Sugar-Free Jelled Ricotta Pudding
This Sugar-Free Jelled Ricotta Pudding is a very low-carb and South Beach Diet friendly dessert recipe I got from a reader! It’s extra simple to make and if you’re strictly watching carbs you might like it for a simple treat!
Click to PIN Sugar-Free Jelled Ricotta Pudding!
Many years ago I got this simple recipe for Sugar-Free Jelled Ricotta Pudding from a reader named Janet, a garden writer and photographer from Toronto who told me that she and her husband had recently started the South Beach Diet. (This was the original South Beach Diet, before the diet was sold and became a packaged meal approach.) Janet said they did miss having something a little sweet after dinner, so she’d been experimenting with phase one desserts.
She was surprised how good the sugar-free Jello (affiliate link) tasted when you weren’t eating sugar, and she’d also tried the ricotta creme desserts in the original South Beach Diet Book (affiliate link). Combining those ideas, she mixed ricotta cheese with sugar-free jello and came up with a dessert she thought was pretty good.
When I tried Janet’s creation, I was surprised how good it tasted for a completely low-carb, sugar-free, and South Beach phase one dessert, even with the slightly gritty texture of the ricotta cheese. You can use any flavor of Jello that appeals to you, but I made her layered pudding using raspberry Jello in the photo above.
This might be a welcome treat for any low-carb eaters or South Beach Dieters who aren’t into making fancy desserts. And Janet reports she has since gone on to more sugar-free Jello experiments, including replacing the ricotta with low-fat plain yogurt and adding fruit for a layered phase two dessert.
What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
- sugar-free Jello
- boiling water
- ricotta cheese
- cold water
More Easy Sugar-Free Desserts:
Sugar-Free Pumpkin Pudding (Stunningly easy and this has been a big hit!)
Sugar-Free Yogurt Pie (This is another easy dessert idea from a reader!)
Sugar-Free Jelled Ricotta Pudding
If you don't want sugar but aren't into making fancy desserts, you might like this Sugar-Free Jelled Ricotta Pudding for a simple treat!
Ingredients
- one four oz. pkg. sugar-free Jello
- 1 cup boiling water
- 2/3 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup cold water
Instructions
- Put ricotta cheese into bowl and stir with fork or whisk until it’s slightly softened.
- Have four glass dishes (slightly over 1/2 cup each) ready on counter to pour the hot Jello mixture into.
- Put powdered Jello from package into large glass measuring cup, pour in boiling water and whisk for 1-2 minutes, until all Jello is dissolved in the water.
- Stir in ricotta, then cold water and mix together.
- Pour into glass bowls and place in refrigerator to set.
- I waited about 2 hours until the mixture was partly firm, then covered it with cling wrap.
- Serve cold, from individual dishes.
Notes
Recipe shared by a reader named Janet Davis and tested by Kalyn.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 60Total Fat: 3gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 13mgSodium: 52mgCarbohydrates: 3gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 5g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Sugar-Free Jelled Ricotta Pudding is a great dish for low-carb diet plans, and for any phase of the South Beach Diet.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Dessert Recipes for more recipes like this one. Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
45 Comments on “Sugar-Free Jelled Ricotta Pudding”
NKL, That sounds delicious!
I tried this tonight with marscapone cheese (Italian cream cheese). Not low fat this way, but low carb and delicious. My husband was skeptical while I was making it but agreed it was good once he ate it.
I tried orange sf Jello tonight with this, and wish I'd read the great comments on this recipe first. The ricotta-layer texture is not pleasant for me… I'm only staring my second week of Phase 1 and haven't tried any of the plain ricotta desserts yet. It looks like my food processor will help. Thanks!
Thanks for all the tips; I love cottage cheese so I bet I'd like it with that.
You can make this – or your yogurt version – with any sugar-free jello and the nonfat greek yogurt, the ricotta cheese, or cottage cheese, low fat. I puree the cottage cheese of that's what I have on hand.
Yogurt is the creamiest option, I've found, but it's not the least expensive and I'm always on a budget.
Whichever dairy/protien I use, I always dissolve the jello in a cup of boiling hot water before I add the yogurt or pureed cottage cheese or pureed ricotta. I've seen and tried the versions that just use the dried powder, but I can never lose that 'gritty' texture that way.
