This Zevia cola cranberry salad takes an old Southern staple and reinvents it to be sugar free and appropriate for Trim Healthy Mama, Keto or Low Carb diets.
If you’ve ever been to a Southern potluck or holiday gathering there is usually some kind of jello salad lurking around. Sometimes it is in a mold. Sometimes it may have nuts, marshmallows or other fruit mixed in.
But it is always there and usually next to a plate of deviled eggs and probably a bundt cake.
This Zevia cola cranberry salad was inspired by an old Coca-Cola Salad. It has been changed to meet requirements of a low carb and sugar free diet. And it can be eaten on Trim Healthy Mama in an S meal.
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Zevia Cola Cranberry Salad
Is it a side, a salad or a dessert? That is the question that no one really has an answer to!
When we make this Zevia cola cranberry salad during the week, we eat it as dessert. But I plan to have this as an option on my low carb Thanksgiving menu. So when it is served up next to this brown “sugar” Instant Pot ham and mac n cheese zoodles, it will be my cranberry sauce sub.
Now that we have that mystery solved as to whether this recipe is indeed a salad or a side or a dessert, we can move on to more important things like what you need to make this snowy cranberry treat.
What You Need:
Cranberry Nut Jello Layer
- Sugar Free Whole Cranberry Sauce (recipe in link)
- 2 packages Simply Delish Jello (I used strawberry but raspberry would work well too)
- Zevia Cola
- Chopped Pecans
Cream Cheese Whipped Topping
- Heavy Whipping Cream
- Cream Cheese
- Stevia Sweet Leaf Vanilla Drops
Making the Sugar Free Cranberry Gelatin Salad
I hesitated to even share this cranberry salad recipe. Why? Because I hate when I’m on a blog and the writer says you need to go make this recipe before you make this other recipe that you want.
And here I am doing that exact same thing that I hate. But hear me out, yes you do need to make this sugar free cranberry sauce before you make this salad.
But that is because I couldn’t find a commercially available canned sauce that didn’t contain sugar. If you happen to know of a store bought (and sugar free) cranberry sauce, feel free to use it. It works out to about 1.5 cups of sauce.
The cranberry sauce recipe I use is only 4 ingredients and is a dump and forget it dish.
Whole Cranberry Sauce
You have 2 options for the cranberry sauce. The first is to throw it in the crockpot & when it is ready, dump it directly into a saucepan and boil it.
The second (and what I typically opt for) is to make the crockpot cranberry sauce a day in advance. When you are ready to make this Zevia cola cranberry salad, just dump the pre-made sauce into the saucepan and then follow the rest of the instructions.
Boiling the Sauce and Adding Gelatin
You need to get the whole berry cranberry sauce up to a boil so that it can dissolve the gelatin. Once the sauce is boiling, remove it from the heat and add both packs of Simply Delish gelatin.
Stir until combined.
Next, add 1 cup of Zevia cola and mix. It will get really bubbly and frothy at this point.
Add 3/4 cup of chopped pecans.
Pour into an 8×8 glass dish and refrigerate until set.
Mix the heavy whipping cream, Vanilla sweet drops and cream cheese together with a hand or stand mixture. You want the cream cheese to be smooth and the whipping cream to start to form peaks.
Once the topping is whipped, taste it to make sure it is sweet enough for you. Remember that the cranberry gelatin will also have a sweet and tart taste.
If you like your whipped topping a bit sweeter, just add a few more vanilla Sweet drops.
Spoon the topping on top of the gelatin layer and smooth it out evenly.
Refrigerate for at least an hour if possible (but it can be eaten immediately). This is a great make ahead dish and will keep for several days covered in the fridge.
More THM/Low Carb Sweets:
Keto/THM S Double Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake
Keto/THM S Peanut Butter Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Have more Zevia to use up? Make this family favorite – Crockpot Zevia Pulled Pork.
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- 1 Batch Sugar Free Cranberry Sauce (Recipe linked above)
- 2 Bx Simply Delish Jello (Strawberry or Raspberry Flavor)
- 1 Cup Zevia Cola
- 3/4 Cup Chopped Pecans
- 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 4 oz Cream cheese (softened)
- 5 Drops Vanilla Sweet Leaf Sweet Drops (or to taste)
Ingredients
Cranberry Nut Jello Layer
Cream Cheese Topping Layer
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- Make a batch of the sugar free cranberry sauce (link above).
- Place the cranberry sauce in a saucepan and heat to boiling.
- Remove from heat & add in both packs of gelatin. Stir.
- Add the chopped pecans to the cranberry mixture and stir again.
- Spread the cranberry mixture into an 8x8 pan and place it in the refrigerator to set.
- Meanwhile, place the cream cheese into a mixing bowl and mix with a hand or stand mixer until smooth.
- Next, add the Sweet Drops and heavy whipping cream. Beat until you have a fluffy whipped cream texture.
- If the cranberry jello is not cool enough, just leave your whipped topping in a separate container in the fridge until ready to serve. If it is cool at this point, you can layer this whipped cream on top of the cranberry jello layer.
- It is best to let both layers chill together for at least an hour before serving (but I have eaten it immediately, so long as the jello portion has set).