Healthy Cranberry Orange Salad Or Sauce With Beef Gelatin
Cranberry orange sauce is a fantastic side for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Easter dinner or dessert, and it's loaded with health benefits!
Equipment
- 1 quart pot - to make the tea
- Small bowl or stainless steel measuring cup - to bloom and dissolve the gelatin
- 3 quart pot - for cooking the cranberry sauce and mixing all the ingredients
- Measuring spoons
- Stirring spoon
- cutting board
- knife
- 2 quart bowl - to use as a mold. If you have a pretty ring mold or other decorative mold, be sure to use that!
Ingredients
For the tea
- 1 ¼ cup water
- 12 cloves
- 2 tbsp hibiscus flowers
- 2 tbsp rosehips
- 2 pcs star anise
- 1 tsp cardamom seeds
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 inch fresh turmeric, thinly sliced - You can use dried, granulated or the powder too.
- 1 inch fresh ginger, thinly sliced - You can use dried, granulated or the powder too.
- ⅓ tsp crushed or fresh ground pepper
- 2 tsp lemon zest or lemon paste
- 1 tbsp orange zest - Or a few pieces of dried orange rind
For the Salad
- 12 oz cranberries, fresh or frozen
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 2 oranges or 5 Mandarines
- ¾ cup orange juice (from about 2 more oranges)
- 1 apple
- 10 oz crushed pinapple, canned, unsweetened
- 6 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp gelatin powder (or 1 tbsp, see note!) Note: 2 tbsp is the amount for the molded salad. If you're making the sauce, cut the amount in half and use just 1 tbsp!
- ½ cup water - for blooming and dissolving the gelatin
Optional
- ¾ cup walnuts, chopped
- Lettuce leaves to bed the salad
- Orange or mandarin slices, fresh pinapple sections, and/or extra cranberries for decoration
Instructions
Make the tea
- First make a tea by adding the spices, rosehips and hibiscus to the water in a pot. Bring to a simmer and simmer on low for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the tea sit for a few more minutes.
Make the sauce
- Pour ½ cup of cold water into a stainless steel measuring cup or small bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over it and allow it to bloom, while preparing your other ingredients.
- Place the cranberries and raisins into the 3-quart saucepan. Using a strainer, add the tea water to the cranberries. Bring the cranberries and raisins to a boil and simmer on low for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the cranberry mix cool for a few minutes.
- While the cranberries are simmering, measure out the pineapple.
- Peel and chop the apple (you don't need to peel it if you're using unsprayed apples).
- Squeeze two oranges or several mandarins and catch the juice and pulp to make about ¾ cup.
- Peel two oranges or 5 mandarins.
- Make about 6-7 thin slices from the mandarin or the oranges.
- Cut the remaining mandarins in half and separate the section to make half sections. If using oranges, make 3-4 slices and separate the sections into bite-sized pieces.
- Chop the Walnuts if using.
- Measure out the honey.
- Heat the gelatin on low heat on a the stove till it's just melted.
- Add the melted gelatin to the cranberry mix and stir it well to distribute it all evenly.
- Add the pineapple, orange juice, apples, oranges, nuts, and honey. Stir well.
- Place a few orange slices into the bottom of the bowl you'll use as a mold.
- Pour the warm gelatin mix into the mold and let it cool to room temperature. Cover with a lid or beeswax cloths or plastic wrap and place into the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.
- When you're ready to unmold it, dip the whole bowl into another bowl with hot water to loosen the gelatin so it will release your salad. Jiggle the bowl a bit till you see the gelled salad start to move. Then invert onto a plate and decorate. See notes about bedding it on lettuce.
- Serve as a side to roasts, ham, turkey, venison etc.
Storage
- This sauce and salad will be good for about a week. After that the ingredients may start to break down and liquids separate. You'll need to make it at least one day in advance so it has time to gel properly and set.
Leftovers
- While the leftovers are fine for a week in most cases, I doubt that this will last. I know it doesn't at my place! It's just too good as a snack. You can serve leftovers as dessert the next day with some delicious cultured Panna Cotta, or a generous helping of sweet whipped cream, Quark Cheese, Clabber, yogurt, or sour cream plain or blended with some honey and cinnamon. And offer some delicious Vanillekipferl or Cinnamon Stars to go with it!Try layering the salad in a dish with Panna Cotta. This will require a bit of time as you'll need to chill it in-between layers. To make it simple, pour this cranberry sauce in a rectangular or pie dish, place into the refrigerator and when it's firm, pour the fresh made, still warm Panna Cotta over it. Place back into the fridge for a few more hours and serve with chopped cranberries, nuts, or other toppings. You could also make a fluffy cream cheese topping with fresh Quark cheese blended with honey and then fold in This can also be used as a cold pie filling with pudding and a cookie crust (you can use the delicious einkorn and kamut shortbread crust recipe from my Blackberry Cheesecake for this).Or use it to top a Cheesecake or pound cake, or make a fruit pizza with a pudding and the cranberry orange sauce on top.Serve on pancakes, waffles, or Dutch Babies.
Notes
Tips And Substitutions For This Healthy Cranberry Orange Salad
- This sauce is delicious as a salad too, and if you're making the salad and for some reason it won't set up well, you can surely serve it as a beautiful and delicious sauce.
- To ensure that it will gel, don't use raw pineapple, which can inhibit the gelling power of the gelatin. If you're using a fresh pineapple, cut it into small chunks and cook them with the cranberries. Do serve some of the raw pineapple on the side though for its digestive benefits.
- Lightly grease your dish before adding the Cranberry Orange Salad. When you're ready to unmold it, loosen the sides with a thin knife and dip the whole bowl into another bowl with hot water for 15-30 seconds. Wiggle the bowl until you see the whole mass come loose and move around in the bowl. If you're serving it on lettuce leaves, arrange the lettuce leaves on a serving plate. Now rinse another plate with cold water, place upside down over the bowl with your salad. Then carefully invert the whole thing and catch the salad on your plate. Remove the bowl and slide the cranberry orange salad onto the bed of lettuce leaves. Now admire your beautiful salad. You can also just flip the salad onto the plate without the lettuce and add some greens or orange slices around the edge of the salad. Be sure to use a large enough serving plate to accommodate decorations.
- I added some mandarin slices to the bowl before I added the salad ingredients. This makes a pretty top after it's inverted. Another place with room for your creative expression!
- Don't add the honey too soon, we want it to remain raw, so let the whole dish cool down to under 100 degrees to keep the enzymes in the honey alive. If you cook it, it will be no more healthy than sugar.
- Substitute a couple of red zinger teabags in place of the hibiscus flours and rosehips. These teabags contain the same ingredients and a few extra herbs. But it will work.
- Add nuts to your sauce if you like. Walnuts or pecans would work great. When serving it with meat, I prefer not to add nuts, but they taste wonderful mixed in and provide a bit of protein and fat for more nutrients and better absorbance of fat-solulable compounds.
- Try adding some strawberries or other berries when in season, if you're making this dish in the summer. Add them along with the apple and orange sections.