I know, I know! You’re thinking back in horror to those unspeakable jello salads of your youth. The artificially-flavored and gummy-textured concoctions, perhaps strewn with miniature marshmallows, that are the laughing stock today. That’s not what Lemon Gelatin Salad with Mint Mayonnaise Chantilly is about.
This salad with its sparkling, fresh citrus flavor, raw vegetables, and a dollop of mint-flavored sauce is in another league entirely. It’s one more of my favorite summer dishes, because it’s so cool, bracing, and refreshing, and requires almost no cooking.
The ingredients.
You’ll need about 6 lemons to render the required 1 cup of lemon juice. My choice of vegetables is cucumbers, celery, carrots, red pepper, and parsley because they provide the needed variety of tastes, textures, and colors. However, you can substitute whichever raw vegetables suit your fancy.
The Gelatin Salad
Peel the cucumbers, cut them in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. I find kirbys provide the best crisp texture and flavor.
Salt each half cucumber lightly on both sides, and place on paper towels for about 30 minutes. This step is essential because it removes excess water, which will disturb the gelatin from setting properly.
Salting and sweating the cucumbers.
Rinse off the salt, drain, and chop the cucumbers into small dice. Dry thoroughly on paper towels, to remove even more water.
Chopping and drying the cucumbers.
Chop the celery, the carrots, and the red pepper into small dice. Mince the parsley. Combine all the vegetables and parsley in a large bowl, and mix gently.
Combining the vegetables.
Juice the 6 lemons, and grate the rind of 1 lemon.
Soak the gelatin in 1/2 cup of cold water.
Soaking the gelatin.
Bring 3 cups of water to a boil and add the sugar and a small amount of salt, stirring until just dissolved. Stir in the lemon juice and rind. Let the mixture cool somewhat
Pour the gelatin mixture into the vegetables, stirring gently. The vegetables will float to the top. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight until completely set.
Combining the gelatin and vegetables.
Sadly, this mixture cannot be molded because there is insufficient gelatin to keep it from collapsing. Believe me. I’ve tried it.
The Mayonnaise Sauce
Spoon 1 cup of commercial mayonnaise into a medium-sized bowl.
Remove the mint leaves from the stems.
Mint leaves.
Mince the mint as finely as possible, stir into the mayonnaise.
Mince the mint finely.
I believe the sauce needs a bit of sweetness, so I beat 3 tablespoons of sweetened fruit purée into the mayonnaise. I prefer a papaya purée, which I make myself from fresh papaya, sweetened with a bit of sugar. You can use whatever fruit you may have handy for purée or even use a heavy fruit syrup.
When adding the fruit purée, taste the mixture carefully so it is sweetened just to your taste. Chill this mixture for several hours to develop the mint flavor.
Adding the mint and fruit purée.
Just before serving time, beat heavy cream until it forms stiff peaks. Stir in 1/3 of the cream into the mayonnaise, then gently fold in the remaining cream. When cream is folded into a sauce, it’s called Chantilly. This gives a much lighter, ethereal texture to the sauce.
Folding in whipped cream into sauce.
Serving
Gently spoon the lemon gelatin salad onto a bed of lettuce on each plate. Because the vegetables have floated to the top of the bowl, you’ll need to spoon extra gelatin from under the vegetables.
Place a scoop of the Mint-Mayonnaise Chantilly on top of the gelatin, and decorate with mint leaves.
Lemon Gelatin Salad with Minted Mayonnaise Chantilly
I like to serve Lemon Gelatin Salad with Mint-Mayonnaise Chantilly with a smoked pork chop, corn pudding (recipe here), and buttermilk cornbread (recipe here).
To print or download the recipe, click here.
