Fruit Salad with Cool Whip
This fruit salad with Cool Whip is sweet, creamy, and oh-so delicious! It’s the perfect fruit salad for all your holiday meals, Sunday dinners, or brunch parties! It’s so easy to make for groups of all sizes making it a great dish for potlucks or feeding a crowd.
Table of contents
Why You Will Love Fruit Salad with Marshmallows and Cool Whip
- An easy fruit salad that’s perfect for holidays and special occasions!
- No prep required! This fruit salad with Cool Whip is simply a dump, mix, and voila it’s ready!
- Great flavors! Perfectly sweet and creamy.
- A holiday fruit dish everyone loves.
Ingredients
- Cool Whip: The creamy goodness of this simple whipped topping blends perfectly with the fruit making an incredible combination.
- Maraschino cherries: For sweetness and a lovely splash of color. You will also use some of the juice to mix into the whipped topping.
- Grapes: Use a combination of green and red grapes. Make sure they’re seedless.
- Marshmallows: Use the mini-sized marshmallows. They work best since they’re similar in size to the fruits in the salad.
- Mandarin oranges and pineapple tidbits: This recipe uses canned fruit to make prep a breeze.
- Coconut: Use sweetened, shredded coconut.
- Pecans: For a little crunch and flavor!
How To Make Fruit Salad with Cool Whip
- Combine. The Cool Whip and reserved Maraschino cherry juice in a large mixing bowl. Stir it together until combined.
- Add. The cherries, grapes, marshmallows, oranges, pineapple, shredded coconut, and pecans to the bowl and mixed together. Refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.
Tips & Variations
- More fresh fruit. You can also use fresh mandarin oranges (seedless!) and fresh pineapple if you prefer fresh over canned!
- Change up the nuts! Try it with almonds, pistachios, walnuts, or hazelnuts!
- Use different fruits. If there is one you don’t like or simply have other fruits on hand simply swap them out. I also love bananas, kiwis, apples (for a bit of crunch), and berries.
- Serve chilled. This creamy fruit fluff is best enjoyed cold.
- Swap the Cool Whip. If you prefer to use real whipped cream you can! The salad will not hold as long when made with fresh whipped cream so keep that in mind! You will need to prepare it closer to when you plan to serve it.
Serving Suggestions
This dish goes great for all types of meals! Use it for brunch or breakfast along with a breakfast casserole or banana chocolate chip pancakes.
It’s also a great addition to your holiday meals along with other popular sides such as green beans, sweet potato casserole, and instant pot mashed potatoes.
Fruit salad with Cool Whip is easy enough to make for busy weeknights especially when paired with other easy dishes like my baked ravioli and tater tot casserole.
Recipe FAQ
It’s often served as a side dish for many holidays but the Cool Whip and marshmallows really make it sweet similar to a dessert. I consider it to be a mash-up of both and can work either way when it’s served for meals.
Yes, you can! I sometimes make it the night before but for the best results serve it within 48 hours of preparing it.
Storing
- Store. Your creamy fruit salad in the fridge for up to three days. Beyond that, it will still be edible but the fruit salad becomes more watery as the fruit starts to break down. It’s best enjoyed within 2-3 days of making it.
More Side Dish Recipes
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Fruit Salad with Cool Whip
Ingredients
- 8 oz. Cool Whip , thawed
- 10 oz. maraschino cherries whole, reserve 4 tablespoons of juice, then drain
- ½ cup seedless green grapes, halved
- ½ cup seedless red grapes, halved
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows
- 10.5 ounces can mandarin oranges, drained
- 10 ounces can pineapple tidbits, drained
- ⅔ cup sweetened shredded coconut
- ½ cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Add Cool Whip and reserved Maraschino cherry juice to a large mixing bowl, then fold gently until combined.
- Add cherries, grapes, marshmallows, oranges, pineapple, shredded coconut, and pecans to the bowl.
- Toss gently until well mixed and coated.
- Place in refrigerator until ready to serve.
Notes
- More fresh fruit. You can also use fresh mandarin oranges (seedless!) and fresh pineapple if you prefer fresh over canned!
- Change up the nuts! Try it with almonds, pistachios, walnuts, or hazelnuts!
- Use different fruits. If there is one you don’t like or simply have other fruits on hand simply swap them out. I also love bananas, kiwis, apples (for a bit of crunch), and berries.
- Serve chilled. This creamy fruit fluff is best enjoyed cold.
- Swap the Cool Whip. If you prefer to use real whipped cream you can! The salad will not hold as long when made with fresh whipped cream so keep that in mind! You will need to prepare it closer to when you plan to serve it.
- Store. Your creamy fruit salad in the fridge for up to three days. Beyond that, it will still be edible but the fruit salad becomes more watery as the fruit starts to break down. It’s best enjoyed within 2-3 days of making it.
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