5 Cup Salad
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5 Cup Salad is the easiest, fluffiest throwback dessert to bring to your next potluck? This delicious side dish is also known as Ambrosia Salad if you’re feeling fancy. This retro classic is sweet, creamy, and packed with fruity goodness, all with just five (or six) simple ingredients.
Whether you’re heading to a holiday dinner, family reunion, or just craving a nostalgic treat, this crowd-pleaser is always a hit (and always the first bowl to be scraped clean).
🔍 WHY YOU’LL LOVE IT
Once you mix it all together – the sour cream gets infused with the fruit juices and is so sweet and delish! The best part of this is if you don’t like one thing – just eliminate it and use something else!
It’s also really fun and colorful – and it has a double bonus – first is it usually gets completely eaten so you don’t come home with leftovers, second bonus – you can hope people don’t finish it so you CAN have leftovers cuz it’s so awesome!!!
What’s in 5-Cup Fruit Salad
Well here’s the funny part – mine is actually 6 cups! We always made it with six ingredients but called it five cup salad. From my research, the cherries are not an original ingredient – but they’re so good!!! Here’s what you’ll need (and yes – 1 cup of each):
- Maraschino Cherries – you can use kitchen shears or a paring knife to cut them in half
- Pineapple – tidbits are great for this recipe because they’re about the same size as the other ingredients but you can also use pineapple chunks
- Mandarin Oranges – the jarred kind are a little bigger than the canned
- Mini Marshmallows – for fun, you can use the multi-colored ones!
- Coconut – you love it or hate it – I’m in the ❤️ column! Be sure to use the sweetened
- Sour Cream – yup – sounds so weird, right??? But it works! You can also use plain Greek yogurt in a pinch.
- OPTIONAL: You can customize if you don’t like one of the ingredients – here are some variations:
- Some folks use Cool Whip or whipped cream instead of sour cream!
- Add chopped nuts such as pecans or walnuts
- Apples, peaches or green grapes are other fruits you could add
More Cold Side Dish Recipes
More Fruity Recipes
5 Cup Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup maraschino cherries cut up in half with scissors, drained
- 1 cup pineapple tidbits drained
- 1 cup mandarin oranges drained
- 1 cup mini-marshmallows
- 1 cup coconut
- 1 cup sour cream
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add pineapple, orange and cherries and stir1 cup maraschino cherries, 1 cup pineapple tidbits, 1 cup mandarin oranges
- Add in the marshmallows & coconut and stir1 cup mini-marshmallows, 1 cup coconut
- Add in sour cream and stir lightly with a spatula1 cup sour cream
- Refrigerate for a couple hours and serve
Ha! This recipe reminds me of the only dish I would sneak food from my room mate in Calgary. Except her recipe included coloured marshmallows and cottage cheese instead of sour cream. SOOOO yummy.