Friday, September 5, 2014

Fruit and Veggie Refresher

This dessert has a very light, refreshing taste, and the Agar powder does a nice job of gelling it.  It arose from fond thoughts of a gelatin salad my Mom made years ago that had a weird combination of ingredients that tasted great together.  As it was one of my favorites, so began the experimenting to replicate the recipe, albeit a healthier version.  This photo doesn't do it justice. The actual color and texture are quite attractive.  If you have family members that may not eat some of the ingredients if identified, the mixture may be chopped finer for camouflage.  It will produce a more homogeneous flavor, but is still good.

Fruit and Veggie Refresher

2/3 cup pineapple juice
3/4 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup chopped green cabbage
1/2 cup diced celery (or a bit less)
2 T maple syrup
2 tsp fresh lime juice

3/4 cup 100% orange juice
1 3/4 tsp  agar powder

-Place the first six ingredients in a blender.  Pulse on medium until veggies are 1/4"-1/8" in diameter. (This  will only take a few seconds.)
-Pour into a medium sized bowl.
-Pour the orange juice into a small cooking pot and bring to a very low simmer.
-Whisk in the agar powder and cook whisking constantly for one minute.
-Stir into the above mixture, pour into an 8" x 8" baking dish.
-Cool 5-10 minutes, cover, and chill in the fridge a minimum of six hours, and serve.  This will keep in the  fridge for several days.


-Although 1 3/4 tsp of agar powder sets this to a nice consistency, if you plan to leave this out of the fridge for more than a few minutes (but not more than an hour,) increase the agar powder to 2 tsp.
-Apple juice was tried in place of the OJ, but produced too mild a flavor.  Replacing the OJ with more pineapple juice might be good.  When tried I will let you know on this blog.
Have a joyous and blessed day!

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