Strawberry hibiscus squares, a clean jello

Some things from childhood are worth remaking with real ingredients, and jello is one of them. Strawberry juice and a deep ruby hibiscus tea set into soft, jewel colored squares with real gelatin and only a little sweetness. It is a treat you can hand a child and eat yourself, and it asks almost nothing of you on a busy day.

The medicine here is the gelatin. It is a source of glycine and collagen, the same building blocks that give the gut lining raw material to mend, and a calmer gut barrier is part of settling an immune system that has been running hot. The hibiscus base keeps the sugar modest while the strawberry juice carries most of the flavor, so the sweetness comes mainly from real fruit.

Pour these into a dish, let them set in the refrigerator, and cut them into squares you can see the light through. Set a few on a plate with a little care. A small, beautiful thing eaten slowly settles the body more than the same thing eaten standing at the counter.

Ingredients

• 1 cup cold strawberry juice
• 4 tablespoons gelatin
• 3 cups boiling hibiscus tea

Method

Pour the cold strawberry juice into a bowl and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the top. Let it sit for a minute to bloom and soften, which is what keeps the finished squares smooth rather than grainy.

Pour in the boiling hibiscus tea and whisk until the gelatin fully dissolves and no granules remain.

Pour the mixture into a 9 by 13 dish and chill in the refrigerator for about 3 hours, until firmly set. Cut into squares and keep cold.

For a lower-sugar batch, lean on the tea as the base; strawberry juice alone works too if you want it sweeter and more fruit-forward.

*Adapted from a-clean-plate*