Mama Jane's Strawberry Jello Salad

Mama Jane's Strawberry Salad

I rarely eat Jello and really don’t like traditional ‘Jello salad’.  I swear, I really am a Southern girl.  

Maybe it’s the wonderful mixture of fruit and maybe it’s the pecan and sour cream filling, but Mama Jane’s Strawberry Salad is a Jello salad that our family loves.  It is, in fact, my mother-in-law, ‘Mimi’s’, favorite holiday dish and I believe she would be seriously disappointed if I didn’t serve it at holiday meals.  You would have to know my mother-in-law, but hardly anything disappoints or upsets her.  

Honey ranks Strawberry Salad as his favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner.  You will again notice that there are no ‘finished’ pictures of this dish.  I think I must have deprived Honey of these beloved family dishes for too long because he helped himself as soon as he got home.  I either need to be quicker with the photos or start putting notes on food that needs to be photographed.  Yeah, I need to be quicker on the photos or hide the dish.  

Even you are like me and normally don’t like Jello salad, I really think you will like this recipe, and if you like Jello salad, you will absolutely LOVE this recipe.  

The Ingredients you will need to make this amazing salad!

My baker in training

What your 'mushy' strawberries will look like

Add all your fruit together

Refrigerate the bottom layer until congealed

Place your sour cream, pecan, powdered sugar mixture on top of your congeal bottom layer in dollops

Spread topping evenly - yes, I didn't wait for the Jello to congeal long enough.  :)

Mama Jane’s Strawberry Salad

2 packages of strawberry Jello

1 cup of boiling water

8-12 oz. package frozen strawberries

1 1/2 cup crushed pineapples with juice

2 mashed bananas

1 15 oz. can mandarin oranges

Filling - 

1 cup sour cream (I always use ‘Light’)

3/4 cup chopped pecans

3 tablespoons confectioner sugar

Place frozen strawberries in a bowl and place in microwave for 1-2 minutes until strawberries are mushy.  Once your strawberries are nice and mushy, cut with a fork and knife until the strawberries are smaller bite sized pieces.  Mix strawberry Jello, cut up strawberries, boiling water, mandarin oranges, pineapple, and banana in large bowl.  Mix well.  Place half of mixture into a 9 x 13 casserole dish.  I have found a glass dish works best for this recipe.  Place dish in the refrigerator and let chill for at least 30 minutes to an hour.  While your Jello congeals, mix topping.  

For topping, mix sour cream, pecans and confectioner sugar.  Once Jello has congealed, add filling in dollops on top of the Jello.  (The dollop approach makes it easier to spread an even layer of the filling without messing up the Jello.)  Pour remaining Jello an fruit mixture on top of the filling.  Cover and refrigerate dish until ready to serve.  Serves 10-12.   

The finished Salad

We don’t have anyone with a nut allergy in our family but I have prepared this dish splitting it into two dishes one with pecans and the other without when we had a guest who had a nut allergy.  All you need to do is divide the filling in half and add a little less than 1/3 cup of pecans to the filling for the ‘with nuts’ dish.  

Stay tuned for more desserts, a champagne punch, and more Thanksgiving family favorites!  Stay warm this week y’all!

Hope

Mama Jane's Strawberry Salad

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