Gluten Free Living – 2014

Jello Cranberry Salad is delightful. This lovely fruit salad is especially nice for the holidays. It’s crunchy and refreshing and the wonderful fruity taste is always a hit with everyone. For those of you who enjoy congealed salads this one is superb.

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We really enjoy this for Thanksgiving or Christmas when we serve turkey or ham. Instead of making cranberry sauce, we made this luscious salad. I even served it on my rolls instead of jelly and it was incredibly good! For those of you who are gluten intolerant, this recipe is gluten free but not vegan.

This Jello salad is made with a red or lemon Jello. I used strawberry. You can use either whole berry cranberry sauce (which is what my sister uses). Or fresh cranberries and sugar (which is what my choice would be). It also uses crushed pineapple, and finely diced apples and celery.

This congealed salad only takes about 15-20 minutes to make. The only reason it takes that long is because you have to finely dice up the celery and apples. It’s really simple and doesn’t take a lot of effort even though it looks so elegant. This salad is best made the day beforehand. That ends up being pretty handy. That way you can spend the holiday making recipes that have to be made that particular day.

My sister has served this every year for Thanksgiving dinner for decades. She got the recipe from her mother-in-law shortly after she got married. Congealed salads were really popular in the 50s and 60s when packaged foods were just starting to come to market.

Phillis collected a lot of wonderful recipes from her mother-in-law in the early days of her marriage. So she could make my brother-in-law, John’s, favorite recipes frequently. The original recipe calls for using fresh cranberries and sugar rather than the more convenient whole berry cranberry sauce  which my sister uses.

Anyway, we had this three years ago and I begged my sister for the recipe but she never did end up getting it to me. I didn’t realize until we were at her home for Thanksgiving this year, that she had “lost” the recipe. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that the recipe card fell out of one of her other cookbooks and she was able to make it again. Needless, to say, I wrote the recipe down and also typed it into my computer immediately so it would never be “lost” again!

If you’re looking for a scrumptious, festive and elegant salad to serve for the holidays, then I can highly recommend this Jello Cranberry Salad. Everyone loves it and you will love having a salad that can be made ahead leaving plenty of time available for other recipes.

Jello Cranberry Salad is sweet enough to serve as a dessert!

This lovely congealed salad includes cranberries, pineapple, apples and celery for lots of delicious crunch.

Every bite of Jello Cranberry Salad is wonderful.

Here’s what I did.

I used these ingredients minus the sugar. Since we weren’t using fresh cranberries we didn’t need the sugar.

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir until completely dissolved.

Dissolve whole berry cranberry sauce in hot gelatin mixture.

Continue stirring until the gelatin is completely broken up.

Add a dash of salt, finely diced apple and celery, and well-drained crushed pineapple.

Stir ingredients to combine. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Here the salad has congealed and become firm. It’s ready to serve.

Jello Cranberry Salad is a great salad to serve for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.

My sister has served this salad every year for Thanksgiving for almost five decades!

The flavors of Jello Cranberry Salad are outstanding. It’s also great served over top of hot rolls!

Here’s the recipe.

JELLO CRANBERRY SALAD

(Recipe adapted from my sister, Phillis Gleason, Colorado Springs, CO; source: Mary Gleason, Neosho, MO)

Jello Cranberry Salad

Teresa Ambra

Jello Cranberry Salad is a lovely and festive congealed salad that's great for holiday entertaining. It's especially nice for Thanksgiving or Christmas when traditionally turkey or ham are served. This salad is made with strawberry Jello, crushed pineapple, whole berry cranberry sauce, apples, and celery. It's so mouthwateringly good that even the pickiest eaters love this salad. Gluten free.

4.17 from 6 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Course Salads and Salad Dressings, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Calories 132 kcal

Equipment

• 1 medium serving bowl or glass bowl
• 1 medium sauce pan
• 1 wooden spoon
• measuring cups
• measuring spoons
• 1 sharp knife to cut vegetables and fruit

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 6 oz. box red or yellow Jell-O (we used strawberry)
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1 cup crushed pineapple well drained
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 cup apples finely diced
• 1/2 cup celery finely diced
• 16 oz. can whole berry cranberry sauce or use fresh cranberries and sugar (see note below)

Instructions

 

• Bring water to a boil in a small sauce pan.
• Add Jello and stir to combine.
• Remove from heat.
• Stir in whole berry cranberry sauce until dissolved.
• Add pineapple, salt, apples and celery and stir to combine.
• Pour into serving bowl and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Notes

NOTE: The original recipe called for 1 cup cranberries plus ½ cup sugar instead of whole berry cranberry sauce. If using fresh cranberries, grind the berries, add sugar and heat over low heat a few minutes until berries cook down. Follow above recipe as suggested.

 

^© Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen

Nutrition

Calories: 132kcalCarbohydrates: 33gProtein: 2gFat: 0.1gSaturated Fat: 0.01gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.03gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.01gSodium: 73mgPotassium: 58mgFiber: 1gSugar: 28gVitamin A: 50IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 8mgIron: 0.2mg

Keyword apples, cranberry, gluten free, holiday side dish, pineapple, salad

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

If you enjoy congealed salads, you’ll love this recipe.

The nice thing about this recipe is it’s prepared a day in advance. That leaves all your time on the day you serve it to prepare other foods.

Serve Jello Cranberry Salad for your next holiday meal. Everyone will love it.

You may also enjoy these delicious recipes!

Pineapple Mango Salad

Ambrosia Salad

Ambrosia Waldorf Salad

Jello Cranberry Salad

Teresa Ambra

Jello Cranberry Salad is a lovely and festive congealed salad that’s great for holiday entertaining. It’s especially nice for Thanksgiving or Christmas when traditionally turkey or ham are served. This salad is made with strawberry Jello, crushed pineapple, whole berry cranberry sauce, apples, and celery. It’s so mouthwateringly good that even the pickiest eaters love this salad. Gluten free.

4.17 from 6 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 25 minutes mins

Course Salads and Salad Dressings, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Calories 132 kcal

Equipment

• 1 medium serving bowl or glass bowl
• 1 medium sauce pan
• 1 wooden spoon
• measuring cups
• measuring spoons
• 1 sharp knife to cut vegetables and fruit

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 6 oz. box red or yellow Jell-O (we used strawberry)
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1 cup crushed pineapple well drained
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 cup apples finely diced
• 1/2 cup celery finely diced
• 16 oz. can whole berry cranberry sauce or use fresh cranberries and sugar (see note below)

Instructions

 

• Bring water to a boil in a small sauce pan.
• Add Jello and stir to combine.
• Remove from heat.
• Stir in whole berry cranberry sauce until dissolved.
• Add pineapple, salt, apples and celery and stir to combine.
• Pour into serving bowl and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Notes

NOTE: The original recipe called for 1 cup cranberries plus ½ cup sugar instead of whole berry cranberry sauce. If using fresh cranberries, grind the berries, add sugar and heat over low heat a few minutes until berries cook down. Follow above recipe as suggested.

 

^© Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen

Nutrition

Calories: 132kcalCarbohydrates: 33gProtein: 2gFat: 0.1gSaturated Fat: 0.01gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.03gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.01gSodium: 73mgPotassium: 58mgFiber: 1gSugar: 28gVitamin A: 50IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 8mgIron: 0.2mg

Keyword apples, cranberry, gluten free, holiday side dish, pineapple, salad

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!