Tomato Aspic ... Grandma's?

I'm researching ways to use gelatin. When first married I made some jellos using gelatin and fruit juices. I even did a coffee one. But now I'm looking for veggie ideas ... and others ... Anyone got ideas?

Tomato Aspic

I had a quart of V-8 style tomato juice from the health food store and wanted to use that. I'm using a quality gelatin. Many recipe I found used lemon jello. I don't want to use jello - totally unnatural and full of sugar. Here's what I settled on ... a good thing!

TOMATO ASPIC

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (my container says 1 Tb to gel 1 C liquid, so I used 4 Tb, I'm wondering if I can use a bit less)
4 C V-8 Juice
1/2 C lemon juice
1 Tb parsley (fresh or dried)
1 tsp sugar (I used sucanat)
pinch of dill weed
1/2 tsp celery seed
dash of cayenne pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp worcestershire sauce (Annie's from health food store since I've not made my own yet. And since hers does not have anchovies in it, which is a must for worcestershire sauce, I added 1/2 tsp fish sauce.)

Dissolve the gelatine in 1 cup of the juice. Heat the rest and simmer about 10 minutes. Add the gelatin mixture and stir well. You can pour this into a greased mold, and chill about 8 hours. But you can also add veggies to the mold too.

This time I cut up fine -
about 1 C celery
1 poblano chili
a bunch of chives from my garden (1/4-1/2 C)
1 mashed avocado

Other options could be adding in olives, or artichoke hearts, or shrimp ...

We had dinner guests and they liked it. One man said (for two dishes I served - the other being roasted brussel sprouts) that he's not had this since his Grandma made it!



This post has been linked to Simple Lives Thursday, Food Renegade, The Healthy Home Economist, The Prairie Homestead, Real Food Wednesday, Little Farm in the Big City, Friday Food Flicks, Beyond the Peel.