices and made them into tidbits)
2 packets Knox unflavored gelatin
1 cup water
1/2 cup pecan pieces
Put cranberries, juice concentrate and orange, thinly sliced, into a blender pitcher. Blend it to your desired size. Let it set for an hour. Add apples and pineapple with juice. Sprinkle the gelatin over cold water in a small saucepan and let it set for a few minutes. Heat it just enough to dissolve the gelatin and add it to the salad. Chill until firm. Pecans are optional. Put them in or on the salad or leave them out entirely.
I whipped up some cream (from off our raw milk) added a bit of stevia and lots of vanilla. We scooped that on top of the salad.
Wonder what your comments would be on how healthy that is? 🙂
I follow the Trim Healthy Mama healthy eating lifestyle, as do most of my readers, so I’ll answer your question from that perspective (I’m not sure whether you follow THM or not). 🙂 Everything in your salad would be fine except for the juice concentrate. While fruit is great to eat in moderate amounts, stripping it of its fiber and just drinking it in the form of juice is likely to spike your blood sugar unhealthily. Also, you’d want to make sure your pineapple is canned in its own juice, not a sugar syrup, and drain the juice off (pineapple is high in natural sugars). Adding pecans and whipped cream to your salad would be healthy, but not weight loss promoting due to the combination of carbs and fats (called a crossover on the THM plan). I hope this answers your question!
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I knew how fruit juice is -all that about being too sweet, without pulp, etc, but I just prefer very occasional natural sweeteners above all those powders etc. 🙂 And no, I don’t follow THM. Don’t know much about it. Our family did a sugar fast for a year (and all boys at that!) and then cut out all grains (except white rice), beans, nuts and seeds in an attempt at healing teeth per the book Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel. Haven’t felt so good in years! Lost 15-20 lbs. (Not really overweight in the first place so didn’t weigh myself regularly.) I’m tickled to find recipes I can use here!! We use other grains occasionally now and just generally try to prepare things the correct way and limit things containing phytic acid.. But absolutely not wheat for this Mama. Thanks for replying with an explanation of your reference point.
Cool! Thanks for explaining. Sounds like you’ve had a lot of good results.
Oh thank you! I am supposed to bring a low carb cranberry salad to our family’s Thanksgiving meal this Sunday. I woke up this morning thinking I have to search out which recipe to use, and here it is in my ‘in-box’ first thing! It is very much like the ‘regular’ one my mom always made, and she even used the same mold as yours. We always fill the center with cottage cheese. That looks beautiful with the red. I had gotten a bulk bag of strawberry jello that is sweetened with erythritol, so I’ll be using that today. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
I’m not sure if you’d use the same amount of your strawberry gelatin as the plain gelatin I used in the recipe. I’m thinking that the flavored gelatin might have fillers and such that make it not as “potent”? I’m not sure – I have hardly ever used flavored gelatin in my life (due to starting THM at the age of 17, lol). Maybe consult your old recipe to see how much would be suitable.
Thanks for pointing that out. I will check measurements.