Cranberry Salad is the perfect addition for your big holiday dinner this year.
This easy jello salad is an edible wreath that will wow your guests and is sure to dominate your Christmas tablescape.
Cranberry Salad
Our Cranberry Salad recipe comes to you from the Mennonite Community Cookbook.
It’s the only cookbook that lived in the kitchen cupboard above my mom’s busy oven in our big Mennonite farmhouse.
This Cranberry Salad comes from the Mennonite Community Cookbook
The Ingredients for Cranberry Salad
- Cranberries
- Apples
- Sugar
- Oranges or Crushed Pineapple
- Walnuts
- Cherry or Strawberry Gelatin
- Water
Cranberry Recipes are a holiday tradition in our family.
How to Make This Easy Jello Salad
Start by chopping some fresh cranberries.
After washing some fresh cranberries, you’re going to chop them up. A few pulses in a food processor works perfectly.
Add some finely diced apples to the cranberries.
Next, you will pare and core a few apples, then finely dice them and add to the fresh cranberries.
Chopped walnuts along with some oranges or crushed pineapples a,re added to this cranberry salad.
This cranberry jello salad takes a distinct holiday turn when you add some nuts and oranges (or pineapple) to the mix.
Gelatin holds this jello salad together.
For this cranberry salad, you will dissolve a packet of either cherry gelatin or strawberry gelatin into a cup of hot water.
Then, you will some cold water to the mixture and whisk it all together.
Stir the cranberry mixture into the cooled gelatin.
When the gelatin is cool, use a mixing bowl to combine it with the cranberry mixture. Gently fold it all together until it’s mixed well.
Important Tips for Making this Cranberry Salad
- The hot water needs to be boiling.
- Stir gelatin with the hot water for a full two minutes
- Allow the gelatin to start to thicken a bit before combing the gelatin with the other ingredients.
Be sure and follow the above steps or else the gelatin may not set.
Pour the mixture into a salad mold.
Now it’s time to pour the mixture for this cranberry salad into a salad mold and allow it to congeal.
If you don’t have a salad mold, use a bundt can and just give it a quick spray with some non-stick cooking spray.
Allow the cranberry jello salad to completely cool before unmolding.
A bed of greens on the serving plate makes this cranberry salad the perfect bridge between a traditional salad and a holiday dessert for your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.
This cranberry jello salad is a great salad or light dessert for your holiday table.
Wisconsin is the cranberry capital of the U.S. and being the good cheeseheads that we are, we have many wonderful cranberry recipes for you to try, including:
- Cranberry Bread (there’s cream cheese in this quick bread recipe!)
- Cranberry Swirl Semolina Cake
- Cranberry-Orange Pancakes with Cranberry-Infused Maple Syrup
Read All About Cranberries from Platter Talk’s very own, Chef Kat.
More Holiday and Christmas Salad Recipes for you to enjoy.
See some of our Mennonite recipes.
Other delicious salad recipes
If you’ve tried this recipe for Cranberry Salad or any other recipe on Platter Talk, please let us know your thoughts in the comments below, we love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW US on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what we have cooking.
Cranberry Salad
Ingredients
- ½ lb Cranberries Washed and chopped
- 3 Apples Pared and cored.
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 2 oranges Chopped. Or ½ cup crushed pinapple
- 1 package getlatin strawberry or cherry
- 1 cup water boiling hot
- 1 cup water cold
Instructions
- Wach and chop cranberries. A few pulses in a food processor works well.
- Pare and core apples then chop finely. Add chopped oranges, nuts, and. sugar to the cranberries.
- In a separate mixing bowl, dissolve the gelatin in hot water and whisk vigorously for two minutes. Add the cold water and mix well. Allow the gelatin to cool and to start to set and then stir in the cranberry mixture.
- Pour the mixture into a salad mold or a bundt pan prepared with a non-stick cooking spray. Allow cool and congeal completely and then unmold onto a bed of salad greens.
- Garnish with additional whole cranberries, if desired.
2 Sisters Recipes says
What a delicious idea for a cranberry salad! So easy too! Our kind of recipe – lol! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! Hope to see you soon!
Tatiana says
I have never seen a salad like this before. Absolutely stunning presentation and adore the use of fresh raw cranberries!
Jyothi (Jo) says
Oh wow, that salad looks so beautifully festive and delicious! Jello salad with all the wonderful flavors, i’m sure you’ll get loads of appreciate for this salad from guests.
Marisa Franca says
This salad brings back so many memories! My sweet Mother-in-law would make this for all major holidays. The color is so festive and the fruit add just the right touch to go along with a heavier meal.
Mirlene says
Wow! How festive!!! Your pictures are SO enticing by the way. I think I just found my new dessert for Christmas. Thank you!
Cheese Curd In Paradise says
This is so nostalgic from one Wisconsinite to another. I think jello salad is a staple on most holiday tables. I love the cranberry version. I remember my grandmother had an orange one, but this sounds much tastier to me!