Mennonite Monday - Tapioca Salad

Mennonite Monday started because I wanted to make recipes from the Bethesda Mennonite Church Cookbooks (both the yellow and the white cookbook for those of you who own them). I also wanted to take pictures of each recipe that I made, so I would know for future reference what the recipe should look like. I am by no means a great cook, but I think it will be fun to try new and different recipes each week. Not all of these recipes are for ethnic Mennonite food, but the women from Henderson know how to cook, so I can safely say that these recipes will be good. Check back each Monday for a new recipe and feel free to leave a comment if you have a favorite recipe from these cookbooks, or if you have some tips on what I should make and how I should make it.

~

This week for Mennonite Monday I am featuring a recipe that I made during harvest. To be honest, the guys I fed did not get excited about the salad. Okay, they barely even touched it.  I however did like the salad and if I ever make it again I will have a better handle on how to work with tapioca better.  Hopefully your Tapioca Salad (pg 195W) is received a little better than mine was. 

Tapioca Salad 

3 1/2 cups boiling water

1/2 cup baby pearl tapioca

8 oz. crushed pineapple with juice

3 oz. pkg strawberry gelatin 

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

Add the tapioca to the boiling water, cover and let stand until cool.  Bring to boil again and add the gelatin and stir until dissolved.  Let stand again until cool.  Add salt, sugar and pineapple.  Refrigerate until set.  Serve with whipped topping.  (Any flavor gelatin may be used). 

I was able to find small pearl tapioca just fine, but it wasn't very friendly to me.  

I added it to the boiling water.

Then I let it set.

I think I should have stirred the tapioca while it set because I had big chunks of goo stuck to the bottom of my pot.  I'm guessing this was because of something I did, but I was not exactly sure how to fix it.  I basically fished out all of the clumps and there was still some tapioca balls left, so I figured it wasn't too big of a deal. 

Adding sugar

Salt

Pineapple

Transferring to the serving bowl.

  I did not serve this with whipped topping on top because I thought it would get watery and gross. However if I had put whipped topping on it, I think it would have been more popular.