It seems to make the end result smoother (imo) if I disolve the powder first and then add and mix in the yogurt or cheese. After that, it's a snap to pour it into individual dessert cups or a pie plate like you've mentioned elsewhere. Easy, yummy, and a great source of protein that my kids even love. 🙂
Anonymous, I suspect that will work well. Let us know what you think.
I'm going to try this next week using Greek yogurt instead of ricotta.
Crystal, sorry but I don't have any other ideas for a phase one dessert. I don't mind the taste of Splenda, but I don't use it that much (I'm not really that much of a dessert eater.) I don't think agave nectar is phase one, since it's fructose (the type of sugar found in fruit, and fruit isn't phase one.)
I am on phase 1 of the south beach diet and have been experimenting with some deserts that will help satisfy my evening craving for a snack. Every recipe I have tried with Splenda has been too sweet or had too much of the artificial flavor. I generally do not mind this flavor in coffee or teas, but for some reason it seems exagerated in baking. Any ideas? I thought about Agave nectar, but haven't been able to get it at my grocery store other than in a powder form.
Thanks!
Crystal
It sounds like I definitely need to try the ricotta blended in the food processor. The creamsicle one sounds really good to me!
I gave the ricotta a whirl in the food processor with steel blade. It turned it absolutely creamy! No grit at all. Tried this recipe with many flavors of sugar free jello and it is very good. I add a whole cup of ricotta. The orange tastes like a creamsicle! Thanks for the great idea.
I have texture issues with ricotta also. My food processor is one of my favorite South Beach friends. It (pretty much) completely smooths out the cheese for either this recipe or to make a SB friendly cream sauce or (as hubby calls it) fruited cheesecake-like substance. Good luck. Les
Thanks to the people who are sharing their versions of this idea, very fun to get some more ideas to try!
My mother made a variation of this recipe — one of my childhood comfort memories. She used jello plus all sorts of “smoothie additions (whatever was on hand): cottage cheese, ricotta, cream cheese, yogurt, silken tofu, whipped cream or even mayo. They all work fine, depending on your dietary preference. Mom always added a tsp of lemon/lime juice to bring out flavour and to hide any lingering artificial taste.
She waited till the jello cooled and was syrupy before adding the “smoothie” ingredient. She then whipped it well with an egg beater to add air and make it fluffy (almost like a mousse). An immersion blender/full blender is fine, but you have to be careful not to overwhip or the jello heats up and starts to melt.
You can add fruit after this step, if you like.
If you substitute the liquid with diet pop, it’s a nice light change with the bubbles in it. I like lime jello with diet ginger ale.
If you make this one layer at a time and let it set before adding the next layers, you can end up with a multi-coloured festive result. My father-in-law loves it when I bring this to the Christmas family dinner – usually a plain layer (red), a middle green layer using diet ginger all, topped with a mousse-y, pink layer using diet fruit yogurt and red jello.
My favourite is peach jello, yogurt, a touch of lime plus mango puree. Wonderful after a Indian meal!
If you can’t find a good selection of diet Jello flavours, you can use Crystal Light with plain gelatin instead of Jello. Or even unsweetened Koolaid plus the sweetener of your choice and plain gelatin.
Wendy
I tried this with several flavors of sugar free jello last week (well, off-brand gelatin, anyway.) After I put together the first batch, I got the idea to use nonfat sugar-free vanilla yogurt in place of the ricotta. I made some that way, too. The yogurt version doesn’t separate quite as dramatically into layers as the ricotta, but the texture is much smoother. I have been on SBD for nearly 5 months now and have lost nearly 50 pounds. Thanks for all your time and effort with this blog. It’s been a great resource!
I just tried this with sugar-free orange Jell-o and it tasted like a Creamsicle!
Thanks for the recipes!
Maya, glad you like the blog. Sorry, but I have no idea why the layers didn’t separate for you. I’ve made it a couple of times and it always separated. Maybe the ricotta wasn’t cold enough or you mixed it too much, no idea.
Hi Kalyn,
I’ve just discovered your blog and I cannot tell you how excited I am about all of these recipes!!
I have tried this desert but the layers didn’t separate…like shown on youer photo. any clues why?
Mansi, thanks.
Terra, brilliant idea to make it with lemon jello! I’m definitely going to try that if I can find the lemon sugar-free jello around here.
Just made this, with lemon jello. It was tasty, kind of like lemon meringue.