Orange Cranberry Vegan “Jello”

I have to confess, when prompted to try a recipe for tea jello, I wasn’t sure I was interested. I’m a vegetarian, so the thought of a dessert with gelatin was not appealing. However, a quick search on the internet showed me that a vegetarian option was really quite easy. So off I went to the store and bought agar-agar  to make this dessert. Fun Agar facts:

It sets at room temperature

Agar makes you feel full, so it may be helpful to consume when dieting

It’s not from an animal!

I found quite a few fun websites with jello recipes. One, The Jello Mold Mistress , has beautiful looking recipes. Most are not vegetarian, but I’m sure they can be adapted, and the ones that are vegetarian are listed here. Her photos are fantastic! Another, and the one I got the recipe from that I tested, is the Modern Gelatina. Her recipes aren’t necessarily vegetarian either, but I did find the agar recipe there along with a few more.

One thing to keep in mind when using agar  is that it is available in both powder and flakes. If you are using powder then the ratio is 1 tsp to 2 cups of water. If you’re using flakes then use 2Tbsp agar to 2 cups of water. I found this out the hard way when my 2tsp of flakes did not result in jello but in a liquid mess that was only a little, teeny bit jiggly. Not quite what I was hoping to achieve!

Modern Gelatina’s recipe for Hibiscus Mint Tea is what I used  I just subbed the teabags for our Orange Cranberry Herbal Tisane. The recipe then was:

4 cups water
5 rounded tsp Orange Cranberry herbal tisane
½ cup sugar
4 Tbsp agar-agar flakes

Then I found my teapot cookie cutter and voila!

I think the next time I make this particular recipe I’ll add chopped pieces of oranges.  There are so many tea combinations to try!