My Summer Vegetables in Jelly comes in a dashi-flavoured jelly. Small pieces of colourful vegetables scattered in the jelly look like little jewels in a glass. It brings coolness to the table.
If you serve it in a small size, you can even serve it as an appetiser. for vegetarian, use vegetarian dashi stock such as konbu dashi.
Total time is long due to the time required to set jelly, but actual time to make the salad in jelly is less than 30 minutes.
Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- 2 baby tomatoes (about 30g/1.1oz)
- 25g/0.9oz carrot diced into 7mm/¼" cubes
- 2 okra (about 25g/0.9oz, 10cm/4" long)
- 2 fresh baby corns (about 30g/1.1oz, note 4)
- 3 green beans (about 25g/0.9oz)
- 250ml/8.4fl oz dashi stock
- 2g/0.07oz kanten powder (note 2)
- ¾ tsp usukuchi shōyu (Japanese light soy sauce, note 3)
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 cocktail glasses (250-300ml/8.4-10.1fl oz capacity, note 5)
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Make a small shallow incision at the top of each tomato.
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Bring water in a saucepan to a boil and boil the tomatoes for 15 seconds, then transfer them to ice water in a bowl to quickly cool them down.
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Peel the skin off and halve or quarter each tomato.
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Blanch diced carrots in the same boiling water used for tomatoes for a couple of minutes. Drain and let them cool.
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Trim the stem-end of the okra off as per the Instructions – Preparing Vegetables in my recipe Fried Vegetables in Broth, then stab the side of your okra with the tip of a knife.
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Boil 500ml water with 1 teaspoon salt (not in Ingredients) in a saucepan (note 6).
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Put the okra in the saucepan and blanch them for a minute or so.
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Transfer the okra to ice water in a bowl to quickly cool them down. Don't discard the hot water in the pot.
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Cut each okra into about 2cm long pieces.
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Put the green beans in the boiling water in the saucepan used for okra and blanch them for a minute or two.
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Transfer the beans into ice water to quickly cool them down.
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Cut each green bean into about 2cm/¾" long pieces.
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Put the corns into the boiling water used for beans and boil for a few minutes (note 8).
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Drain and let them cool.
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Cut each piece of corn into about 2cm/¾" long pieces.
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Put dashi stock and kanten powder in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.
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Reduce the heat to simmer and cook for 2 minutes, stirring from time to time.
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Turn the heat off and let it cool, but no lower than lukewarm temperature.
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Scatter 1/3 of each vegetable in the serving glasses (note 9), then pour the jelly liquid over to just to cover the vegetables.
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Chill the glasses in the fridge for 5 minutes.
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Top up the glasses with the remaining vegetables, scattering them evenly, then pour the remaining liquid over. It should cover the vegetables (note 10).
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Chill the glasses in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. You can even leave them overnight.
1. You don’t have to use the same kinds of vegetables. Please see the section What’s in My Summer Vegetable Salad in Jelly, which lists suggested vegetables.
2. Kanten is a gelling substance similar to agar. I used Japanese kanten powder, but you can substitute it with a different form of kanten, agar, or gelatine (see the sample photos of these products in the post).
Each product requires a different amount of water to make the jelly. Follow the instruction on pack of your gelling product. My pack showed that 500ml/16.9fl oz of water was needed to dilute 4g/0.14oz of powder.
3. I used light soy sauce because I wanted the jelly to be as light coloured as possible. If you don't have light soy sauce, you can use normal Japanese soy sauce as an alternative. It does not make a huge difference since the quantity is so small.
4. If you can’t find fresh baby corn, you can use canned baby corn. Although you could eat canned baby corn straight from the tin, it will improve the flavour if you blanch them.
5. Instead of cocktail glasses, you can use short tumbler glasses to serve. Alternatively, use moulds and transfer the jelly onto a plate to serve.
6. If you want, you can use the boiling water used to boil the carrots. Make sure that the ratio of salt is 1% of the volume of water.
7. You can blanch the beans and corn together with the okra. You need to take the vegetables out at the right time since their cooking time varies.
8. If you are using canned baby corn, you only need to blanch for 30 seconds or so.
9. You may want to place the cut side of the okra and corn against the side of the glass so that the pretty patterns can be seen from outside.
10. Even if the vegetables are slightly showing above the surface of the liquid, it is not a problem if you are serving the salad jelly in the glass.
If you are using a mould and vegetables are showing above the surface of the liquid, remove a couple of pieces of vegetables so that the vegetables are submerged in the liquid and the surface of the jelly becomes flat when solidified.
11. Nutrition per serving.
serving: 194g calories: 40kcal fat: 1.2g (2%) saturated fat: 0.3g (1%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 0.2g monounsaturated fat: 0.3g cholesterol: 1.2mg (0%) sodium: 630mg (27%) carbohydrates: 4.5g (2%) dietary fibre: 1.4g (5%) sugar: 1.8g protein: 3.8g vitamin D: 0mcg (0%) calcium: 26mg (2%) iron: 0.4mg (2%) potassium: 335mg (7%)